WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: What Makes us Yawn? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.119 M Hey everybody, it's me Josh, and for this week's 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:06.560 s Y s K Selects, I've chosen what makes us yawn? 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:10.200 It's actually a really good question about something everyone does, 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:14.520 and yet we don't really fully understand. After all of 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.040 these eons of people yawning and all these centuries of 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:21.840 science studying things like people yawning, we still can't explain 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.800 what yawning is. So buckle in and enjoy this episode 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:33.680 of Stuff You Should Know. Selex, Welcome to Stuff You 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:42.720 Should Know, a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.360 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.120 Chuck Bryant. You're getting comfy. Yeah, okay, well you put 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:50.960 the two of us together, and this is Stuff you 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.560 Should Know the podcast. Frank was squeaking. I thought I 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.760 was in Frank. Was that Frank? Yeah? I was sorry, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:02.480 I'm in Francine. Okay, sorry Francine squeaking, You are in Frank? 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:07.200 Who are you? Let's build a chair? Uh? People have 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.080 never heard this or like, what are they talking about? 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.319 They've already turned off. We name our chairs people then, 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.760 and everyone he named cars, boats, and chairs. Yeah, a 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.560 surprising amount of people named chairs. If you don't, you 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.920 should be paranoid because people are talking about you. It's right, um, chuck, Yes, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:29.679 have you ever oscitated? I have, I've even uh pendiculated. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.720 Do you pendiculated before? I pendiculate every morning? You know 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:38.040 what we we sound like? Um people running for the 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:42.200 Senate in nineteen fifties Florida. Yeah, there's like Florida has 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.000 a rich history of um like people running for political 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.680 office using technical terms for things that sound way worse 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.400 than they are to like smear their opponents. Really. Yeah, 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.760 there's this one guy who went and I can thank 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.360 Uncle John and his bathroom readers for um who went 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.800 after his opponent and said that his sister was a 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.960 thespian in New York and like all these people are 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:09.359 like boo boo. Yeah, and apparently like the smear campaign 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.880 was successful. That wasn't the only one, but this guy 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.239 used that a couple of couple of technical terms. We 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.160 should probably tell people what we're talking about, right, because 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.520 you said you pendiculate every morning, easily every morning, and 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.160 that is a what that is a yawn and a 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.200 stretch combined together. And as one of my favorite things 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.399 to do in the morning it is. Did you did 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.400 you see that painting of the It was a self portrait, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.600 the artist's self portrait sounded like it was from like 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.600 the sixteenth or seventeenth century of him pendiculating. It's just 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:44.639 as awesome oil painting of this, you know, Renaissance man 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.079 stretching and yawning. Yeah. I love it because it feels 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:52.120 good and it uh, it ties me to my pets, 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.280 you know, because like I see them do it, they 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.440 see me do it, and I'm kind of like, hey, 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.840 we all eat, we all pee and poop, and we 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.160 all pendiculate. My little cattle stretching yawn. My dogs will 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.160 stretching yawn, and I will stretching you. So do you 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.520 guys make one another stretching ya on? You know, I'm 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:10.799 gonna start looking out for that because I have not 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.480 noticed that. But apparently yawning can be contagious to animals, right, Yeah, 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:17.959 there's a fun little game you can do jogs supposedly 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.880 chimps for sure, but probably not cats, I don't know. Yeah, 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.720 just because it's not in here doesn't mean it's not true. Um, 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.919 there's a fun little game. You complain the next time 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.440 you're hanging out with people if you feel like manipulating 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:35.760 them on a biological level, Um, just yawn and just 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.560 start paying attention to how many people yawn as a result, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.200 and it should start some sort of chain reaction among 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.200 maybe of the people, because that's the that's the statistic 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:52.200 of how many human adults yawn in reaction to seeing 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:57.360 somebody on, seeing video of somebody on, hearing about somebody yawning, 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.080 reading about yawning, Like how many times did you yawn 