one of the best things you can do for your brain

[nabraxas]

Yawn

Go ahead: Laugh if you want (though you’ll benefit your brain more if you smile), but in my professional opinion, yawning is one of the best-kept secrets in neuroscience. Even my colleagues who are researching meditation, relaxation, and stress reduction at other universities have overlooked this powerful neural-enhancing tool. However, yawning has been used for many decades in voice therapy as an effective means for reducing performance anxiety and hypertension in the throat.

Several recent brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a unique neural activity in the areas of the brain that are directly involved in generating social awareness and creating feelings of empathy. One of those areas is the precuneus, a tiny structure hidden within the folds of the parietal lobe. According to researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London, the precuneus appears to play a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and memory retrieval. The precuneus is also stimulated by yogic breathing, which helps explain why different forms of meditation contribute to an increased sense of self-awareness. It is also one of the areas hardest hit by age-related diseases and attention deficit problems, so it’s possible that deliberate yawning may actually strengthen this important part of the brain.

For these reasons I believe that yawning should be integrated into exercise and stress reduction programs, cognitive and memory enhancement training, psychotherapy, and contemplative spiritual practice. And, because the precuneus has recently been associated with the mirror-neuron system in the brain (which allows us to resonate to the feelings and behaviors of others), yawning may even help us to enhance social awareness, compassion, and effective communication with others.

Why am I so insistent? Because if I were to ask you to put this magazine down right now and yawn 10 times to experience this fabulous technique, you probably won’t do it. Even at seminars, after presenting the overwhelmingly positive evidence, when I ask people to yawn, half of the audience will hesitate. I have to coax them so they can feel the immediate relaxing effects. There’s an unexplained stigma in our society implying that it’s rude to yawn, and most of us were taught this when we were young.

As a young medical student, I was once “caught” yawning and actually scolded by my professor. He said that it was inappropriate to appear tired in front of patients, even though I was actually standing in a hallway outside of the patient’s room. Indeed, yawning does increase when you’re tired, and it may be the brain’s way of gently telling you that a little rejuvenating sleep is needed. On the other hand, exposure to light will also make you yawn, suggesting that it is part of the process of waking up.

But yawning doesn’t just relax you—it quickly brings you into a heightened state of cognitive awareness. Students yawn in class, not because the teacher is boring (although that will make you yawn as well, as you try to stay focused on the monotonous speech), but because it rids the brain of sleepiness, thus helping you stay focused on important concepts and ideas. It regulates consciousness and our sense of self, and helps us become more introspective and self-aware. Of course, if you happen to find yourself trapped in a room with a dull, boring, monotonous teacher, yawning will help keep you awake.

Yawning will relax you and bring you into a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique I know of, and because it is neurologically contagious, it’s particularly easy to teach in a group setting. One of my former students used yawning to bring her argumentative board of directors back to order in less than 60 seconds. Why? Because it helps people synchronize their behavior with others.

Yawning, as a mechanism for alertness, begins within the first 20 weeks after conception. It helps regulate the circadian rhythms of newborns, and this adds to the evidence that yawning is involved in the regulation of wakefulness and sleep. Since circadian rhythms become asynchronous when a person’s normal sleep cycle is disturbed, yawning should help the late-night partygoer reset the brain’s internal clock. Yawning may also ward off the effects of jet lag and ease the discomfort caused by high altitudes.

So what is the underlying mechanism that makes yawning such an essential tool? Besides activating the precuneus, it regulates the temperature and metabolism of your brain. It takes a lot of neural energy to stay consciously alert, and as you work your way up the evolutionary ladder, brains become less energy efficient. Yawning probably evolved as a way to cool down the overly active mammalian brain, especially in the areas of the frontal lobe. Some have even argued that it is a primitive form of empathy. Most vertebrates yawn, but it is only contagious among humans, great apes, macaque monkeys, and chimpanzees. In fact, it’s so contagious for humans that even reading about it will cause a person to yawn.

