No Yawning! This Blog Is Totally Absorbing and Relevant

Yawn.

Excuse me, I’m trying to write a new blog but Sam woke me up way too early this morning. It’s almost noon now and I’ve eaten some peanut butter and crackers so that my belly’s happy, but I seriously need a nap.

Alas, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jonathan Rockoff, lack of sleep may not be why I’m yawning. In his article, titled The Real Reason We Yawn, Rockoff cites work by a Dr. Andrew Gallup, which says that researchers have discovered yawning might be more complicated. Yawns appear to have many different causes and to serve a variety of functions.

According to the WSJ article, yawning primarily is believed to be a means to keep our brains alert in times of stress. Like in school when I had to take a math test. Changes in brain chemistry trigger yawns, which typically last about six seconds and often occur in clusters. Yeah, my brain chemistry used to go bonkers when I had to compute the hypotenuse of a triangle. I swear, if I yawn once I can’t stop until I’ve opened up the old yawper and sucked in a big gulp of air at least half a dozen times.

I’ve never totally learned how to stay alert during meetings either. I have yawned my way through boring meetings struggling mightily to stay awake (often not succeeding), trying to pay attention to a bunch of public officials blathering ad infinitum about the whys and wherefores of passing a new ordinance or building a highway.

Apparently, there are many misconceptions about yawning. “Our tendency to yawn when other people yawn has long been incorrectly explained as primarily an expression of a person's empathy,” Rockoff’s article points out. That’s probably true because I’ve noticed for instance that people don’t seem to empathize with a loud yawn in the middle of a conversation.

Rockoff cites a study, published in the Journal of Physiology & Behavior that found a greater number of participants yawned more in the summer than in winter. “To get to the bottom of yawning,” Rockoff’s article says, “scientists have performed dozens of experiments on groups of people and animals, including baboons and parakeets. It seems almost any creature with a backbone does it.”

Rockoff’s article says, “A leading hypothesis is that yawning plays an important role in keeping the brain at its cool, optimal working temperature. The brain is particularly sensitive to overheating, according to Dr. Gallup. Reaction times slow and memory wanes when the brain's temperature varies even less than a degree from the ideal 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.”

NOTE: Gallup planted probes in the brains of rats to come to this temperature conclusion

Rockoff reports that a 2005 paper published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics by some University of Texas researchers identified two types of brain receptors that turn yawning on and off. The receptors, which play a role in the brain's message traffic, work with a chemical called dopamine. Several studies have shown other receptors responsible for yawning too including ones that respond to opioids. This, reportedly, might explain why heroin addicts yawn a lot while trying to kick their habit. I’ve heard about that dopamine. It probably should be called dope-a-me.

Rockoff writes, “Dr. Gallup said, "One way to diminish yawning frequency in an office would be to keep it air-conditioned. If it's very cold in the room, yawning rates are going to be quite low.”

You suppose that’s why doctor’s examining rooms are so cold – to keep them from yawning or falling asleep when they’ve stuck a thermometer up your behind?

Okay. YAWN! I gotta’ go take a nap. That couch sure looks good. Move over Sam!