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.560 while you read this article? A bunch? And people will 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.320 probably yawn while listening to this, Supposedly it's pretty much 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.000 impossible not to. Yeah, do you ever? This just really 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.480 shows how deeply disturbed I am. I will not I 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.279 will suppress or cover up a yawn if someone else 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.040 has made me on sometimes just so I don't give 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.039 them the satisfaction. Oh yeah, I've done that before. Sometimes 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.000 he was like, no, I'm not like just some stranger 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.480 on an elevator. They'll yawn and I'll just be like, Nope, 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.320 not me, buddy. One of those people who don't realize that, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.320 like they're they're just your mortal enemy for no real 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.600 good reason, when in fact they really don't even know exists, right, 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.239 they're like some guys on the elevator, right, So yawning 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:44.200 is involuntary. Um, And I've seen a range of of 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:47.160 weeks that a fetus has been observed yawning from eleven 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.280 to twenty and uh, that sort of disproves one of 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.640 the well many things, disproves one of the theories, which 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.880 is that we yawned to oxygenate ourselves. Yeah, because a 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.920 lot of people think that fetus is um, breathe amniotic 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.040 fluid in the womb, and that is absolutely not true. 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:07.880 The oxygen to the umbilical cord. Yeah, so they're not 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.480 clearly not yawning to oxygenate themselves. Right, And we'll debunk 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:13.600 that with other things in a minute. Sure, Um, but 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:16.760 that's still it is a little bit of a mystery though, Like, yeah, 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.920 the other the other ideas for why we yawned don't 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.320 really hold up in the fetus either. It feels like 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.680 that's where the key to the mystery of yawning is 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:30.000 going to be found in. All right, should we go 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:31.960 there over some theories and well, hold on, first, you're 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.320 saying it's involuntary. I found this one thing, Chuck, that 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:39.000 there's a type of paralysis like a lesion on the 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:44.200 brain where you can still if you yawn, you still pendiculate, 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.080 So like you're paralyzed arm. If you yawn deep enough, 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:52.560 will will raise, will rise. Yeah, pretty weird. Huh. There's 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:54.640 only been a few cases of it over like the 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.159 last hundred and fifty years, but it's been documented in 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.680 a number of different places. Yeah, but that is such 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.000 a surprise. Yeah, seriously, they're like, can I be tired 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:09.000 more often? Um So when you yawn, just physiologically speaking, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.880 you're gonna open your mouth. You're going to suck in 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.800 air into your lungs. I read one place that you 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.120 your eyes usually close. They did this big study and 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.120 found that most time your eyes closed. But I don't 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.800 think it's like all the time. You know that's sneezing 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.279 you're thinking of. No, they did a study on on 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.960 the eyes of the yawner. Well that's part of the 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.360 yawn too, as far as um queues go, Like, it's 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.040 not just the mouth opening your eyes quint. Yeah, and 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.640 I found like the really good deep yawn, um, my 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.680 eyes will generally close. So you're gonna flex your your abs. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.520 It's good workout. It's gonna put your dye for RAM down. 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.760 You're gonna fill your lungs with air and then exhale 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.200 and that as a yawn stretch, you're pendiculating. UM. Also, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:07:00.880 parts of your brain become active, right. UM. Basically what 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.760 happens when all of this, when you go through all 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:09.080 this process, a bunch of neurotransmitters and dopamine are activated. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.080 And that is why a guy named Robert Provine thinks well. 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:17.240 He says that, UM, yawns are basically a part of 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.320 a change from one state of arousal to another. Yeah, 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:23.920 like I was asleep, now I'm awake, or I was 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.240 I was alert, now on board, or I was like 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.120 just ho hum, and now I'm like in the mood 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.840 because there you can yawn when you're sexually aroused. So 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.280 that mood, YEA, the mood, the mood, the Glenn Miller mood. 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:40.680 That's what they had to call it back then, and 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:42.360 that's what we have to call it today on this 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:48.560 family friendly podcast. UM. What's going on to is physiologically speaking, 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:52.680 as we are distributing UM, something called the surfactant, which 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:57.120 sounds gross and it kind of is. It's a wedding agent. Uh. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:02.200 To cote al violi in the lungs. Um. But are 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.000 they saying that's what happens or that's why it happens, 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.440 that's what happens. Okay, they're not saying the reason is 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:11.720 to cope the alboli with surfact then, right, it could be. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.360 I mean, for all we know. No, we still have 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.040 no idea what function yawning provides. Same with the the 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.400 yawning as a symbol of arousal or is a sign 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.680 of arousal. They think that it's really just a byproduct 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.920 of it, you know. Okay, but it explains why people 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:29.880 who are nervous or dogs. I'm sure you've seen dogs 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.440 who are nervous and they yawn and like that really 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.520 kind of weird, unsettling ways when they're super worked up. Yeah. Yeah, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.000 and humans too, you know, like people will yawn when 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.360 they're nervous. It's it's it's it's a sign that you're 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.400 in a state of arousal. And what that state of 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.800 arousal is depends on the situation. Yeah. They point to 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:52.160 Olympians who yawned before like a race, and um, which 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.880 Poopoo's one theory that we're going to get to the theory. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.439 So we just get to the theories. Let's get to 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.680 the theory. Poops. That theory though, that you have to 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.720 be bored or you have to be sleepy retired. Yeah 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.480 like that. There's the boredom theory, and it's kind of 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.319 been pretty fully shot down just by you know, just 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:15.800 casual observation. There's also the physiological theory, which is that 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:17.720 this is the one that I'd always heard when I 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.120 was younger, like, why are you yawned? Is because you 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.959 needed your oxygen deprived or you have an abundance of 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.079 carbon dioxide. So you're drawing in a bunch of oxygen 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.559 and like putting out a bunch of carbon dioxide. That's 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.959 why you're yawned. And provine or provine that you mentioned. Yeah, 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.920 he tested this one right, Yeah, pretty simply. He just said, okay, well, um, 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.920 let's just give some athletes a bunch of oxygen and 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.440 see if they um, if they breathe, if they yawn 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.880 any less than they didn't. He also um increased the 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:56.240 carbon dioxide in the ambient air and people still kept yawning. Okay, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.040 so that one's gold, but they didn't yawn anymore. Yeah, 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.199 so we can put that to bed. Yeah. Plus also 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:05.839 there was a terrible um hy proof associated with that 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.439 hypothesis that that explains why people yawning groups, because when 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.360 you have a big group, more carbon dioxide and less oxygen, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.680 and that's like you're all fighting over the oxygen. Right, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.000 So you're there yawning. Yeah, whoever can yawn the deepest lives? 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.480 That doesn't sound right. Evolution UM could play a part. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.559 Some people think that maybe we used to yawn took 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.880 took Wood yawn to bare his teeth to intimidate folks 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.600 around him UM, or that it developed as a signal. 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:38.520 Took Took would give a signal to his mates that hey, 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.240 we gotta we're hunting now and we need to go 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.960 now gather would so I will yawn to tell you 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.000 that like pre speech, right, Yeah, like a bird turning 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:52.160 if the whole flock. Yeah, that makes a little bit 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.960 of sense, But I still don't believe that one. I'm 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.920 with the brain cooling theory. That's like the most recent 0:10:58.000 --> 0:10:59.880 one and it seems to be the one that people 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:04.080 are subscribing to. Ye. Scientists generally are leaning toward the 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.120 fact that UM, when our brains are warmer, yawning might 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:12.920 cool it down in A cool brain is a more whatever, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.560 a better brain. I guess I should say I just 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.679 better for thinking I just yawned, did you I did? Okay, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.320 I didn't see it. Well, I covered my mouth. You 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:25.280 might have thought I was purpening. I think I did. Um. 