*Yawn*

You're not tired, but you saw a post about yawning? Well, guess what.

You are now yawning manually.

When a baby is crying on an airplane during takeoff or landing, I visibly and audibly yawn in front of them on purpose, so they catch the yawn and pop their ears.

that is genius
You're supposed to stay in your seat during take off and landing. Please, remain in your seat. Why do you keep getting out of your seat and silently scream at the babies?!
- Who says you have to get out of your seat?
How to tell if your baby is a sociopath with this one simple trick. For this trick you'll need: a baby, a stranger, an airplane, and the power to suspend all critical thinking.
- It's more indicative of whether or not your baby is autistic.

Apparently there isn't much consensus on what the actual reason(s) are for yawning. Apparently fish yawn though, so that's cool.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawn

Isn't it a social signal, apebrain talking?
- Solitary animals yawn too. Don't if they can catch yawns, or how to test it.
- It seems like it helps the brain switch modes (from low activity to high and from high activity to low). So yawning could help prepare the brain to pay attention to something important, as well as wind down for the evening. Hence both morning and evening yawns.
  The contagious aspect could be as simple as "Oh, you're changing modes? I should get ready to do the same."
- Are there any other involuntary social signals?
Have you seen a stork yawn? They push their spine out through their mouth
Best I can find, the 20 "most argued" reasons for yawning, at least the 20 most in 1999
- Increase alertness
  Decrease alertness
  lmao

What's that? You're not tired and you haven't seen anyone open their mouth big, but you read about a hypothetical person opening their mouth big? Bad news...

Luckily I managed to cover my yawn but keeping my lips/teeth together but opened up the inside of my mouth. Think I got away with it.
- Careful, I literally pulled my neck last week doing that

You read the word Yawn several times in a meme, guess what

Literally just yawned reading this meme, lol.
Yeah I had to yawn when I opened the comments. Yawning is really weird

This seems like such bullshit pseudoscience. Anyone have any real data to back this up?
- I got you fam:
  Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22163307/
Can confirm, I do struggle with empathy (more in the autism way than the socio/psychopath way though) and don't really catch yawns from anyone. I will still pretend to yawn when someone else does though, because I know that not doing that will make them subconsciously wary of me
- Not everyone will get wary if you don't yawn. Same way as not everyone thinks the same way about yawns, or just over analyze what others do.
  But good for you to try mixin and minglin with the neurotypical crowd :)
  Just keep it relaxed

I've yawned three times already reading through all these comments.

It's early morning for me, it's not fair.

You saw an animal open their mouth big? Have fun.

Co2

Isn’t the leading theory that yawning is more about cooling down the brain temp rather than a lack of oxygen or buildup of CO2?
- Yeah, you are correct. There are several reasons. :)

You hit the gym and are having a good session, guess what

This. I have started to wonder if yawns are actually a way to wake up. We know little about them. Some brain scans showed that we refresh the blood around our brain, like changing the water in a fish bowl.
I used to yawn incessantly during warmups before rugby matches. My coach would yell at me to get my head into the game. I kept telling him it's just what happens when I'm warming up it doesn't mean anything!

This post literally made me yawn. Not because it's bad either.

Snake yawns are the most cute of yawns and I will fight every one who says otherwise.

What? You're hungry? Well, I'll just make you yawn

Got to make everyone tired so they don't get you while you sleep.

I saw someone recently yawn at a zoom meeting, and I thought "rule."

A yawn is a signal to regain some alertness, so when you yawn in order to become more awake, it signals your fellow life forms they might want to be alert too. 🥱

🥱

Didn't have to see anyone, I've done it twice just reading this post.

Edit: 3 times cause I was checking back.

You are all now breathing manually.

Also you're all now aware that your tongue is never fully relaxed in your mouth.
If it was, you'd swallow it.
- Nope.

Whatever you do, don't you dare cover your mouth so we didn't have to see your gaping maw

And the gas pump isn't a parking spot.

And turn off your headlights if you're parked.

And just stop being a clueless shithead all the time always.

Just saying

I can yawn with my mouth closed.

Yawning is more about getting more oxygen in your system. Which sometimes can be due to you being sleepy and not breathing as well as normal, but not always to do with tiredness.

I think when you see someone else yawn, you do the same to make sure you're just as on point as they are. Since more oxygen in your system means you'll operate more efficiently.

I think that's correct, anyway? If someone knows better, please correct me

Sounds like a plausible theory. I wonder how extensively it's been studied. I'd like to know if it's unique to humans. Figuring out which species do it would give a clue to when it evolved

Dogs yawn as well, and it doesn’t only mean that they are tired, more like “I try my hardest to stay concentrated, but is really hard right now”

Why the heck is yawning contagious? I would expect such a feature to evolve if it served a purpose like, say, warning of something coming. See someone give a warning call, pass it on to the rest of the tribe. But why should a sleepy signal do that? Was there a sleep illness people had to worry about catching? Maybe it evolved to signal to everyone that it's nighttime. How many species is yawning contagious for? I'm picturing lions for some reason. I have a feeling the behaviour is common among mammals

Read a meme about opening your mouth real big? You guessed it: open your mouth real big about it.