Dogs yawn before attacking, Olympic athletes yawn before performing, and fish yawn before they change activities. Evidence even exists that yawning helps individuals on military assignment perform their tasks with greater accuracy and ease. Indeed, yawning may be one of the most important mechanisms for regulating the survival-related behaviors in mammals. So if you want to maintain an optimally healthy brain, it is essential that you yawn. It is true that excessive yawning can be a sign that an underlying neurological disorder (such as migraine, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or drug reaction) is occurring. However, I and other researchers suspect that yawning may be the brain’s attempt to eliminate symptoms by readjusting neural functioning.

Numerous neurochemicals are involved in the yawning experience, including dopamine, which activates oxytocin production in your hypothalamus and hippocampus, areas essential for memory recall, voluntary control, and temperature regulation. These neurotransmitters regulate pleasure, sensuality, and relationship bonding between individuals, so if you want to enhance your intimacy and stay together, then yawn together. Other neurochemicals and molecules involved with yawning include acetylcholine, nitric oxide, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, ACTH, MSH, sexual hormones, and opium derivate peptides. In fact, it’s hard to find another activity that positively influences so many functions of the brain.

My advice is simple. Yawn as many times a day as possible: when you wake up, when you’re confronting a difficult problem at work, when you prepare to go to sleep, and whenever you feel anger, anxiety, or stress. Yawn before giving an important talk, yawn before you take a test, and yawn while you meditate or pray because it will intensify your spiritual experience.

Conscious yawning takes a little practice and discipline to get over the unconscious social inhibitions, but people often come up with three other excuses not to yawn: “I don’t feel like it,” “I’m not tired,” and my favorite, “I can’t.” Of course you can. All you have to do to trigger a deep yawn is to fake it six or seven times. Try it right now, and you should discover by the fifth false yawn, a real one will begin to emerge. But don’t stop there, because by the tenth or twelfth yawn, you’ll feel the power of this seductive little trick. Your eyes may start watering and your nose may begin to run, but you’ll also feel utterly present, incredibly relaxed, and highly alert. Not bad for something that takes less than a minute to do. And if you find that you can’t stop yawning—I’ve seen some people yawn for thirty minutes—you’ll know that you’ve been depriving yourself of an important neurological treat.

http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/1109/expert.html

[nabraxas]

whenever i'm comming up on shrooms or 'cid i get the most orgasmic uncontrolable yawns.

they seem to be really long gaping yawns that make my eyes water.

after each yawn i feel much more 'up'.

[rahli]

Great article.

Andrew Newberg covers the benefits of yawning in a book he coauthored recently with Mark Robert Waldman called-

How God Changes Your Brain.

It also describes in detail the benefit of meditation and the positive change it can have on the brain. It is not aimed at any specific religion and there is something to be gained by anyone interested in this field of research.

[Chiral]

Apparently, and I'm almost sure of this as I've caught myself doing it, is that...if you see someone else yawn, say on a bus or whatever... then you immediately copy them and also wish to yawn, it's all about intake of large amounts of oxygen from memory when I was reading about yawning.

[rahli]

Apparently, and I'm almost sure of this as I've caught myself doing it, is that...if you see someone else yawn, say on a bus or whatever... then you immediately copy them and also wish to yawn, it's all about intake of large amounts of oxygen from memory when I was reading about yawning.

I think it may have something to do with the action of yawning stimulating the precuneus and hence the mirror-neuron system in the brain, allowing us to "resonate to the feelings and behaviours of others".

And, because the precuneus has recently been associated with the mirror-neuron system in the brain (which allows us to resonate to the feelings and behaviors of others), yawning may even help us to enhance social awareness, compassion, and effective communication with others.

[Rabelais]

Interesting. I have a strange relationship with yawning.

Usually if I start yawning when I am not tired, bored etc, it is usually a sign that I have a migraine on the way and take a big dose of paracetamol. Yawning is like my 'early warning' system for combating migraines. If I do not take paracetamol in time and the migraine comes then my yawning becomes uncontrollable and my eyes water terribly - find a dark room and prepare for 48hrs of hell.

Anyone else find when they are tired and yawning that they get a boner?

[Qhorakuna tantani]

Anyone else find when they are tired and yawning that they get a boner?

