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Snakes yawn, both to realign their jaws after a meal and for respiratory reasons, as their trachea can be seen to expand when they do this. Dogs, and occasionally cats, often yawn after seeing people yawn [11] [65] and when they feel uncertain. [66] Dogs demonstrate contagious yawning when exposed to human yawning.
A higher occurrence is reported in people with irregular sleep schedules. [4] When they are particularly frequent and severe, hypnic jerks have been reported as a cause of sleep-onset insomnia. [3] Hypnic jerks are common physiological phenomena. [5] Around 70% of people experience them at least once in their lives with 10% experiencing them daily.
Merely thinking about or seeing someone yawning can make you yawn. But why?
A hypnic jerk is the feeling triggered by a sudden muscle twitch, causing the feeling of falling while sleeping or dreaming. Hypnic jerks typically occur moments before the first stage of sleep. [2] About 70% of people have experienced hypnic jerk. [3] Hypnic jerks are most common in children, when dreams are considered the most simple. [4]
In order to take a closer look, researchers monitored 36 participants as they watched other people yawn. Turns out it comes down to each person’s excitability.
It was once believed that the main function of yawning was to increase otherwise low oxygen levels, but a 1987 study disproved that theory.
The word hypnagogia is sometimes used in a restricted sense to refer to the onset of sleep, and contrasted with hypnopompia, Frederic Myers's term for waking up. [2] However, hypnagogia is also regularly employed in a more general sense that covers both falling asleep and waking up.
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