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.400 So the brain cooling theory, that's the one that most 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:32.240 people think is lately, that's the that's the explanation to 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:37.120 your yeah, um. And there's another piece of research that 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.400 people are going into that um is the idea that 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:46.680 contagious yawning is the result of empathy, right, that you 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.960 that you empathize, The more you empathize with other people, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.000 the more susceptible you are contagious yawning. And we said 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:58.559 earlier that like I think of human adults, UM are 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.120 susceptible to contagious yawning, right, which the MythBusters confirmed by 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:06.000 the way. Okay, so there is some sort of link 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:11.560 between what we perceive his empathy and the susceptibility to yawning. 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.040 When you see somebody else yawning or reading about yawning 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:15.760 or whatever, I wonder if it's like a boy, that 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:18.200 guy's tired and just let me make him feel better. Well, 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.960 the pro vine again, he's like really into yawning research. Um. 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.000 He he has done m r I scans where he 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.560 shows I guess pictures of people yawning or talked about 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.959 yawning and you know they yawn um. And when they do, 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.079 he says that mere neurons go off friends, right, So 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.760 are our mere neurons are activated when you see somebody 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.920 else yawn? And apparently that triggers the yawn. But people 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.120 take it a step further in this quest to prove 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:52.559 that empathy and contagious yawning are you know, want work 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.000 hand in hand and saying, well, then people with autism 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.959 that that they shouldn't be able to to be susceptible 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.080 to contagious yawning, right, because they're known to have less empathy, right, 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.720 they had trouble connecting with others or um, they have 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.800 trouble developing what's called the theory of mind about other people. Um. 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.559 And there have been a lot of studies about whether 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:20.920 or not people who are people who have autism are contagious? 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.360 Is too susceptible the contagious yawning? Yeah, and it's it's 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.079 it's been proven, not proven, but at least. The data 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:35.280 says that the more, uh, the the stronger your autism, 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.640 the less you will yawn, even though uh they will 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.600 yawn when someone is pretending to yawn. Was that what 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.439 it was? Yeah? I think it said that, Um, when 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:50.480 they're watching video of people just moving their mouths, then 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.920 non autistic kids yawned more than kids with autism when 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.199 it was really yawning. Does that make sense? Yes, Well, 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.040 hold on before we get to that, um, because this 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:03.719 is like a whole thing to me, the idea that 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.800 if you have autism you're not susceptible and contagious yawning. 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:27.920 Let's let's first I have a message break from our sponsor. Okay, Josh, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.800 So I believe we were talking about autism and yawning, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.000 which is I just learned a thing for you. Well, yeah, 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.920 you said that there was. Um. They have found that 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.160 if you have been diagnosed with autism, you're less likely 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.880 to be susceptible and contagious yawning. And they found that 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.680 the higher on the autism spectrum you fall, the less 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:50.880 lucky would you would even be right? Yeah, which would 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.760 suggest that there is that link because they've tied there 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:58.240 there's a link between uh, empathy and an autism and 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:02.520 empathy and contagious yawning. So this autism and studying kids 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.120 with autism is kind of like the fulcrum. So yeah, 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.920 it just seems to me to be kind of Um, 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:11.920 I don't know, I don't I don't buy all the 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.720 studies that have been carried out. Another studies kind of contradicted, 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.840 like they other studies have shown that like kids with 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.960 autism focus on people's mouths rather than their eyes, So 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.280 maybe they're missing the cue. Member. We said that your 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:27.320 eyes scrunch, so like a yawn is not just people 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.600 opening their mouths. It has all these other facial characteristics 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.480 that might trigger a yawn and another person. So maybe 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.040 kids with autism are simply missing that. So you're saying, 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.480 maybe the data could be skewed by other factors. It 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.680 could be plus. I just remember when I wrote this 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.640 article like years back, I was kind of like, yeah, 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:52.320 it's just it seems just slightly off, like, yeah, you 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.400 got a good gut though, Well thanks man, I've been 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.440 working on it so bad. Um Well, we should also 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:01.480 