Why do we yawn?
Yawning is actually a way for your body to get more oxygen into it. You yawn when your body feels it requires more oxygen to function. While yawning does occur at times other than when we’re sleepy, it happens when we’re tired more often than any other time. The reason for this is fairly obvious once you know that yawning provides extra oxygen, we yawn to wake ourselves up, to get a boost of energy in the form of oxygen to our tired body.
We also yawn when we’re bored, but that’s because what ever is boring us is putting us to sleep and we’re not supposed to sleep at that time, like meetings, or classes. I find myself yawning when I play most sports, after a shift in hockey, or a series in football I find myself yawning quite a bit. I don’t feel tired or anything, my body is simply trying to get some oxygen into my muscles that have been working hard fort he past few minutes.
There are many theories about yawning that are untrue, ignore them and listen to the staff at Askipedia.
Yawning is also used as a way to cool the brain down; it allows the hot air to flow out so that the brain can operate at its optimum level (a brain is like a computer. It doesn’t work as well when it gets overheated).