Here’s a Tip: Open Your Yap and Yawn! It’s so Good for You!
I won’t be offended, honest! Cross my heart and hope to die
Yawning is good for us?
Yep, whoda thunk?
But it is. How so? Let me count the ways! Then I’ll explain.
By the way, these are from a riveting book called, How God Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newbert, M.D., and Mark Robert Waldman.
Don’t let the title intimidate you.
It’s chock full of studies and suggestions to enhance our brain and body’s functioning, regardless of spiritual beliefs. Atheists and believers alike benefit from meditation and other enriching practices.
So here goes:
12 Essential Reasons to Yawn
Stimulates alertness and concentration
Optimizes brain activity and metabolism
Improves cognitive function
Increases memory recall
Enhances consciousness and introspection
Lowers stress
Have we convinced you yet?
Relaxes every part of your body
Improves voluntary muscle control
Enhances athletic skills
Fine-tunes your sense of time
Increases empathy and social awareness
Enhances pleasure and sensuality.
They should have put that last one first. So between less stress and better sex have we got your attention yet?
If so, please yawn five times in a row.
Good!
Now let’s explore why yawning is so good for us.
It all starts in the precuneus!
The what?
No, it’s not an elusive sexual organ, even if it sounds like it could be. “Honey, just a little more pressure on my ‘cuni’, please!”
(No, I’m not ramped up on caffeine, I’ve been yawning!)
It’s actually in our brains.
it’s one of the areas of our brain involved not only in social awareness and empathy. According to the Institute of Neurology in London, the precuneus plays a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and memory retrieval.
It’s stimulated by yogic breathing and is one of the areas of our brains hardest hit by age-related diseases and attention deficit problems. So yawning comes recommended for strengthening our precuneus.
Think of yawning as intellectual Kegels!
Simple. Easy to do anywhere. And so beneficial.
And by the way, if you can squeeze those Kegels while you yawn you get a double bonus. Especially in the sensuality department!
The humble precuneus is now associated with the mirror-neuron system in the brain. This allows us to resonate with the feelings and behaviors of others. So yawning may help us enhance social awareness, compassion, and effective communication.
What’s not to like?
Not only that, it’s free!
Are you yawning yet?
Maybe I should bore you with some more neurobiology so you’ll keep yawning. There’s a method to my madness.
Yawning doesn’t just relax us. It brings us to a heightened state of alertness, which is why we do it when we first wake up.
There’s a theme here–first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It helps with circadian rhythm, high-altitude discomfort, and jet lag–your body’s own melatonin. That should save you some moolah at the pharmacy and Starbucks!
Yawning cools our brains.
Did you know your brain gets hot when used? And less energy-efficient? Just like us, right? Yawning cools down our brains, especially our frontal lobes which do our thinking for us.
Yet we’re taught yawning is rude, so we repress it.
But yawning is contagious.
For humans, great apes, macaque monkeys, and chimpanzees. By the way, dogs yawn before attacking so beware. And fish yawn before changing activity.
Say what? When they get done with their Piscean yoga classes and it’s time for aquatic Zumba, the sarcastic fringehead, red-lipped batfish, and the stunning Humuhumunukunukuapua’a spend a few minutes yawning. But you knew that!
Yawning is a neurochemical stimulator.
And oh, boy, do we need our neurochemicals. In fact, the drugs we often turn to mimic the neurochemicals our brains naturally make. When those get depleted, some turn to narcotic drugs.
Little did they know, all they had to do was yawn. So again, yawning can save us a lot of moolah and maybe even a little jail time!
Which neurochemicals?
Well, dopamine for starters. That’s a feel-good one because it stimulates oxytocin production, a natural pain killer. As well as helping with memory recall and temperature regulation.
Other ones involved include acetylcholine, serotonin, GABA, glutamate, ACTH, MSH, sexual hormones (told ya!), and opium derivate peptides.
According to Newberg and Waldman, these neurotransmitters regulate pleasure, sensuality, and relationship bonding between individuals, so if you want to enhance your intimacy and stay together, yawn together.
And isn’t there a saying, the family that yawns together, stays together? There is now!
Conculsionary recommendations:
Yawn early and often.
When you lieth down and when you riseth up. When confronting a difficult problem. ‘When feeling anger, anxiety, or stress. And before you meditate or pray as it will intensify your spiritual experience. Not to mention those intimate encounters…
One Final Note: B Sharp!
Just start yawning and your friends can’t help but join you. Know you’re doing everyone a favor.
FYI: If someone yawns in your face and you don’t yawn in response, perhaps you’re a sister or brother from another planet. If so, welcome to Earth. We trust you’ve come in peace to save us from the eco-disaster we’re hurling towards at warp speed.
So go ahead and yawn. That way you’ll understand and like us better.
And we so need that right now!
Marilyn Flower writes humor to laugh the changes she wants to see and make. She’s the author of Creative Blogging: Ninja Writers Guide to Character Development and Bucket Listers, Get Your Brave On. Clowning and improvisation strengthen her resolve during these crazy times. Stay in touch!
"Intellectual Kegel!" That just kills me. Now I'm going to start giggling every time I yawn.
Thanks Marilyn. I yawned all the way through that ;)