Why you Yawn and Other Medical Mysteries

Interesting! I'd like to know more about sneezing. Why do I always sneeze within 30 minutes of being at work? And why do you sneeze when you go out into the sun?

Yes the photic sneeze reflex, strange phenomenon and amazingly common....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex

as for the sneezing at work, who can say...

Years ago I rode my motorcycle to work (facing into the sun with a full face helmet). Almost every day after turning into the sun, I would sneeze. I don't recommend trying it on a cool day with a head cold. "Sneeze" and instant fog inside the helmet. Might be ok walking, but not in traffic!

And why does pressing the tip of your nose stop you from sneezing?

It moves your attention away from the sneeze and focuses it on the tip of your nose....Actually any way of diverting attention will work...this seems to work well because it's close to the point of concentration, thus an easier transition rather than say pinching the skin on your arm...Try touching yourself on the forehead instead of the nose, it should work equally as well...

Depending on how many medical mysteries you want to put in any blog, you have many ahead of you. Some are more of a curious nature, like yawning, while other "mysteries" concern serious and/or life-threatening diseases.

Way too many people consider knowledge of the human body and how it works as boring -- yawning material. Detailed knowledge does require some prerequisites, like Chemistry, for instance. For most of my adult life (and I'm past 60 now) I have always found the subject very interesting -- especially preventive medicine. Given that pharmaceuticals have side effects (even some natural ones), it only makes good sense to have an interest in how the body works and how nutritional deficiencies may influence or affect our health -- in short, what is health and how to maintain it. I, for one, wish there were NO prescription pharmaceutical ads on TV.

In my opinion, Biomedical Engineering, as a forum, should include that discussion. I appreciate any topic that will foster interest in how our bodies work. But a detailed discussion now assumes some knowledge and/or places a bit of a burden on readers. Should blogs/articles be nothing more than an amusement or something that people will say, "Oh yeah, I read something about THAT," and that's the end of it? Or should they lead to a more substantial knowledge about the subject presented? Obviously, if it is a "mystery" then by definition there is not definitive knowledge to be accessed. But should you include "mysteries" that are only mysteries due to lack of studying the subject? From that perspective these blogs can become educational, too. This is also a curiosity question and not an indication that I'm purporting to know how to do this. Just some curios thoughts precipitated by your curiosity.

It's hard to go down this road without the subject of home remedies popping up, this is strictly forbidden on Cr4...no medical advice is allowed...Liability you know,,,.

Okay, I'll share with you.

I'm one of those seriously afflicted... seeing the photo image of the baby, I stifled a yawn as long as I could... then it came. My dog yawns, I follow. Television character yawns, I do it too. I can't stop it. I suspect that if the neighbor's dog yawns, the waves in the air come thru the walls and there I go again.

There, I just yawned again. Just thinking about it starts another. I've been this way for as long as I can remember.

I have always wondered why. I will be watching this with great interest <yawn>.

Here's a mystery for you. Why when you are getting very cold do you need to go to the toilet and dump warm fluid when you need all the warmth you can get?? As a long time SCUBA diver I have always wondered about this one.

I'll take a stab at this and say it's the lower temperature that speeds up respiration and heart rate, you're accelerating the bodily processes...so it's not about dumping heat, it's about dumping waste...

Sorry for the delayed response. I was just re-reading the comments for ideas. I talk a bit about why this happens in my post about being in the cold here. When you're cold your blood vessels also constrict, increasing blood pressure. In order to adjust, your body reduces fluid volume by getting rid of water in urine. You can also become dehydrated if exposed to the cold for too long.

Thanks for your comments!

I've just read this, it's 7am, had my very large coffee after 8 hours of great REM sleep and I'm yawning! Go figure!

As I understand from various folk, a yawn is a sign of very mild Hypoxia.

Why do we Yawn?

I have never believed that yawning has any utility in the human being as we are today; some people say that it's a way of getting rid of excessive carbon dioxide, but, if that were the case we would need to do it after strenuous exercise.

