Could it mean excessive yawning? (2023)

FAQs

Is excessive yawning a symptom of anything? ›

The most common medical problems that are associated with increased yawning are sleep deprivation, insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and many medicines that cause sleepiness.

If you start yawning excessively and are not sure why, you should talk to your doctor. Excessive yawning might be caused by an underlying medical condition. It's a good idea to ask your doctor what may be the cause. ‌If you're worried that you can't stop yawning, you should see your doctor soon.

As for the etiology of yawning, for many years it was thought that yawns served to bring in more air because low oxygen levels were sensed in the lungs. We now know, however, that the lungs do not necessarily sense oxygen levels. Moreover, fetuses yawn in utero even though their lungs arent yet ventilated.

Among drugs, antidepressants, opioids, dopaminergic agents, benzodiazepines, and induction agents are the main pharmacologic classes associated with yawning.

Heart problems

Excessive yawning can be related to the vagus nerve, which runs from the bottom of the brain down to the heart and stomach. In some cases, excessive yawning may indicate bleeding around the heart or even a heart attack. Other symptoms that may indicate a heart problem include: pain in the chest.

But if you're yawning and tired all day – even after getting 8 hours of shut-eye – you could be deficient in vitamin B12. Fatigue is often the first sign of low B12 levels.

Pathological yawning can be a clinical sign in disorders affecting the brainstem. Here we describe seven patients with pathological yawning caused by acute middle cerebral artery stroke, indicating that pathological yawning also occurs in supratentorial stroke.

You can also feel nauseous, lightheaded and break out into a cold sweat. Your heart beats slower and your blood vessels widens. This leads to low blood pressure and the risk of fainting.

Shortness of breath occurs when you're not getting enough oxygen, leaving you to feel like you need to breathe harder, quicker and/or deeper. And, if you feel like you're not getting enough oxygen, your organs aren't either — which can have serious short-term and long-term consequences to your health.

This may indicate that your brain is changing to a lower level of attentiveness. Alternatively, it could be your brain's way of forcing blood and oxygen to the brain in order to increase alertness. There's also a link between stress and yawning.

Is yawning due to lack of water? ›

Your yawning doesn't mean you need another cup of coffee – it might mean you need more water. When dehydrated, your blood pressure can drop, decreasing blood flow to the brain and making you sleepy and fatigued.

Causes of yawning, even if you're not tired

Another reason you may yawn is because the body wants to wake itself up. The motion helps stretch the lungs and their tissues, and it allows the body to flex its muscles and joints. It may also force blood toward your face and brain to increase alertness.

Yawning is a stereotyped physiological behavior that can represent a sign or symptom of several conditions, such as stroke, parakinesia brachialis oscitans, parkinsonism, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

Cortisol is implicated during yawning and may link many neurological disorders. Evidence was found in support of the Thompson cortisol hypothesis that proposes cortisol levels are elevated during yawning just as they tend to rise during stress and fatigue.

Your eyes probably water when you yawn because your facial muscles tighten up and your eyes get all scrunched up, causing any excess tears to spill out. If your eyes water a lot when you yawn, it could be due to dry eyes, allergies, or other conditions that affect tear production.

As summarized in Figure 1, vitamin D deficiency has been mechanistically and clinically linked to neurological diseases and neuropsychological disorders, cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative diseases [20,29,30,31,32,33,34].

Yawning as a sequelae to tumors of the brain is rare. Almost all of them are reported to be due to infratentorial tumors. [1,2] Although the occurrence of this phenomenon with supratentorial pathology such as stroke is common[3,4] it has never been reported with tumors in that region.

Yawning cools the brain

“Through the simultaneous inhalation of cool air and the stretching of the muscles surrounding the oral cavities, yawning increases the flow of cooler blood to the brain, and thus has a thermoregulatory function,” according to Gallup.

Is yawning good for your heart? ›

Yawning increases the heart rate, which typically increases cardiac output, which may improve blood flow and glucose supply to the brain, which is vital for brain function. You can detect this increase in heart rate by monitoring your pulse rate when yawning.