Think this is called the stretching-yawning complex or syndrome and it is common among some animals.

[t st tantra]

whenever i'm comming up on shrooms or 'cid i get the most orgasmic uncontrolable yawns.

they seem to be really long gaping yawns that make my eyes water.

after each yawn i feel much more 'up'.

usually more into it than going up but i think of them as billion year old yawns.

feels like i have been evolving for that long to get where i am and its been a long tiring journey.

t s t .

[flora]

Anyone else find when they are tired and yawning that they get a boner?

no but are your migraines also associated with boners or sex generally? i think migraines can be hormonal a lot of ppl get them from orgasming.

48 hrs of hell does not sound good

i used to have an anxiety thing where i felt like i couldnt yawn when i needed to. it was called 'shallow breathing'. possibly it was some kind of anemia

[~shameless~]

The yawns were a way of telling you got good cid before you actually tripped, if i yawned uncontrolably 3 timces in 5 min or so, it was going to be good, ( i'm serious ) another friend noted this as well.

About getting spontaneous boners when tired - Dale , i was told in year 10 science sex ed module that it was similar to the morning boner, like a blood flush to reoxygenate a cock that has been limp and un excited for a while, ussually while being tired you wont be moving or breathing to much so it looks after itself.

[Rabelais]

flora

no but are your migraines also associated with boners or sex generally?

I don't think so. I'm guessing it is due to hormonal issues. They started around puberty and peaked at around 18 (one every 3-4 weeks). I now only get them several times a year now.

Mr G House aka shameless

About getting spontaneous boners when tired - Dale , i was told in year 10 science sex ed module that it was similar to the morning boner, like a blood flush to reoxygenate a cock that has been limp and un excited for a while, ussually while being tired you wont be moving or breathing to much so it looks after itself.

So that is where the term "It has a mind of it's own" comes from.

[Zen Peddler]

Should be the other way around - a boner uses up the nitric oxide your brain might otherwise use to feed the inappropriate vasodilation of your brain/head.

I must be very socially aware since I yawn all the time...

[t st tantra]

sighing is fascinating too.when i was ready to accept a friends death i experienced a couple deep sighs with the realisation of what they represented.

t s t .

[woof woof woof]

what about Ayahuasca yawns......... ayahuasca made me yawn as if something from deep inside wanted to crawl out of me...... which is logical since it keeps the serotonin built up in the brain much longer.... which eventually leads to more melatonin production......

Ayahuasca...... the breakfast of champions!

[woof woof woof]

what about Ayahuasca yawns......... ayahuasca made me yawn as if something from deep inside wanted to crawl out of me...... which is logical since it keeps the serotonin built up in the brain much longer.... which eventually leads to more melatonin production......

Ayahuasca...... the breakfast of champions!

[freakazoid]

no but are your migraines also associated with boners or sex generally?

my migraines aren't.....but my wifes....DEFINATELY

[t st tantra]

slightly off topic but do people burp from aya,even if they dont spew.

due to saponins?

t s t .

[FancyPants]

sighing is fascinating too.when i was ready to accept a friends death i experienced a couple deep sighs with the realisation of what they represented.

t s t .

I can usually stop a huge sobbing cry fit by sighing a few times. Different to a deep breath but I couldn't quantify how so. I usually feel calmer too after a big sigh.

[ThunderIdeal]

I can usually stop a huge sobbing cry fit by sighing a few times. Different to a deep breath but I couldn't quantify how so. I usually feel calmer too after a big sigh.

 

good point, what's with sighing? the 'acceptance' part of tst's story might be relevant, because one sighs when they're coming down and maybe that's like coming to terms with everything.... because really a sigh is a kind of "awww, okay", whereas if something is quite hard to accept you will let out more of a tortured groan.

have had limited success inducing yawning, i don't give it 100% though, feels stupid.

[mescalito]

Really interesting thread!

I'd just like to throw in an additional lil trick.

When the yawn is complete rub your hands vigorously up and down your thighs,breathe in then exhale whilst stretch upward with your arms.It really is a great way to energise yourself!