The Funny Mystery of Yawning

A most distinct and visible characteristic of humans or animals is to yawn. Though clinical causes are enlisted for yawning, at the grass root level you need hardly any reason to do that. The mystery of this most potent trigger can even make you yawn.

You yawn when you feel sleepy, tired, stressful, listless or bored. But even if you feel the opposites of these situations your yawns are not ruled out. This is because of the infectious nature of yawns which is equally mysterious.

Infections need some kind of a physical contact or a virus that travels through air to spread. Here in case of yawns nothing tangible is required. It may spread from eye to eye contact, from audio to audio contact, from video to video contact or we may sum up by saying from brain to brain contact. When somebody close to you yawns you definitely follow. But when you are alone in the house or office you are hardly immune. Seeing someone yawning on TV or internet triggers yours too or even just thinking about this great human mystery could make you helpless.

Yawns are also enriched by distorted, disorienting or even frightening audio or visual quality. Silent yawns are rare. Everyone tries to relish it by adding an audio track which may vary from plain bellowing to finer western of Indian classical music style. Depending on the person's vocal strength the audio could be jarringly loud or subdued or fine tuned. Even in silent yawns video track is mandatory. The visual distortions may vary from the funniest to the most grotesque. The extent of opening out the mouth cavity adds a distinct quality. In some openings you may even witness the small tongue in the innermost innards which you never thought would be possible. Some people try to gulp it down without opening out and in that eventuality the effort leads to lip and jaw distortions that also possess immense variety. In any case, whatever you do or try to do, the accompanying audio or video graphics can never ever elude the healthy beholder.

Someone up and fresh in the morning with a nourishing breakfast. Feeling lively and active. And, s/he enters office upbeat. But at that very moment a colleague gets a yawn attack and greets you yawning, 'He...ll..o! Ho...w a..re y...ou?' You get it instantly and helplessly yawns out, 'F...i..ne! Tha...nk y...ou!'

Funniest instances occur in urgent meetings and group assemblies in the conference halls. You get it and feel guilty and helpless. You try to dress it up or disguise it in whatever way possible and that leads to worse predicaments. Then it spreads, anyway.

So then, this yawn mystery is as philosophically genuine as that of life and death. You need absolutely no reasons to indulge. Why then the clinical studies necessary to strive find out the causes and behavioral conditions of yawning. It just happens. You just do it.

Starting the New Year with a yawn? Well, you never know!