Saturday, September 24, 2011

Health benefits of Yawning

Yawning is a natural practice which is experienced by all the people from babies to oldies in their life. It is considered to be an indication of tiredness, boredom or sleepiness. Yawning is contagious means if you see somebody yawning you will yawn too. Even if you read about yawning you will get the same reaction. As per Discovery Health, fifty five percent people yawn within 5 mins if 1 person in a group yawns. 11 weeks unborn fetuses and animals like cats, monkeys, dogs, snakes and even fish yawn. Though yawning is considered as ill mannered act it has certain good things. Yawning has proved to be good for health. Here are provided the benefits of yawning.
Health benefits of Yawning
Yawning is an unintentional action in which the mouth opens widely to let more air enter the lungs through mouth and trachea. The brain makes the person to yawn when the body or brain feels the need of oxygen. At the time of yawning, many body parts are in action as well as heart rate also increases up to 30%. If a person yawns a lot then he/she is suffering from a health condition known as excessive yawning. Excessive yawning can be caused due to the problems like heart attack, epilepsy, brain tumor and other problems. So people who are yawning a lot should talk to their doctor.

Yawning Benefits:


Cools the Brain

Yawning is among the finest things that can be done for the brain. Yawning helps to calm and cool down the brain. As per researchers from Princeton University and the University of Arizona, yawning works as a natural 'thermostat' when our head starts to heat up. It let the cool air to enter and get our brains back to healthy temperature. They found that people yawned 2 times more in winter than summer because the temperature of the body was higher compared to the air around them.

Stretch muscles

Yawning helps in stretching eardrums and facial muscles & chest (thoracic) muscles. Thus, relaxes you and increases the oxygen intake. Your body prepares to spring into action when your muscles are stretched. Stretching of facial muscles provide stretching exercise to the face while stretching of eardrums helps in better listening.

Supply more Oxygen

Yawning provides more oxygen to the brain and bloodstream. It also releases the build-up carbon dioxide from lungs.

Lubricate Eyes

During a long yawn, tears come in the eyes. This happens as tear glands in the eyes are squeezed by the yawn. Tears lubricate the eyes as well as make the vision sharper.

Other benefits:

  • It exercises the Eustachian tube.


  • It also enhances alertness by making you relax.


  • Yawning improves the focus and concentration of the brain.


  • It protects against the Jet Lag effects and gives relief from the discomfort led by high altitudes.




  • Image source: flightglobal.com

    1 comments:

    Taking oxygen from the mouth right is not healthy right? im kinda confuse with this

    Yawning is an unintentional action in which the mouth opens widely to let more air enter the lungs through mouth and trachea. The brain makes the person to yawn when the body or brain feels the need of oxygen

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