Yawn. (558 hits)
Category: NoneRating: -0.12 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Brad Erdman <xeno_wolf.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2004-01-27 22:36:35 EST
I was at work tonight, minding my own business and pondering when we would leave due to the inch thick layer of ice forming on our cars outside, when I did something very strange. I yawned. Now any other day this event would have gone off un-noticed, but today it finally occured to me:
Yawning is pointless.
Thats right, pointless. Every other body function has a purpose, passing gas for example. If you let all that gas build up inside of you, god knows what kind of horrible mess could insue once the pressure came to critical mass. Burping is along the same lines. Blinking cleans the eyes so you dont have jagged pieces of dirt ripping through your cornea, while sneezing cleans your nose and sinuses from those same particles of doom.
What does yawning do? It's only purpose is to contort your face in a very strange manner, and render yourself virtually useless due to the body 'shutting down' for a breif moment as you work your yawn out. For those who think 'Oh, well it's to let you know your tired...', think about it. Don't you already know your tired before you yawn? Can't you feel that lagging feeling of drowsiness that occurs whenever you've been up way too long? Why would you need yawning ontop of that to alert yourself of sleep deprivation! Others say that you yawn because of 'lack of oxygen to the brain'. (Yes, it sounds strange but I have heard that..) If you actually sit and concentrate while yawning, you notice that you neither inhale nor exhale during the yawning process, thus no oxygen rushes in to cleanse your brain with life.
Whats the point? What does this mysterious bodily function actually accomplish!?
User Reviews
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2004-01-28 09:55:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Heres a theory, its quite shit because I just made it up but I don't see anything better so.
Damn near every mammal on the planet yawns, maybe its common instinct to show off oyur teeth when you are about to fall asleep and be vunerable to attack.
Told you it was shit.
Submitted by Trout (user info) at 2004-01-28 09:42:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Ancient man believed that if you yawned during a lunar eclipse your genitalia would fall off three full moons later.
To combat yawning during a lunar eclipse they would place a rodent in their mouth and at the moment of eclipse bite down hard, the resulting blood, bone, flesh and fur cocktail that was now in your mouth rendered yawning impossible.
Submitted by canuckistan (user info) at 2004-01-28 05:29:46 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
Yes but why is yawning contagious to others around you ?
They must be burnt out too ?
Submitted by SammySam (user info) at 2004-01-28 00:49:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
No no no, you poor misguided children. Yawning has absolutley nothing to do with arterial blood gasses (I.e. CO2, or O2) in fact it has nothing to do with your respiratory tract at all.
In reality what a yawn does is it act as a type of Vlasalva Maneuver. Whats that you ask? It's a maneuver that stimulates your Vagus nerve. When this nerve is stimulated it lowers blood pressure and heart rate, this is a cycle in allowing your body to calm down before sleep. There are many ways of stimulating this Vagus Nerve. One common way to accidently stimulate it is when you bear down while going poop, thats how Elvis died. Elvis (with a combo of drugs and pooping) stimulated it to a point where he went into cardiogenic shock, and died on the shitter.
Submitted by Lyric (user info) at 2004-01-27 23:32:52 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
I remember discussing yawning and its purpose (or lack thereof) in biology way back in high school. Hell, I think Bill Nye the Science Guy did a show on yawning once. Just seems to be a topic that is extremely unoriginal and more than a little exhausted.
Get it?
Exhausted? Tired? Yawning?
HA!
Submitted by XenoWolf (user info) at 2004-01-27 23:09:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I've tested multiple yawns and didnt inhale or exhale during either of them. Maybe I'm just wierd..
Submitted by Fiore at 2004-01-27 23:07:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Well, "Mister Fucking Wizard", good job on being totally and completely wrong.
A few years back, scientists did a study. They found that the amount of CO2 in your blood was exactly the same before and after a yawn.
So, good try bud.
~Mister Fiore
Submitted by FartSmeller (user info) at 2004-01-27 22:59:59 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
I hate "F.Y.I." people, but I can't help myself with this one. You were right when you typed that the function of a yawn is to increase oxygen flow. Well, okay, actually, the feeling of "needing to breathe" is caused by a build-up of carbon dioxide at the base of the brain, so you don't feel a need to breathe, you feel a need to breathe OUT.
Yawns are associated with being tired because when you are tired, your breathing slows, and you're not scrubbing that CO2 out of your body, so when you yawn, you are forced to breathe and fulfill your body's urge that you remove that CO2. Whether you notice or not, when you yawn, you do inhale and exhale deeply, the function of a yawn.
x signed
Mister Fucking Wizard
Submitted by youarsoghey (user info) at 2004-01-27 22:49:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm pretty sure the sudden intake of oxygen increases alertness. It's also a biological mystery beyond that. Fetuses yawn and they don't breathe oxygen.
Submitted by digsy (user info) at 2004-01-27 22:49:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/yawn.asp
We yawn because it's great fun, obviously.