Yawning Yet?

Try to read this without yawning!

Learn it young! Babies yawn even before they are born! Researchers say they yawn as early as 20 weeks old in the womb.

That’s fishy! We humans aren’t the only ones who yawn. You’ve probably seen cats and dogs yawn—but did you know that fish and birds also yawn?

Frequent activity. Yawns may be short, but over the course of years, they really add up. Some estimate that we yawn 240,000 times in a lifetime!


It’s catching! You know from experience that yawns are contagious. Here’s what one research team found: After seeing someone else yawn, 42–55% of people will yawn, themselves. Also, we often yawn after merely hearing someone else yawn—or reading about yawning!

What’s the point? As yet, no one is quite sure exactly why we yawn. Some say it’s to bring us extra oxygen and get rid of more carbon dioxide—but taking a deep breath actually does a better job of that. Psychologists claim that yawning communicates feelings of boredom or even stress to those around us—but then why do we yawn when we’re all alone?

Brain freeze. Although it hasn’t been settled as fact, some of the most recent research on yawning suggests that it may help cool our brains, thus boosting our mental performance. As evidence, researchers found that people yawn much less often when the air outside is hotter than the body temperature. If we yawn to cool our brains, there would be no point doing it when the air is too hot to make a difference!

Wake-up call. Whatever the purpose of yawns, we often yawn when we’re bored or drowsy; and spiritually speaking, there’s no time for that. “Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11). Take a deep spiritual breath—in other words, say a prayer—and ask God to rouse you from slumber!

Facts from the Library of Congress and WebMD.