Yawning remains one of the enduring minor mysteries of life. Why do we yawn? Is yawning contagious? Despite a lot of research, the causes of yawning still remain unknown. A yawn is a reflex of simultaneous inhalation of air and stretching of the eardrums, followed by exhalation of breath. Yawning is associated with sleepiness, stress, lack of stimulation and boredom. Yawning is notable for its mysterious infectious quality- seeing a person seeing a person yawning, talking to someone on the phone who is yawning. Hell, I just yawned a second ago just thinking about yawning.

It is estimated that between 40-60% of people will automatically yawn if they see someone else do it. Scientists still do not definitively know why yawning is contagious, but they certainly have a lot of theories….
Some researchers believe that the proximate cause for contagious yawning may reside with mirror neurons, i.e., neurons that fire both when we perform an action and when we see someone else doing it.

The theory is that by simulating action even when watching an act, these neurons help recognize and understand other people’s actions and intentions. They have also been proposed as a driving force for imitation, which facilitates much of human learning, including language acquisition. These scientists believe yawning may originate from the same imitative impulse. In fact, a 2007 study found that young children with autism spectrum disorders do not increase their yawning frequency after seeing videos of other people yawning, in contrast to typically developing children. This supports the claim that contagious yawning is related to empathic capacity.

However, other researchers suggest that the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake. Thus, they believe that contagious yawning is not rooted in copying another person’s sleepiness, but is unconsciously triggered by empathic mechanisms which function to maintain group vigilance and cohesion. Still others propose that contagious yawning could be a result of an unconscious herding behavior – a covert way to signal to others, similar to when flocks of birds take flight at the same time. Another theory suggests contagious yawning might have helped early humans communicate their alertness levels and coordinate sleeping times.

The only thing that everyone seems to agree upon is the fact that the phenomenon of contagious yawning is real. Hopefully, this research may point the way to where to look for more clues about this interesting and unconscious human behavior.

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