Yawning is contageous and clears your mind, wake you up and ready to think clear and act. Fear may be a response to a real treath – and too much imagination and fantasy about the future. To clear your negative fantasy and access your thinking logic focus brain network – test to yawn, stretch superslowly, relax, de-stress, observe without judging or defending, and ask is the fear real in the present moment – or a imagined fear fantasy it is little you can do about now? Here are ways to (pubmed . org) research papers on why yawning is a very effective way of reducing unnecessary fear.
Yawning – An Essential Brain Regulatory Mechanism?
Recent Research Studies
Mark Waldman 7-28-19
Philosophers and physicians, since ancient times, have wondered why people yawn. Plato and Aristotle noted that it was contagious, and Hippocrates believed that the yawn released tainted “humours” caused by disease. But others saw yawning a sign of danger. Between 40 BC and 50 AD, individuals like Pliny the Elder and Seneca associated yawning with impending death, and in 450 AD Oribase wrote a chapter in which he lumped together yawning, hiccups, palpitations, and convulsions: "They all belong to the same family, which involves perversion of muscular movements.”
In the 15th Century, more speculations emerged. According to Scipion Dupleix, yawning binds us together “creating between us all considerable sympathy, consent & affinity….and for this same reason we cannot help singing when we hear others sing." Sanctorius of Padua believed that yawning and stretching, upon waking, was the body’s way to release excess perspiration, and Jan Baptiste van Helmont suggested that yawning came “from the imagination.” Even well-known artists were fascinated by this curious phenomenon.[1]
[1] For a comprehensive history of perspectives on yawning, read Oliver Walusinski’s article: http://www.baillement.com/english/history.html
Religions, in particular, had a rather dim view of yawning. In ancient India,it was considered dangerous because unwelcome spirits could enter through the mouth, and several Hindu texts warned that one’s life force could leave the body during a hearty yawn. In early Islamic hadiths, yawning was considered a sign of Satan entering the body because it occurs when a person feels lazy or has overindulged in lustful acts. Early Christians would perform the sign of the cross when someone yawned to ward away the devil.
But why do people today try to suppress their yawns and cover their mouth? Perhaps it is a remnant from when Europe was stricken by the Black Plague: people would cover their mouths when yawning to protect themselves from inhaling from disease. And why do people consider it rude when others yawn when being spoken to? They mistake boredom with the real reason why we yawn: to stay awake and alert. Yes, the speaker may be so boring that we lull into sleepiness, but students yawn in classrooms because they did not have enough sleep to pay attention.
In the mid-20th Century, researchers began to realize that yawning was an ancient biological and neurological function found in virtually every vertebrate species. We now know that, for humans, it begins early in the womb – around 12 weeks – serving as an essential tool to insure the healthy development of the fetus. The majority of recent studies correlate excessive yawning with a wide range of physical and neurological symptoms, and beginning in 2003, Gordon Gallup and his team at State University New York developed a brain thermoregulation theory of yawning, which is now supported by many other studies. Briefly stated, neurological distress (including tiredness) increases brain temperature which further dysregulates brain functioning. Yawning is the instinctive response: it appears to increase cerebral blood flow and reduce brain temperature. Anecdotal evidence, from Gallup and others, show that.
In 2014, Walusinski proposed a new hypothesis, suggesting that yawning helps to regulate two major brain networks: The Default Mode Network (DMN) that is highly active when we are resting (a daydream-like state associated with mind wandering), and the Central Executive Network (CEN) that, when active, allows us to focus our attention on goals and tasks. The DMN uses a lot of metabolic energy, raising the temperature of a large portion of the neocortex, and when it is active, the CEN becomes inactive. Yawning increases cerebral blood flow and activates cerebrospinal fluid flow which disengages the DMN and activates the CEN, allowing use to be more alert and capable of concentrating on work that needs to be done.
