This week’s question comes from seven year old Emily, who, I hear is always asking her mum questions… sometimes her mum even writes about it here.
Emily wants to know….
Why do we yawn?
Dr. Simple will try to stop yawning long enough to answer the question…. because yawning is contagious! See how many times you yawn while reading this and leave us a note in the comments below!
So, go on, tell us how many times did you yawn?
Further reading/references:
The surprising science of yawning
Different yawn, different functions?
In group/out group bias in contagious yawning
Just thinking about yawning sets me off lol
I’m with you on that one Sara *yawn*
5 times, I’m afraid. Once at the tweet, which made me click, then once at each mention of how contagious (there’s another one!) it can be. I could be empathetic, imaginative, or simply tired 🙂 I’m not sure which is more fascinating, that the thought of it can be as contagious as the sight and sound, or that we don’t know why.
I know I was the same…. yawned the entire day while I was preping this post 🙂 Maybe it is too hard a subject to research as no one can stop yawning long enough to collect the data 😉
Love it! Thanks so much for answering Emily’s question.
My pleasure… it was a great question from (obviously) a great young mind 😉 Thanks Emily