The neural structures that control yawning are presumably located in the brain stem near to or within other respiratory and vasomotor centres, especially those that control facial mimicry, mastication, throat movements, respiration, and possibly stretching.

If shortness of breath happens when you're clearly not exerting yourself, when you're doing something you normally could do without feeling winded, or comes on suddenly, those are warning signs that a heart issue could potentially be to blame.

Seek emergency medical care if your shortness of breath is accompanied by chest pain, fainting, nausea, a bluish tinge to lips or nails, or a change in mental alertness — as these may be signs of a heart attack or pulmonary embolism.

Physical causes of tiredness

There are several health conditions that can make you feel tired or exhausted. These include: iron deficiency anaemia. underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)

You may be too exhausted even to manage your daily affairs. In most cases, there's a reason for the fatigue. It might be allergic rhinitis, anemia, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease (COPD), a bacterial or viral infection, or some other health condition.

Yawning is a normal reflex triggered by arousal, drowsiness, boredom, hunger and emotional conditions and it is associated to several neurological diseases and drug abuse.

Dehydration affects nearly every system in the body, and the lungs are no exception. Not taking in enough fluids can impact your ability to breathe deeply and cause significant respiratory distress if you are severely dehydrated.

Yawning, both frequent and excessive yawning, can be a symptom of anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and others.

Do you yawn because you need more oxygen? ›

Sounds good, but other studies have shown that breathing more oxygen does not decrease yawning. Likewise, breathing more carbon dioxide does not increase yawning.

Yawning may aid in brain thermoregulation, or the process by which the brain maintains its core temperature. During a yawn, the facial muscles move and contract, increasing blood flow to the face where heat can dissipate more easily. Some people's eyes tear up when they yawn, which may also release heat.

Gleeking, a type of spitting that usually occurs while yawning.

The most critical component of the tear film is the aqueous layer, which is composed mostly of water. If your body is dehydrated, this part of the tear film may be deficient. As a result, the surface of your eyes could have irritation and breakdown, which can result in blurry vision.

On average, humans yawn five to 10 times a day . However, people who experience excessive yawning tend to yawn many more times each day. In some case studies, people who yawn excessively reported yawning up to 100 times in a day.

Your yawning doesn't mean you need another cup of coffee – it might mean you need more water. When dehydrated, your blood pressure can drop, decreasing blood flow to the brain and making you sleepy and fatigued.

Your eyes probably water when you yawn because your facial muscles tighten up and your eyes get all scrunched up, causing any excess tears to spill out. If your eyes water a lot when you yawn, it could be due to dry eyes, allergies, or other conditions that affect tear production.

Healthy individuals yawn about 20 times per day, although the frequency differs substantially according to age, circadian rhythms and between individuals (range 0–28 per day). However, more than 3 yawns per 15 min appears to be a reasonable cut‐off between “physiological” and “excessive” yawning.

Primates tended to yawn longer than nonprimates, and humans, with about 12,000 million cortical neurons, had the longest average yawn, lasting a little more than 6 seconds. The yawns of tiny-brained mice, in contrast, were less than 1.5 seconds in duration.

Do you feel like you can't yawn properly? If so, it's a possible sign of dysfunction in your nervous system. Being unable to finish a yawn indicates that it's not expelling energy from your nervous system normally, which can lead to an unhealthy accumulation of that energy.

Does drinking water stop yawning? ›

Drink something cold

Dehydration can lead to fatigue, which can lead to yawning. If you have an important meeting coming up and you haven't had a good night's sleep, ensure you bring some water or juice with you. Ingesting something cold will also help lower your body temperature.

Check if you're dehydrated

feeling thirsty. dark yellow, strong-smelling pee. peeing less often than usual. feeling dizzy or lightheaded.

Yawning often increases the secretion of tears because of muscular tension on the glands, which may simultaneously dam up the drainage system. The result can be that the film builds up into a small waterfall of tears.

Gleeking, a type of spitting that usually occurs while yawning.

Although yawning is not considered an emotion and contagious yawning is not understood as an example of emotional contagion, it is possible that a similar mechanism contributes to the individual variation of both contagion phenomena.