The appearance of moles, redness of the eyes, frequent yawning - these and other “little things” can be the cause serious illnesses. Therefore, if you notice that your body is acting up a little, don’t expect everything to go away by itself. After all, in this visual way your body tells you about danger. And you, in turn, should inform your doctor about this!

Any illness on early stage treatment is both easier and cheaper. That's why it's so important to know dangerous symptoms in order to take timely and adequate measures to eliminate them.

Frequent yawning during the day

You sleep enough and get enough sleep, but you suddenly bothered by frequent yawning? Scientists have found that this physiological process helps reduce nervousness and mobilize the body.

It is for this reason reason for yawning often overcomes paratroopers before jumps, athletes before a start, musicians before a concert... Perhaps you have an exam, a public performance or some other serious test coming up? Involuntary yawning increases the body's readiness to act in critical situations.

Other theories suggest that yawning is a complex process that regulates brain temperature. Yawning brings in blood flow and cooler air, which improves brain function. It usually accompanies fatigue, drowsiness, boredom, and a depressed, sad state. If you are in a cheerful, joyful, upbeat mood, you don’t want to yawn.

To stop frequent yawning, as a rule, it is enough to change your position, straighten up and straighten your shoulders, take a few deep breaths and sharp exhalations, if possible, walk around or perform a few simple physical exercises.

If you yawn frequently, you should consult a doctor. When?

Unstoppable constant yawn may be a symptom of certain painful conditions that require medical care. Frequent yawning, combined with excessive weakness and drowsiness, may indicate hormonal changes, chronic fatigue syndrome or burnout syndrome.

Yawning attacks occur during migraine, cerebrovascular accident, vegetative-vascular dystonia, multiple sclerosis, pre-fainting. To find out causes of excessive yawning You should consult your doctor.

Interruptions in the functioning of the heart are periodically disturbing

Such violations do not always indicate a serious problem. Very often, people who experience arrhythmia do not suffer from severe heart disease.

Reasons for violation heart rate may be lack of sleep, taking certain medications, a reaction to stress, or physical activity, smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages. However, there are conditions in which dangerous symptoms appear, sometimes even life-threatening.

When to see a doctor if you have heart problems

If heart rhythm disturbances occur frequently or are accompanied by chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, darkening of the eyes, it is necessary to carry out full examination to clarify the cause of the occurrence arrhythmias. Arrhythmia may be a symptom of heart failure, thyroid diseases, and various poisonings.

The main method for diagnosing heart rhythm disturbances is an electrocardiogram (ECG), stress ECG and daily monitoring ECG.

Eyes often turn red

Hemorrhages can be provoked by increased physical and visual stress, changes in blood pressure, visiting saunas and baths, hypovitaminosis, and food poisoning. Often blood vessels the eyes widen greatly and even burst in those who wear contact lenses.

When to see a doctor if your eyes are red

If the blood vessels in the eyes frequently dilate and burst, this may indicate a bleeding disorder.

You should be aware that a harmless mole can degenerate into melanoma - the most aggressive of all malignant tumors. The risk group includes people aged 30-39 years, primarily women with light color skin, red hair and blue eyes, as well as those who have suffered sunburn three or more times.

Particular caution should be exercised by those who have cases of skin cancer among their immediate family. To prevent melanoma, it is important to regularly check the “location map” of your moles, paying attention to their condition.

When to see a doctor

Do not delay your visit to a specialist if:

• - the mole increases in size;
• - the shape and color of the mole have changed;
• - there is itching, pain or burning in the area of ​​the mole;
• - a red corolla appeared around the mole;
• - the edges of the mole have become blurred;
• - the mole peels off or bleeds.

If you have your own experience of what frequent means and you know the reasons why a person yawns often, please leave a review about it in the comments below.

Lokatskaya Liliana

We yawn when we wake up in the morning and fall asleep in the evening. We yawn during boring meetings and during long pauses. We yawn as soon as someone nearby yawns.
It would seem that such a habitual reflex or ritual. But it’s surprising: researchers are still confused about the reasons for its appearance.

What is yawning?

Yawning is a breathing process that occurs involuntarily with a long, deep inhalation and a relatively quick exhalation. The mouth, as a rule, is wide open and this breathing action is accompanied by a peculiar sound, and for some, tears also reflexively appear.

Yawning is normal in most cases physiological phenomena appears when there is a lack of oxygen, stressful situations, overwork, but may be a sign of certain diseases in the body.