Some years ago now I was watching an African grey parrot in my local, and noticed the strange way in which it yawned: facially very similar to a person, but, in addition it stood on one leg stretching the other backwards as far as it would go and then shook from side to side passing waves down the length of its body. It struck me that I had often seen dogs doing almost exactly the same thing, albeit with a mismatch in the number of legs. Given that there does not appear to be any great utility for either creature in these specific actions (I concede that stretching probably is useful), it occurred to me that both must have a common ancestor for whom this type of yawn was absolutely essential. It's not difficult to imagine that nearly all animals and birds must also share the same common ancestor.

I mentioned this idea to a few of my friends who mostly humoured and ignored me, but, one made the obvious observation that the common ancestor was likely to have been a fish of some kind. Between us we then very quickly came to the conclusion that the reflex is clearly an attempt to clean the gills. If the fish was floating in unclean water the gills would almost certainly act as filters and gather up bits of debris. Opening the mouth and spreading out the gills would allow free passage of fresh water and the shaking would help to loosen any bits that were stuck.

I have since realised (having watched a few fish in aquariums) that the "shaking" is almost certainly a quick dash through the water, but, this would improve the effectiveness of the tactic.

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions! Keep them coming.

I looked into why people (and most animals) yawn a little more and found that there are some theories that link yawns to an evolutionary phenomenon. People generally yawn when they are in a transition state between being tired and being alert. This is why you yawn in the morning and why athletes yawn before big events. At one time yawns (and their contagiousness) might have been a herd instinct. An animal on watch in a herd might have yawned to keep themselves and everyone else alert. This might also explain the shaking seen in birds and dogs as a way to keep their muscles ready.

How susceptible a person is to a yawn depends on how they breathe and their level of empathy. The more empathic a person is, the more likely they are to "catch" a yawn. This is especially true if the person yawning is a family member or friend. A trick to avoid yawning is to breath through your nose.

Interesting video about a study on yawns done at the University of Albany.

When one person yawns - others seeing him/ her yawn too!! But I did experience that when I talking to someone on phone and yawn- I can feel the person at the otter end yawn after some time!!!! Why is this so? Sneeze- and you can sneeze several times !! But yawning happens once !!! When one sees the other person yawing- he also yawns- but the first person does not yawn again- seeing the second person. Sneezing is not contagious- unless some one is in the process of catching / transferring cold !!!

What about 1 hiccup? I only get one sometimes a sneeze and 1 hic.

Infact skimming through your post made me yawn!

My mom used to tell me to keep my hand over my mouth while beset with yawning.

I asked Why?? She replied ''Because the devil want's to get inside you!!''

Gosh!!

That's all I have heard from some others as well, especially women.

That's something which made me think that 'yawning' must be having some connection with women or the female hormone estrogen! Maybe it also has some connection with Venus, who knows?? But the fact is that yawning occurs both in men, women and animals (I have noticed some fish such as puffer fish 'yawning' or 'smoking' a cigarette when I place a lighted one in her mouth after she was caught by me!! Well, since puffer or fugu as its known and eaten as an expensive and popular delicacy in Japan is highly poisonous ( I was not knowing it at that time but my 6th sense warned me about it from its repulsive ugliness and antics that finally I had to toss it back into the sea!) I have not seen any other fish 'yawn', have you??

While writing all this I have yawned at least 4 times but I don't know why?? In reality I was not bored writing down this anecdote nor tired. This makes me think that surely there is some reason for Yawning other than getting bored, sleepy or tired. Apart from the ''scientific spiritual reason' given by nannies I think the other reason for that could be a feeling of relaxation or complacence stirred by some hormone in the heart (or perhaps the brain)...

As for twitching while sleeping this does happen sometimes triggered by some unknown phobias. Snoring is also a defensive mechanism of the human body against fatigue or malfunctioning of some human organ during sleep. You can talk but cannot 'snore' while awake yet you can walk while sleeping!!

Ah! Nature could be so mysterious is unbelievable!!