Yawning: 8 Surprising Facts That Will Make You Yawn!

Focusing science on complex topics like supermassive black holes; Ancient Rome’s sewer system; and the use of nanotechnology in battery manufacturing only glosses over things that could be very interesting to the average person. For example, consider yawning. Just reading the word is enough to make you lose control of your body as you slowly open your jaw, squint your eyes, inhale deeply, and then exhale briefly. Yawning may seem inappropriate for a scientific study, but it’s not.

No matter how beautiful or well-behaved you are, no matter how many friends you have, no one seems interesting while you’re yawning. This is just my opinion, but what’s interesting is the work of scientists who have been uncovering the nature of yawning for years to help us understand this not-so-pleasant human behavior.

Here are 8 facts about yawning, thanks to these curious scientists:

1. If you see someone yawning, you probably yawn too. You may already know this, but here's another interesting fact: yawning is just as contagious whether the person yawning is sitting face down, in profile, or standing. Maybe you're sitting on a bench eating a hot dog and at the same time, you see someone yawning in front of the carousel and realize that you're yawning too.

2. A yawning sigh is enough to make a blind man yawn.

3. Children as young as 2 years old instinctively yawn when others yawn.

4. Yawning doesn't just happen in humans: it's also been observed in pigs, monkeys, crocodiles, snakes, and even some fish.

5. The average yawn lasts about 6 seconds. (Yes, the researchers stood with a stopwatch and measured the yawning time of hundreds of people.)

6. There is no such thing as a half-yawn: Suppressing a yawn is uncomfortable (even for a short time).

7. When your teeth are close together, it is almost impossible to suppress a yawn. Don’t you think so? Try it yourself: When you feel the urge to yawn, try to breathe normally through your teeth. You are now officially a masochist.

8. Yawning is enjoyable. When scientists asked people about it, everyone rated the experience of yawning an average of 8.5 on a scale of 1 (bad) to 10 (good). Another interesting fact as a gift: the facial expression during a yawn is almost the same as the one during an orgasm. This time you enjoyed flirting with your partner, see for yourself.

Science offers a way to understand the normal, strange, and extraordinary aspects of human behavior. Learn to appreciate everything that makes us human. We hope that more scientists (and lay scientists) will decide to conduct simple experiments on everyday behavior to discover new knowledge and share it with us.