Causes

The most common version is that yawning is a defense mechanism, allowing the brain to relieve fatigue by invigorating with a fresh dose of oxygen, and at the same time getting rid of excess carbon dioxide. Statistics and research support this hypothesis: people are most likely to yawn at times when their gray matter is tired and clearly in need of rest - for example, in the evening after a hard day at work, during a boring meeting, or during an overly complex lecture.

A yawn is essentially the same as inhaling, allowing the lungs and blood to become saturated with oxygen. However, as it turned out, people yawn even if you give them something to breathe pure oxygen, - that is, the reflex opening of the mouth is in no way associated with hypoxia (lack of oxygen). With what then?

Yawning is needed to cool the brain, one of the newest and increasingly popular theories tells us. A computer or laptop, for example, cannot function without a built-in fan: under heavy load, the processor overheats and, if it is not cooled in time, may fail. Our gray matter is structured according to a similar principle: with prolonged or intensive work its temperature rises, which worsens connections between neurons and ultimately has a destructive effect on thinking. Therefore, the brain needs cooling - this can be facilitated by open window or a walk in the park, a glass of cool water, or (since neither the walk nor the glass is shining) a sweet yawn.

In principle, the cooling theory is confirmed by experiments. For example, volunteers who had an ice compress applied to their forehead while watching boring movies yawned 2 times less often than a group of volunteers without a cooling compress. So, if you feel like you're gaping, be sure to note: Your brain is overheated, and it would be nice to take it for a walk. fresh air.

Why yawning is contagious

To make sure that yawning cannot occur simple explanations, it is enough to recall the well-known fact: this reflex is contagious. As soon as someone yawns, an epidemic of yawning covers the majority of those around them.

Neither oxygen starvation This cannot be explained by overheating of the brain, because everyone’s physiological processes occur individually, which means they cannot be simultaneous. This means that the reflex has some other meaning. And he was actually discovered after stumbling upon another fact.

Yawning in people begins not only with visual contact with someone yawning nearby: often, to start the process, you just need to think about yawning, read about it, or hear the specific sound of yawning. It follows from this that a reflex is not always a physiological process, but also a mental one.

After conducting research, scientists came to the conclusion that yawning is contagious due to mirror neurons. They are located in the layer of gray matter of the brain not only of people, but also of some animals and birds and are endowed with the property of empathy - they begin to get excited when we see the actions of others. These neurons are responsible for the ability to imitate (for example, when learning foreign languages) and empathize. They force us to consciously experience the emotions of other people, which is actually called empathy.

Roughly speaking: You yawn - it means you have empathy and are able to act in social groups Oh. It is assumed that our ancient ancestors in this way determined “their own” - those with whom they could play in a team. By the way, as experiments show, children under 4 years of age and those who suffer from autism are not susceptible to mirror yawning: they have not yet learned to act according to social laws. However, interesting facts about yawning are not limited to this.

Yawning can be “infected” both from person to person and from person to dog. Research by Swedish scientists proves that dogs can yawn when yawning people come into their field of vision, and the older the dog, the more prone he is to reflexive imitation, and for puppies less than 7 one month old yawning is not transmitted.

If we talk about spontaneous, non-imitative yawning, then different animals have their own reasons for it. The same dogs often “reflect” when they are nervous - for example, when they find themselves in an unusual environment. While waiting for lunch at the zoo, the lions begin to yawn intensely. Hyenas - when preparing to attack a victim. Many monkeys, by opening their mouths wide, show their superiority in a pack of relatives. From time to time birds, turtles, crocodiles, snakes yawn...

But herbivores yawn much less often than cold-blooded and carnivorous animals. For example, it is extremely rare to see a horse, cow, camel or hare yawning. This, by the way, leads scientists to the idea that yawning may be somehow connected with the level of intellectual development: those creatures whose IQ is higher yawn more often than “silly ones.”

What could frequent yawning be a sign of?

Frequent yawning in itself cannot be a sign of any disease. Its appearance can be triggered by lack of sleep, fatigue, stress, nervousness, overeating, and boredom. In this case, this is a normal reaction of the body to such factors. Once they are removed, yawning will return to normal. By the way, a person yawns at least 10 times during the day.

The presence of other symptoms with frequent yawning may be a sign of illness. For example, when constant drowsiness And frequent yawning a possible diagnosis is vegetative-vascular dystonia or cardiac arrhythmia.

Dizziness with blurred vision, increased body temperature along with frequent yawning may be a harbinger of an epileptic seizure.

How to overcome yawning?

