Yawning is to Cool Your Brain

If your head is overheated, there's a good chance you'll yawn soon, according to a new study that found the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

The finding solves several mysteries about yawning, such as why it's most commonly done just before and after sleeping, why certain diseases lead to excessive yawning, and why breathing through the nose and cooling off the forehead often stop yawning.

The key yawn instigator appears to be brain temperature.

"Brains are like computers, they operate most efficiently when cool, and physical adaptations have evolved to allow maximum cooling of the brain."

The new findings also explain why tired individuals often yawn, since both exhaustion and sleep deprivation have been shown to increase deep brain temperatures, again prompting a yawn-driven cool down. Yawning additionally appears to facilitate transitional states of the brain, such as going from sleep to waking periods.

"It is interesting to note that instances of excessive yawning in humans may be indicative of brain cooling problems, abouts of excessive yawning often precede the onset of seizures in epileptic patients, and predict the onset of headaches in people who suffer from migraines.

In the future, researchers may focus more on brain temperature and its role in diseases and their symptoms. But the new study on yawning changes the popular notion that yawns are mere signs of boredom.

On the contrary, "yawning more accurately reflects a mechanism that maintains attention, and therefore should be looked at as a compliment!"

[This article was taken from Yahoo Discovery News]