Yawning – a reflex that does us good

[3 November 2009 - 09h47]

Why do we yawn? This is a question to which the answer remains unclear, to say the least.

Little is known about the role of yawning, though we all agree that it gives us a sense of well-being. Fulfilment, a slight loss of contact with our surroundings, a brief, intense sense of pleasure… This stretching of the muscles of the mouth is a pleasant sensation that none of us would want to do without. And with good reason. Yawning releases endorphins into our body – these have a pleasant effect, comparable to that of morphine! But that’s not all. In fact, yawning also seems to make us more attentive.

But what causes us to open our jaws in this way? The reasons are as diverse as they are strange. Of course, we yawn when we are tired, but also when we are bored, suffering from a lack of concentration, when we wake up, when we’re hungry … and simply when we see other people yawning. Just the mention of yawning or seeing someone else yawn can make us yawn too. Yawning also helps to rebalance the pressure in our ears, when travelling by plane, for example.

A yawn lasts for a relatively fixed amount of time, varying from 3 to 5 seconds on average. Although yawning may seem like simply opening the mouth wide, in fact it involves a far more general stretching movement. The facial muscles, the muscles of the neck and the respiratory muscles are all stretched. It’s enough to make you yawn just thinking about it …

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