There are situations when yawning is inappropriate. There are several ways to deal with it:

• When the next yawn approaches, you need to take a deep breath through your mouth and exhale through your nose.
• Many people find that taking a sip of water or wetting their lips with it helps.
• Adequate sleep prevents frequent yawning.
• Exercising will keep the body alert, saturating it with oxygen. You can do squats, push-ups or others physical exercise, which will increase the tone of the body.
• Proper nutrition and drinking the required amount of water throughout the day prevents frequent yawning.
• Don't slouch. Smooth posture contributes to the full filling of the lungs with oxygen. When your back is bent, the diaphragm is not completely saturated with air, which can cause increased yawning.
• Walking in the fresh air, ventilating the room, and quitting smoking will help get rid of causeless yawning.

Video: Why do people yawn?

It is important to understand that yawning is a natural positive breathing action that activates the body and is not in itself a sign of illness. So the attitude towards the phrase “Don’t yawn!” It's worth reconsidering a bit. Yawn and be healthy.

Mostly you want to yawn in the evening, when it’s time to go to bed. Such yawning is natural and does not surprise anyone. But sometimes it suddenly starts in the middle of the working day, and is so intense that it cannot be stopped. Scientists are interested in why people yawn often and what it feels like physiological significance this process.

Why is yawning necessary?

When a person yawns, he opens his mouth wide and takes a very deep breath. Thus, hyperventilation of the lungs occurs, and the body receives the maximum amount of oxygen.

It is logical to assume that you want to yawn in a stuffy room or other situations when you feel short of air or have difficulty breathing. But observations have shown that yawning occurs not only in such cases.

Main reasons

After various studies scientists were able to develop a classification of the main causes of yawning. It turned out that they can be not only physiological, but also psychological. And too frequent yawning is even a symptom of some serious diseases.

Therefore, if you find yourself yawning not only when you want to sleep, you should not ignore this moment.

Physiological

Most common physiological reasons. We have already noted the lack of oxygen. In addition, a person yawns:

• in case of severe stress or prolonged nervous strain, this allows him to relax a little;
• with vitamin deficiency - impaired metabolic processes, often a person feels chronic fatigue and yawns all the time;
• for a shake-up - for example, after monotonous work or a long wait to get rid of fatigue;
• when relaxing, a deep breath promotes complete relaxation of the whole body;
• for stuffy ears - this way the air pressure on both sides is equalized eardrum;
• when overheated - yawning often occurs in hot climates when the human brain overheats.

Knowing the physiological reasons that can provoke yawning, it is easier to understand in which cases you should not worry, even if it recurs, and when it is better to consult with specialists.

Pathological

Scientists have proven that frequent uncontrollable yawning not associated with external influences, may be a symptom of one of the following diseases:

People yawn more often than usual during treatment oncological diseases chemistry course or radiation therapy, taking potent medicines. Alarming symptoms are the lethargy, drowsiness, frequent headache or dizziness, panic attacks.

Such conditions can only be identified and treated experienced doctors. Therefore, if you constantly yawn without visible reasons- Be sure to get tested.

Types of yawning

In a dream

Separately, I would like to say about such a phenomenon as yawning in a dream. It is especially common in newborns and children under three years of age. Mothers begin to worry and try to find out from the pediatrician what this yawning could be a symptom of. But here the facial structure of the child, who still has very narrow nasal passages, is to blame.

When the room is too hot or the air is very dry, crusts form in the nose and less oxygen comes in when breathing. The baby compensates for this deficiency by yawning. If you ventilate the room well and carefully clean the nose, the child will continue to sleep peacefully.

Older children and adults may yawn without waking up for other reasons:

• uncomfortable body position in which the chest is compressed;
• strong nervous tension during the day;
• violation cerebral circulation(precursor of stroke);
• difficulty breathing due to snoring and respiratory diseases;
• compression of the larynx in a lying position with large excess weight.

It turns out that yawning is a universal mechanism that performs several functions at once: protective, signaling, regulatory.

Mirror

A very interesting process is the so-called “mirror yawning”. If there are several people in the room at the same time, and one of them begins to yawn sweetly, then a literally “chain reaction” occurs - this is transmitted to everyone around.

Scientists have never been able to find a satisfactory explanation for why yawning is contagious. One theory says that this is one of the types of atavism that we inherited from our ancestors.

The mirror response is supposedly programmed in us genetically. In this way, the leader synchronized the group's actions and then issued the appropriate commands.

Is it possible to control

Evening yawning doesn't bother anyone. But if her attack takes her by surprise in the middle of the working day, it is inconvenient and indecent. Doctors decided to find out how to control yawning and whether there is effective means to combat this undesirable phenomenon?

Most people try to suppress a yawn by clenching their jaws tightly. But usually this does not help, since it does not allow you to get the additional portion of oxygen that the body now needs.

