Yawn Contagion

I thought of pouring out a post when my eyes narrowed to shut and my mouth opened wide dropping the jaw lines to an extreme, breaking into a yawn! A reader in the library, seated bang opposite my work station had just lifted his eyes from the book he was stooping into, only to ape my gesture! Yes…not an unusual occurrence at all…we are all aware how contagious can a yawn get… Even on watching someone yawn on screen one can have no other option but to yawn back at the idiot box– merely out of a sheer uncontrollable unconscious facial muscle movement- involuntary of course! Allow me to scribble a few interesting nothings here:

• The average yawn lasts about 6 seconds.
• Even chimpanzees yawn in response if you yawn in front of them
• We start yawning even before we are born. 11 weeks old fetuses start yawning
• Cats, dogs, even fish yawn
• Non-human yawn often to display their canine teeth to warn enemies

My initial thought was to post about something entirely different when this abrupt cue of the most commonplace contagion provoked me to write otherwise. So I started penning down a few interesting particulars about yawning which seem to be less known amongst us all. Wanted to write about yawn to force it away but what happened was just the reverse. I have by now lost count of the number of times I have yawned while penning down this post. I am sure you have too, while reading…