The real reason why we yawn discovered!

If you’re like most of the general population, someone at some point told you that yawning is the body’s way of increasing oxygen to the brain. While it’s still true that yawning may still have such an effect, researchers say they have conclusive evidence to prove oxygen supply is not the true purpose of a yawn.

According to research from experts at SUNY College at Oneonta, data has never conclusively linked yawning to an increased oxygen supply to the brain. That theory has remained simply that ?a hypothesis as to why the body yawns. Now, however, it seems like we may finally know the real reason for this body function associated with sleep? to cool down the brain.

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Changes in brain temperature as associated with sleep cycles, indicate the team of researchers in a report from Medical News Today, but they are also associated with stress and cortisol levels. This means that yawning could be influenced not only by the changes in the air temperature around a person, but by the temperature of the brain during certain events. Yawning cools the brain down, establishing what the experts called “optimal homeostasis.”

“As yawning cools the brain, it gets the brain in optimal homeostasis, which is of course nice when you want to be alert, for example in a threatening situation,” explained Jorg Massen of the University of Vienna in Austria, who expounded on the Oneonta research. “In turn, when you see someone in your group yawning (and thus securing a cold brain that allows them to be alert), it might be adaptive to also be alert, as your group member might have seen something threatening, and consequently, you also want to cool your brain for optimal homeostasis, and thus you yawn, too.”

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals, regardless of the area of the world they resided in, saw an increase in yawning as soon as environmental temperatures reached 68 degrees Fahrenheit. One finding that could not be completely explained, however, that yawning decreased in extremely high or low temperatures. Researchers suspect that this is because pulling in too hot or too cold air would be more harmful than good and would not do much to reach optimal homeostasis.

Brain temperature plays an important role in how the body functions. A too-hot or too-cold brain can change how hormones are released as well as how memory is made. There is even some evidence to suggest brain temperature can affect emotion.

In 2012, researchers from Emory University School of Medicine demonstrated that cooling the brains of laboratory mice reduced damage to the brain after a stroke and also improved the recovery of function.

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“Well-controlled temperature is a key factor for successful stroke therapy. The way drug-induced hypothermia works is to lower the ‘set point’ of the temperature regulating center in the brain,” stated researchers in a statement. “Although this is considered the most efficient way of reducing body and brain temperature, we think this is the first example of applying it to treat ischemic stroke.”

The findings have since become a part of mainstream medical management for stroke patients around the country.