To date, there have been over a 1000 academic studies looking at various dimensions and properties of yawning, and the emerging evidence suggests that it may play a key role in arousal, stress reduction, pain regulation, pain regulation, and possibly a form of empathetic communication in a variety of species, including humans. My hypothesis, first presented in our book How God Changes Your Brain (Newberg & Waldman, 2008), suggests that deliberate conscious yawning may increase attentiveness, alleviate drowsiness and mind-wandering, and reduce the frequency and intensity of migraines and other neurological symptoms including chronic pain. It may even enhance social cooperation and empathy. Scholarpedia has a brief overview, written by Walusinski, covering the neurological, developmental, and social functions associated with spontaneous and contagious yawning: http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Yawning
Sources:
Physiol Behav. 2019 Aug 1;207:86-89. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.04.016. Epub 2019 Apr 22.
Manipulating neck temperature alters contagious yawning in humans.
Ramirez V1, Ryan CP2, Eldakar OT3, Gallup AC4.
Abstract
The existence of yawning across a diverse array of species has led many researchers to postulate its neurological significance. One hypothesis, which has garnered recent support, posits that yawns function to cool the brain by flushing hyperthermic blood away from the skull while simultaneously introducing a cooler arterial supply. The current study tested this hypothesis by examining how manipulations aimed at modifying carotid artery temperature, which in turn directly alters cranial temperature, influences contagious yawning in humans. Participants held either a warm (46 °C), cold (4 °C) or room temperature (22 °C) pack firmly to their neck, just over their carotid arteries, for a period of five minutes prior to watching a contagious yawning stimulus. Thermographic imaging verified that these manipulations produced predicted changes in temperature at the superomedial orbital area, a region previously used as a noninvasive measure of brain temperature (i.e., the brain temperature tunnel). As predicted by past research, both the urge to yawn and overall yawn frequency significantly diminished in the cooling condition (p < .05). Less than half (48.5%) of the participants in the cooling condition reported the urge to yawn, while this urge was expressed by the vast majority of participants in the warming condition (84.8%). Moreover, there was a threefold difference in the mean number of yawns per participant between the cooling and warming conditions (0.364 compared to 1.121). These findings are consistent with previous research indicating that yawns function as a compensatory brain cooling mechanism.
Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Adaptive behavior; Brain temperature; Thermodynamic cooling; Thermoregulation
PMID: 31022409 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.04.016
A Partial List of Key Research Papers from the last 8 years:
Blood oxytocin concentration positively predicts contagious yawning behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder. Mariscal MG, et al. Autism Res. 2019 May 27.
Yawning in neurology: a review. Teive HAG, Munhoz RP, Camargo CHF, Walusinski O.
Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2018 Jul;76(7):473-480. doi: 10.1590/0004-282X20180057. Review.
Yawning and cortisol levels in multiple sclerosis: Potential new diagnostic tool. Thompson SBN, Coleman A, Williams N. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2018 Jul;23:51-55. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2018.04.019.
Contagious yawning, empathy, and their relation to prosocial behavior. Franzen A, Mader S, Winter F.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2018 Dec;147(12):1950-1958. doi: 10.1037/xge0000422.
Yawn duration predicts brain weight and cortical neuron number in mammals. Gallup AC, Church AM, Pelegrino AJ. Biol Lett. 2016 Oct;12(10).
Yawning-Its anatomy, chemistry, role, and pathological considerations. Krestel H, Bassetti CL, Walusinski O. Prog Neurobiol. 2018 Feb;161:61-78. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2017.11.003.
Pathological Yawning, Laughing and Crying. Walusinski O. Front Neurol Neurosci. 2018;41:40-49. doi: 10.1159/000475691. Epub 2017 Nov 16. Review.
Spontaneous yawning in patients with multiple sclerosis: A polygraphic study. Erkoyun HU, Beckmann Y, Bülbül NG, İncesu TK, Kanat NG, Ertekin C. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2017 Oct;17:179-183.
Migraine and Yawning. Güven B, Güven H, Çomoğlu SS. Headache. 2018 Feb;58(2):210-216.