mention too that this goes back a long way, like 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:06.720 I believe was it Hippocrates? Yeah, was the first person 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.720 to start sort of postulating ideas, and he was like, uh, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:13.920 he thought it was fever related, like sickness. It could 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.720 help cure you. So I got a fever and the 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:20.880 only prescription is more yawning. That's why here's the father 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.080 of medicine. That's right, because he was the first guy 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.080 to just start saying stuff. But you know that was 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.000 pretty quickly disproven. Right. But um, the idea that yawning 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:35.600 has something to do with um increasing our alertness and awareness, 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.600 which is kind of one of the current views of yawning. 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:42.120 Um that dates back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Yeah, 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:48.280 well it increases your heart rate during inhalation only um, 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.040 not during uh the I think it it It increases 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:53.920 and then levels off and then just drops back down 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.280 to the more pretty quickly, I got you. Yeah, but 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.320 up to like thirty beats per minute increase. Right. Yeah. 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.920 I read a real heavy article on this study that 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:04.199 really just made my eyes cross. But that was a 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:06.359 long and short of it. Right, But that's one that 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.680 dealt with the eyes, Like they really measured all kinds 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.479 of stuff. Uh. And when we said that fetus is 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.600 from eleven to twenty weeks of development yawn in utero 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.720 and did you see any of like the four d 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.560 ultrasounds of fetus? Is yawning? Is it adorable? It's pretty cute, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:25.760 but it's also weird at the same time because they're 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:29.119 not fully developed. It's it's like, oh you, it's like 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:33.119 a little baby platypus kind of um, but you have 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.879 to be around age four before you um can Uh, 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:41.359 you're susceptible the contagious yawning. Yeah, it's there, any way 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:44.680 to put it besides susceptible the contagious yawning, I don't 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:46.280 think so. Do you feel like you've said that like 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.040 a lot and I've had trouble with it every time. Uh. 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.160 There's another couple of researchers who a couple of years ago, 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:58.359 um Andrew Gallup and Omar Tansi Elda car H. They 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.240 found that outside temperature could affect the amount of yawning. 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.560 So if it's warmer than usual, then you're gonna yawn 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:10.200 less frequently because um. Their explanation is the outside air 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.840 is useless to the organism because it doesn't need to 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.840 suck in more oxygen. I don't get how the temperture 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.399 would affect that though. Well, if it's warmer temperature and 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.280 you're using the cooler air to cool your brain, if 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.119 it's warmer than the temperature of your brain, then okay, 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.479 that makes sense. Yeah all right. Well they had other 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.280 tests though, that's that showed that the amount of yawning 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.919 increase both when outside temperature and the temperature of the 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.720 brain increase. Yeah, it's all over the place. No, no 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:46.120 one knows anything about yawning except Robert Provine, the foremost 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.960 leading authority. Well, well he's proven that like seeing your 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:54.200 hearing about somebody yawning, it triggers your mirror neurons. So yeah, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.399 I think somebody should do a documentary on these people 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:01.640 that become obsessed with yawns. No, just like a certain 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.600 small thing. So you're yawning right now? Um, And that 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:08.840 was unsatisfying because you made me laugh in the middle 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.240 of it. I think like fast, cheap and out of control. 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.560 I've talked about it before. Errol Morris's documentary sort of 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.360 did that, but that was about like studying naked mole 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.080 rats or lion taming or um what's it called when 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:25.600 you clip the hedges in diopiary gardening. But someone they 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.560 should do things that are even more like mundane, like 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:32.119 this dude that has dedicated as life to yawning. I 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:36.560 just think they'd be interesting, Like what drives provine? Figure 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:38.639 this out? When it really doesn't matter, you know what 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:40.800 I'm saying? Well, I don't know, because and it's not 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.920 just yawning. He he frequently is cited as a yawning expert. 