If we are in a simulation, maybe yawning is an animation glitch.
As far as I know, the purpose of yawning isn't really understood, but it's present in nearly all land vertebrae. Maybe it's a universal bug in the breathing animation code.
Woof. I dread to think that I would remember in such precise detail all the dozens of lemmy posts and comments I've read this morning. But it's quite a thought!
i can't quite describe the intensity of the horror. it's like a dream where you can't run, but at time same time someone's forcefully twiddling a finger on your precious in-between. it's a scream you just can't type.
Can you really recall every single detail? I’m not sure about you, but I can easily spend 30 minutes reading comments and then forget exactly what I was reading. Could I be reading gibberish that feels meaningful in the moment, but is gone as soon as I move on? Kind of like a dream?
Many many animals yawn. Not just mammals but birds and reptiles. Even if we don't understand fully why something happens, seeing it throughout the tree of life like that probably means there's some reason for it.
That's easy to check. I'm currently insanely jet lagged and super tired, yawning every few minutes. My pulse oximeter is indicating 99% saturation, so that's not it.
Edit: on the other hand, I'm a flight attendant, so my body is used to lower oxygen atmospheres, so I usually have >98% O2 levels.
According to the above, they suspect it has to do with helping to keep you relative alert/awake but also, possibly to cool the brain and adjust ear pressure.
Smog is just the developers' workaround for overpopulation because the universe machine can't handle that many animated entities without distance culling.