If you didn’t rest the night before, you may yawn uncontrollably the next day.
In fact, yawning is not just a signal of physical drowsiness, but also a “full body exercise” to repair the body, but the premise is not to exceed the “safe frequency”.
Yawning brings 5 health benefits
A study by the University of Connecticut in the United States calculated the number of times that people yawn: a normal person will yawn 240,000 yawns from the beginning of his life in the womb. Yawning seems to be a sign of sleepiness, but it has many hidden benefits.
1Relax the whole body
Studies have shown that the duration of a yawn is about 6 seconds. During this period, people will close their eyes and block their hearing, and the nerves and muscles of the whole body will be completely relaxed. Through the deep breathing exercise of yawning, the human body promotes the increase of oxygen content in the blood and discharges more carbon dioxide, thereby making more energetic.
2Exercise the throat muscles
Yawning can make the muscles of the throat move and increase muscle strength. During yawning, the nerves and muscles of the whole body will relax and be in a completely relaxed state. It can also reduce the snoring symptoms caused by the relaxation of the throat muscles.
3Stretching lung tissue
Yawning can expand the lungs, decrease the intracranial pressure, and increase the blood return and output of the veins, thereby increasing the oxygen content in the blood and improving the hypoxic state of the brain. This can be seen as a self-protection behavior of the organism.
4Promote blood circulation
A study by SUNY College at Oneonta pointed out that frequent yawning can promote blood circulation, and the longer the yawning time, the stronger the cognitive ability.
The study found that the number of neurons in the human brain is about 10 billion, and the average length of yawning is 6 seconds. In contrast, the mouse yawned for less than two seconds.
Therefore, researchers believe that the number of neurons is the most important factor affecting the length of yawning. People who yawn for a long time each time have a better cognitive level.
5Regulate brain temperature
According to a report in the American Journal of Animal Behavior, a study found that yawning is related to brain temperature. Fatigue and lack of sleep can cause the deep brain temperature to rise, which requires yawning to cool down.
Researchers found that yawning has the biggest relationship with ambient temperature. It is easiest to yawn at around 20°C. If the external environment is too cold, the brain does not need to use yawning to cool down; if the temperature is too high (such as around 37°C), Yawning has little effect on cooling, then the body will naturally reduce yawning.
Hold yawn, increase the burden on the whole body
When you feel sleepy, you may want to yawn, but out of politeness, you might hold it back abruptly. In fact, although forced suppression has saved the image, it is not good for health.
Because the human body produces a large amount of carbon dioxide at this time, calm breathing cannot be discharged in time. If yawning is artificially suppressed, it will cause excessive carbon dioxide accumulation, causing the chest cavity to become dull, making various organs more fatigued, and the hypoxia of brain cells cannot be improved in time. The stress ability of the human body will also deteriorate.
If you are afraid of being unsightly under the public, just turn your side slightly when yawning, face the side where no one is, and cover your mouth with your hands.
If you want to be more refreshed, you can also take a few deep breaths after you finish yawning, which will help you exhale exhaust gas completely, inhale more oxygen, and double your energy.
Why is yawn contagious?
In our daily life, we will notice an interesting phenomenon: when a person yawns, people around us often “imitate” one after another. In fact, this is an interesting psychological phenomenon.
American psychologist Martin and others specially designed an interesting experiment to study the problem of yawning infection.
The researchers made two sets of videos, one was a video of yawning, and the other was a video of opening their mouths to imitate the yawning action, and the recruited subjects watched the video. It turns out that people who watch real yawn videos are more inclined to yawn than people who watch fake yawn videos.
This means that real yawning is indeed contagious. Further research also revealed that this effect is subconscious, and people who are infected and yawning do not know that they are affected.
But not everyone will be infected. Psychologists have recruited more than 100 adults of different nationalities to conduct research and found that the incidence of yawning infection is highest among relatives, followed by friends, then acquaintances, and finally strangers. people. In other words, the more closely related people yawn, the higher the probability of infection.
Researchers believe that yawning is contagious because humans are social animals and have the ability to “empathize”. The closer the relationship, the more empathetic we are and the more likely we are to feel stressed, anxious, bored or tired.
Therefore, when someone close to you yawns, you may easily empathize and yawn along with it.
There is a “safe frequency” for yawning
Yawning is a kind of human physiological instinct. Yawning when tired or sleep deprived is medically believed to be caused by cerebral ischemia and hypoxia. Frequent and continuous yawning means that the brain hypoxia is more obvious, and attention should be paid at this time.
The following 4 diseases will make you “yawn”:
Cerebrovascular disease
Cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction may cause cerebral cell ischemia and hypoxia, manifested by impaired brain function, clinical features such as hemiplegia, hemisensory disturbance, aphasia, hemianopia, and frequent yawning.
Sleep apnea syndrome
Manifestations include sleep snoring at night with apnea, daytime sleepiness, and frequent yawns. Apneas cause recurrent nighttime hypoxia and hypercapnia, which can lead to complications such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cerebrovascular disease, and even sudden death at night.
heart disease
Heart disease generally does not yawn frequently, but if the condition worsens, it may cause yawning. For example, when dilated cardiomyopathy has an acute attack of heart failure, it can lead to a drop in blood pressure, ischemia, hypoxia, and frequent yawns.
Cervical spondylosis
There are carotid arteries and some nerves that supply oxygen to the brain at the cervical spine. If there is a problem with the cervical spine, such as hyperplasia, the blood supply is affected, and it will yawn.
Proper yawning is good for your body, but the frequency should not exceed 3 times/15 minutes. If you already have stroke risk factors such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and frequent and continuous yawns at the same time, accompanied by weakness of limbs, even crooked mouth, slurred speech, etc., you must seek medical attention in time, because this is likely to be the early manifestations of stroke.
What needs to be reminded is that some young people should be vigilant if they still yawn after getting enough sleep without knowing whether they have high risk factors for stroke.
Comments