To quickly stop yawning, it is better to try the following:

If yawning is caused by lack of sleep, then a cup of coffee will be a temporary remedy. But you shouldn’t drink it too much, otherwise it will be difficult to fall asleep afterwards. have a long day, and the next morning everything will happen again.

Prevention

Even if yawning is associated with chronic diseases, there are quite simple ways prevent her uncontrollable attacks:

And finally one more interesting fact, which was noted by British psychologists studying yawning. The more emotional and sociable a person is, the more often he mirrors a yawn.

Those who yawn frequently are kinder and more sociable by nature, they are quicker to show empathy and come to the aid of others. So take this into account when choosing new friends.

Although a lot of research has been devoted to studying the causes of yawning, scientists still cannot agree on what its main purpose is. For a long time It was believed that yawning occurs as a result reduced content oxygen in the blood: with the help of a deep breath, the body takes a sip of oxygen. However, scientists eventually refuted this theory: it turned out that if you give a yawning person more oxygen or ventilate a stuffy room, he will not stop yawning.

Cause of yawning. Version 2: brain cooling

Another theory is that people yawn to cool their brains. Experiments conducted by American scientists showed that subjects who had a cold compress applied to their forehead yawned less often when watching videos of people yawning than subjects with or without a warm compress (more on the contagiousness of yawning below). Those participants in the experiment who were asked to breathe only through their noses also yawned less often: with such breathing, cooler blood enters the brain than with mouth breathing.

Cause of yawning. Version 3: warm-up

Who else?

Not only people yawn, but also other mammals, birds and even fish. For example, baboons yawn to show threat, exposing their fangs. In addition, male baboons always yawn at the sound of thunder (scientists have not yet figured out why). Male betta fish also yawn to demonstrate threat - they yawn when they see another fish or when looking in the mirror and are often accompanied by an aggressive attack. Other fish may also yawn, usually when the water is overheated or there is a lack of oxygen. Emperor and Adélie penguins yawn during courtship ritual. And snakes yawn to straighten their jaws and straighten their trachea after swallowing large prey.

Another purpose of yawning is the need to stretch and relax tired or tight muscles. First of all, these are the muscles of the pharynx and tongue, but also the muscles of the whole body: this is why, at the same time as yawning, a person often stretches. This warm-up for the muscles, combined with cooling the brain, helps invigorate the body and bring it into a state of readiness for action. Therefore, yawning often occurs when people are nervous before some important event: students yawn before exams, skydivers before a jump, and artists before a performance. It's the same reason people yawn when they're sleepy or bored: yawning helps perk up a sleepy brain and numb muscles.

Cause of yawning. Version 4: Ear Help

Yawning is also useful when flying on an airplane. This helps relieve the feeling of fullness in the ears that occurs during takeoff or landing due to the difference in pressure on either side of the eardrum. Since the pharynx is connected to the middle ear cavity through special channels, yawning helps equalize the pressure in the ears.

Cause of yawning. Version 5: Mirror Neurons

Four-legged friends

Yawning can be transmitted not only from person to person, but also from person to dog. Thus, scientists from Sweden and Great Britain have shown that dogs yawn when they see people yawning, and the tendency to such mirror behavior depends on the age of the dog: animals under seven months are resistant to infection by yawning. At the same time, dogs are not susceptible to deception - if a person does not really yawn, but simply opens his mouth, pretending to yawn, the dog will not yawn in response. Scientists have also shown that dogs, when they see a person yawning, become more relaxed and sleepy - that is, they copy not only human behavior, but also physiological state underlying it.

Yawning is a highly contagious phenomenon. People begin to yawn not only when they see other people yawning, but also when they watch videos or photos of people yawning. Moreover, often it is enough for a person to read or think about yawning to start yawning himself. However, not everyone is capable of mirror yawning: studies of children with autism have shown that, unlike healthy children, they do not become infected with yawning when watching videos of other people yawning. Also, children under five years of age, who are not yet able to empathize with others, are not prone to mirror yawning. What explains the connection between susceptibility to yawning and the ability to empathize?

The contagious nature of yawning is based on so-called mirror neurons. These neurons, located in the cerebral cortex of humans, other primates and some birds, have a kind of empathy: they fire when a person observes the actions of someone else. Mirror neurons determine the ability to imitate (for example, when learning new languages) and to empathy: thanks to them we do not just notice emotional condition another person, but we actually experience it ourselves. Mirror yawning is one example of such imitative behavior. According to scientists, imitative yawning arose in the evolution of primates to coordinate the actions of social groups. When one of the group members yawned at the sight of danger, his state was transmitted to everyone else, and the group came into a state of readiness for action.

