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Yawning, as a mechanism for alertness, begins within the first twenty weeks after conception.53 It helps regulate the circadian rhythms of newborns,54 and this adds to the evidence that yawning is involved in the regulation of wakefulness and sleep.55 Since circadian rhythms become asynchronous when a person's normal sleep cycle is disturbed, yawning should help the late-night partygoer reset the brain's internal clock. Yawning may also ward off the effects of jet lag and ease the discomfort caused by high altitudes.

So what is the underlying mechanism that makes yawning such an essential tool? Besides activating the precuneus, it regulates the temperature and metabolism of your brain.56 It takes a lot of neural energy to stay consciously alert, and as you work your way up the evolutionary ladder, brains become less energy efficient. Yawning probably evolved as a way to cool down the overly active mammalian brain, especially in the areas of the frontal lobe. Some have even argued that it is a primitive form of empathy.57 Most vertebrates yawn, but it is only contagious among humans, great apes, macaque monkeys,58 and chimpanzees.59 In fact, it's so contagious for humans that even reading about it will cause a person to yawn.60

Dogs yawn before attacking, Olympic athletes yawn before performing, and fish yawn before they change activities.61 Evidence even exists that yawning helps individuals on military assignment perform their tasks with greater accuracy and ease.62 Indeed, yawning may be one of the most important mechanisms for regulating the survival-related behaviors in mammals.63 So if you want to maintain an optimally healthy brain, it is essential that you yawn. However, excessive yawning can be a sign that an underlying neurological disorder (such as migraine, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or drug reaction) is occurring.64 However, we and other researchers suspect that yawning may be the brain's attempt to eliminate symptoms by readjusting neural functioning.

12 ESSENTIAL REASONS

TO YAWN

Stimulates alertness and concentration

Optimizes brain activity and metabolism

Improves cognitive function

Increases memory recall

Enhances consciousness and introspection

Lowers stress

Relaxes every part of your body

Improves voluntary muscle control

Enhances athletic skills

Fine-tunes your sense of time

Increases empathy and social awareness

Enhances pleasure and sensuality

Numerous neurochemicals are involved in the yawning experience, including dopamine,65 which activates oxytocin production in your hypothalamus and hippocampus,66 areas essential for memory recall, voluntary control, and temperature regulation. These neurotransmitters regulate pleasure, sensuality, and relationship bonding between individuals, so if you want to enhance your intimacy and stay together, then yawn together. Other neurochemicals and molecules involved with yawning include acetylcholine, nitric oxide, glutamate, GABA, serotonin, ACTH, MSH, sexual hormones, and opium derivate peptides.67 In fact, it's hard to find another activity that positively influences so many functions of the brain.

Our advice is simple. Yawn as many times a day as possible: when you wake up, when you're confronting a difficult problem at work, when you prepare to go to sleep, and whenever you feel anger, anxiety, or stress. Yawn before giving an important talk, yawn before you take a test, and yawn while you meditate or pray because it will intensify your spiritual experience.

Conscious yawning takes a little practice and discipline to get over the unconscious social inhibitions, but people often come up with three other excuses not to yawn: “I don't feel like it,” “I'm not tired,” and my favorite, “I can't.” Of course you can. All you have to do to trigger a deep yawn is to fake it six or seven times. Try it right now, and you should discover by the fifth false yawn, a real one will begin to emerge. But don't stop there, because by the tenth or twelfth yawn, you'll feel the power of this seductive