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:48.040 He's an evolutionary biologist. Okay, so like, but yawning, since 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.160 it's involuntary, and since you find it in all vertebrates, 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:56.000 it kind of gives some peek into our evolutionary past. Plus, 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.840 he probably just loves a good mystery. Sure, he had 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.680 a great quote too. We were talking how arousal yawning 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.240 is a is a byproduct of a state of arousal. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.880 He was saying that he believes that um, yawns and 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:14.800 orgasms share a neurobehavioral heritage. Yeah, so, like they're possibly 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.919 rooted in the same behavior. Like remember you said it yourself, 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:23.520 when you pendiculate feels good, same, you know with the orgasm. Yeah, 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.200 so I've heard those feel great, right, So possibly if 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.920 you trace the lineage of this behavior back far enough, 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.000 you'd see like, oh, they both came from when humans 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.640 juice to stub their toe. They thought it was awesome, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.680 and then the things diverged into these two things interesting 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.720 into uh, yawning and what happens when you're in the 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:49.760 mood the Glenn Miller mood. Right, Ah, you got anything else? No, man, 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.480 that is yawning forever until somebody figures it out. It's 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.119 a mystery. Yeah, and I kind of like it like that, 0:20:57.160 --> 0:20:59.840 But at the same time, I think it's it's so 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:03.240 amorphous that there's no no one has a clue. Like 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.680 sometimes we've talked about stuff that science couldn't fully explain, 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:09.199 but we almost always like pick a theory, like this 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.680 is the one. It just hasn't been proven yet, right, 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:14.760 this one. I don't feel like we did that, Like 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:16.520 we both like the brain cooling one, but it was 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.520 kind of discarded. Yeah, and I'm definitely gonna keep an 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.399 eye on my pets, um, But then I don't know 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.600 if like, can you induce that just by noticing more, 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.800 you know, you know what I'm saying, or maybe what 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.080 I'll do is I'll watch Emily around the pets so 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.800 no one's in on it. Just be careful, you don't 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:41.160 accidentally change their behavior just by observing it's Buckley farts 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.000 every time he stretches too. And see that's what I'm saying. 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.000 We'll see if Emily farts while she andiculates, right, that'll 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:52.320 be the death's nice. Um. So okay, I think if 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:55.000 you guys want to learn more about yawning, you can 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.040 type that word into the search bar at how stuff 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.800 works dot com. And since I said search part means 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.320 it's time for listener mail. Uh, not quite yet, my friend. 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:05.679 We have a quick word from our sponsor again, and 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:07.760 then we will we have a great listener mail though 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.000 about Rodriguez. So oh yeah, yeah, okay, all right, so 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:32.879 this is a time for message break, okay, and no, 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.040 it's time for listener mail. Huh yes, And I already 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.159 gave it away because I wanted people to stick around 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.560 for this and it is called I hang Out with Rodriguez. 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:48.640 So we mentioned Rodriguez, the singer songwriter from the sixties who, 0:22:49.720 --> 0:22:54.639 unbeknownst to him, was a huge, huge hit in South America. 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:57.399 And no, South Africa, what did I say, South American? 0:22:58.359 --> 0:23:02.080 It's such an idiot now South Africa. And then like 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:04.360 down there once on the left ones on the right 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:09.359 and then later in Australia and um so we covered 0:23:09.400 --> 0:23:11.600 that in our Apartheide podcast and you can see the 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:16.600 documentary searching for Sugarman's Super Interesting. Which one best documentary 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:19.000 this year? Right? Yeah? Yeah? Have you seen How to 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:21.400 Survive a Plague? That was up for Best Picture too, 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:25.320 best Documentary? Yes, it was a good Yeah, it was 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:30.640 really good. Um it was. It's about the early gay 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:35.000 like AIDS awareness movement and like it's just what they 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:37.960 were up against. His mind boggling, you know, like that 0:23:38.440 --> 0:23:41.320 society was just kind of like, no, God's punishing you. 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:44.200 Good luck with it, pal, jeez. Yeah, it was really something. 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:48.480 I saw our friends Steward of Superhuman Happiness. Who are 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:51.720 they're fans of the show. He scored the soundtrack. Oh nice, 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:53.320 he did a really good job with it too. You 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.040 want to check that out. Um. I saw another trailer 0:23:57.080 --> 0:24:00.600 the other day for a documentary about this family of 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:04.399 Jews who hid in a underground for a year and 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:08.080