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Scientists have unraveled the biological meaning of yawning
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Scientists Andrew Gallup and Omar Eldakar from Princeton University (USA) have put forward a new theory of the meaning of yawning, supported by experimental data. The results of the work were published in the journal Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience.
According to the researchers, the biological role of yawning is in the thermoregulation of the brain, as evidenced by more frequent yawning in winter than in summer. The mechanism of cooling the brain in this case is the increased blood circulation in the head as a result of the work of the jaw muscles and the influx of cold air from the environment.
In winter, we tend to yawn more often than in summer. Scientists believe that this indicates that yawning helps regulate the brain's temperature.
The essence of the study was to evaluate the frequency of yawning in 80 passers-by in different seasons – summer and winter. The climate conditions were as follows: the temperature in summer was slightly higher than body temperature with low air humidity; the winter temperature was about 21˚C with high air humidity.
The results showed that the season does affect the frequency of yawning. At low temperatures, a person yawns more often, regardless of factors such as air humidity and time spent sleeping. Almost 50% of participants yawned in winter, while in summer only 25%. Moreover, the more time a participant spent outdoors in summer, the more often they yawned.
This study is the first to explain the connection between the season and the frequency of human yawning. And if this theory of the role of yawning in brain thermoregulation is correct, it may become an additional diagnostic criterion for a number of diseases accompanied by impaired blood circulation in the brain.
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