View 3 Images

Here's a challenge: Try to read this whole page without yawning. Even reading the word yawn might be enough to set you off.

But why do we yawn in the first place? And why do we 'catch' other peoples'?

Yawning is one of the most ordinary things we do, but it's also one of the most mysterious. Humans yawn before we're even born; 4D ultrasound scans have shown fetuses yawning in the womb around 20 weeks into pregnancy. We even share the reflex with cats, dogs, birds, and even fish.

For years, scientists assumed yawning was our body's way of drawing more oxygen into the body. While it seems logical that a deep breath might help wake us up when we're tired or bored, experiments have found that this isn't exactly the case.

Research conducted in the 1980s found that people ya

See Full Page