Cause of yawning. Version 6: sign of intimacy

In 2011, Italian scientists showed that the contagiousness of yawning serves as a measure emotional intimacy of people. In experiments, mirror yawning most often occurred among close relatives and friends of the yawner. Distant acquaintances were less likely to become infected with yawning, and very rarely did mirror behavior occur in people unfamiliar with the yawning person. However, gender and nationality had no effect on the tendency to become infected by yawning.

Cause of yawning. Version 7: disease symptom

Prolonged frequent yawning may be a sign various diseases- for example, disturbances in body thermoregulation, sleep problems, high blood pressure, arterial thrombosis or damage to the brain stem, where the respiratory center is located. In addition, excessive yawning may occur when increased anxiety or depression - in this case, there is an increased level of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the blood. Therefore, if you are overcome by constant yawning, you should consult a doctor to check your heart, blood vessels and blood pressure. To begin with, you can try to get a good night's sleep and stop being nervous.

» What does yawning mean?

Why does a person yawn and what does it mean when you yawn?

According to Dutch psychologist Walter Seuntjens, who spent eighteen years studying data from a variety of sciences, yawning has a mainly erotic meaning. Consciously or not, it represents an invitation to sex. The sensations that accompany yawning are often even described as a “mini-orgasm.”

To support his thesis, the scientist mentions that yawning in macaques is a sign of sexual alpha dominance, and therefore superiority (which, it turns out, is the reason your bosses are annoyed when you yawn in meetings). So don't yawn in the office. Your colleagues will have every reason to view you with suspicion.

Countgents believes that there is still no satisfactory explanation for yawning. He says the traditional explanation for hypoxia - that yawning is the body's way to get more oxygen - has yet to be proven. In fact, the phenomenon of yawning is still a mystery. “In fact, we really have no idea what causes yawning and what purposes yawning serves, what mechanisms are responsible for it, or even what basic anatomical components are involved. In an era when the human genome has already been deciphered and space travel is becoming commonplace, this verdict may sound like an insult,” he writes.

The psychologist also claims that when taking certain antidepressants, yawning can cause spontaneous orgasms. He adds: “When discussing pathology, I found that yawning and spontaneous ejaculation were mentioned together.” He presented the results of his research in the work On Yawning or the Hidden sexuality of the Human Yawn, published by the University of Amsterdam in 2004.

Why do you want to yawn?

We yawn when we are tired or when our hungry stomach screams. However, there are also yawns that express aggression or boredom.

If you exclude savory yawning, when your eyes simply get stuck together, then the repeated yawning of your interlocutor does not necessarily indicate that he needs rest.

Inappropriate yawning may be a subconscious reaction to suppressed aggression. He yawns not because he is bored, but because his counterpart (i.e. you) is boring or annoying him. Therefore, if your interlocutor yawns continuously, try to end the conversation as quickly as possible. He should apologize for not getting enough sleep if your conversation puts him to sleep or if your arguments get on his nerves.

Why do you often yawn while covering your mouth with your hand?

Is it really just a matter of politeness, elegance or hygiene that makes people cover their mouths when they yawn? The real reason is different: there was a time when they believed that the soul could slip out along with the exhalation if the mouth opened too wide. Therefore, it was necessary to cover the mouth, which was opening from fatigue, with one’s hand - in order to prevent the premature departure of the soul. The same hand simultaneously served as an obstacle that prevented evil spirits take the opportunity and penetrate the body.

What does yawning mean?

Your counterpart yawns with his mouth closed.

Such yawning is most often a reflex. Quite often it betrays the active skepticism of the yawner. Your interlocutor doubts your integrity in general and yours in particular.

Your interlocutor yawns, mouth wide open.

Yawning without covering your mouth is a sign of contempt or bad upbringing. It’s better to know in advance how to approach this, especially when it comes to work. "It's simple brilliant idea" says someone, stifling a yawn. Even a compliment is unable to hide the disdain evident in the gesture; Absolutely nothing changes if the conversation takes place over the phone.

Why does a person yawn often?

Frequent yawning is a sign of boredom combined with active aversion.

If your interlocutor yawns several times while covering his mouth back side palms, it means that your counterpart is completely uninterested in everything you say. Lower the curtain! This is a signal of rejection.

Your interlocutor yawns continuously, covering his mouth with his fingertips and tapping his lips with them.

It was very likely that the fingers called the mouth to order, inviting it to remain silent instead of entering into unnecessary debate.

Your interlocutor yawns, covering his mouth with a half-closed fist.

The gesture being performed is a symbol of obvious rejection! A closed hand is always a sign of aggression.

Prepared from: Messinger J. C. Ces gestes qui vous trahissent - Paris: France, 2013