Yawning, a thermoregulatory mechanism during fever? A study of yawning frequency and its predictors during experimentally induced sickness. Marraffa A, et al. Physiol Behav. 2017 Dec 1;182:27-33. [“exploratory analyses showed that a higher yawning frequency was associated with less increase in sickness symptoms and nausea intensity.”]
A Neural Basis for Contagious Yawning. Brown BJ, et al. Curr Biol. 2017 Sep 11;27(17):2713-2717.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.062. Epub 2017 Aug 31.
Why contagious yawning does not (yet) equate to empathy. Massen JJM, Gallup AC. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017 Sep;80:573-585.
Yawning and social styles: Different functions in tolerant and despotic macaques. Zannella A, Stanyon R, Palagi E. J Comp Psychol. 2017 Aug;131(3):179-188.
Yawning: Behavior and Physiology. Dhungat JV. J Assoc Physicians India. 2016 Jul;64(7):106.
Presence of contagious yawning in sheep. Yonezawa T, et al. Anim Sci J. 2017 Jan;88(1):195-200.
Social Presence Diminishes Contagious Yawning in the Laboratory. Gallup A, Church AM, Miller H, Risko EF, Kingstone A. Sci Rep. 2016 Apr 26;6:25045.
Yawning, Why and When? Flaskerud JH. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2016 Jul;37(7):526-9.
Social modulation of contagious yawning in wolves. Romero T, Ito M, Saito A, Hasegawa T. PLoS One. 2014 Aug 27;9(8):e105963
A thermal window for yawning in humans: yawning as a brain cooling mechanism. Massen JJ, Dusch K, Eldakar OT, Gallup AC. Physiol Behav. 2014 May 10;130:145-8.
Frequent yawning as an initial signal of fever relief. Gallup AC, Gallup JA. Med Hypotheses. 2013 Dec;81(6):1034-5.
Familiarity bias and physiological responses in contagious yawning by dogs support link to empathy.
Romero T, Konno A, Hasegawa T. PLoS One. 2013 Aug 7;8(8):e71365.
How yawning switches the default-mode network to the attentional network by activating the cerebrospinal fluid flow. Walusinski O. Clin Anat. 2014 Mar;27(2):201-9.
Contagious yawning, social cognition, and arousal: an investigation of the processes underlying shelter dogs' responses to human yawns. Buttner AP, Strasser R. Anim Cogn. 2014 Jan;17(1):95-104.
Development of fetal yawn compared with non-yawn mouth openings from 24-36 weeks gestation. Reissland N, Francis B, Mason J. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e50569.
In bonobos yawn contagion is higher among kin and friends. Demuru E, Palagi E. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e49613.
Mirror neuron activity during contagious yawning--an fMRI study. Haker H, Kawohl W, Herwig U, Rössler W. Brain Imaging Behav. 2013 Mar;7(1):28-34
Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens. Norscia I, Palagi E. PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e28472.
Born to yawn? Cortisol linked to yawning: a new hypothesis. Thompson SB. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Nov;77(5):861-2
Pandiculation: nature's way of maintaining the functional integrity of the myofascial system? Bertolucci LF. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2011 Jul;15(3):268-80. [“The stretch-yawning syndrome (SYS) has been associated with the arousal function, as it seems to reset the central nervous system to the waking state after a period of sleep and prepare the animal to respond to environmental stimuli (Walusinski, 2006)….the SYS might also have an auto-regulatory role regarding the locomotor system: to maintain the animal's ability to express coordinated and integrated movement by regularly restoring and resetting the structural and functional equilibrium of the myofascial system.”]
Do you want to experience the effect of yawning to reduce fear - contact for a test conversation - helge.christie@gmail.com
My book on creativity describes the role of yawning in order to be creative:
https://www.helgechristie.com/butikk/helge-christies-15-bok-kreativ-i-ekstremvr-e-bok
Article:
https://www.helgechristie.com/blog/2020/4/1/when-you-fear-corona-yawn-stretch-relax-observe