A week back, I had nothing better to do and did some reseach on *yawns*. Everyone, including some animals, yawns but noone knows exactly why. Common knowledge says that we yawn whenever we are bored. In medical schools, they learn that we yawn when we are low on oxygen and need to take in more air. This, probably, isnt true because 2 weeks old fetuses also yawn even though they dont breath throught the nose. Evolutionaries say that we did away with the tails in the process of evolution but yawns are the residues of those dark ages. I have my own theory too. According to Doctor Rumple, whenever we breath in and out, a small amount of air is still trapped inside the lungs. Lungs somehow are not powerful enough to contract and take this air out. So we breath in and take lungful of air in and now that lungs are fully stretched enough pressure is generated to take out all the stale air with the new air. That was just a guess. :)
Whatever maybe the reason we still yawn. Just thinking or reading about yawns can make us yawn. (Most of you are yawning when you started reading this.. arnt you?). One thing we know is that yawns are contagious. Try it.
When I was waiting in the waiting room for my bus to Pune on last Thursday, I tried to test it. I started yawning. Yawn after yawns. (I was good at it!). And in a few minutes 12 out of 15 people yawned. Some of them multiple times. :)
Yours Sinerely,
