Is This Contagious?

I was yawning this afternoon. It just happened. I didn't start it. No, it was my friend on the other side of the ocean. We were talking on the 'phone and they started yawning. So I started yawning.

Do we yawn when other people yawn to keep them company? Do we think that they will be lonely if we don't yawn as well? Are we trying to start up a new craze for Yawn Symphonies? Is it because we are actually tired, so seeing someone else yawn makes our bodies more aware of it? Is it because we are a race of compulsive imitators? As soon as we see someone doing something that we aren't doing, we have to join in, we can't bear to be left behind!

For whatever reason, the fact remains that yawns are contagious. You see someone on the other side of the room cover their mouth and yawn and immediately your throat starts to tighten and lo and behold, in a few moments time, a yawn pops out of your mouth. You are talking to someone and they pause mid-sentence to yawn widely and a couple of sentences later - there you are yawning. You are talking on the 'phone and the person at the other end yawns in your ear - what a rude person - then a couple of seconds later, you yawn in their ear - another rude person.

As a yawn is caught by people talking to each other, looking at someone from across a room, driving around town, talking on a 'phone, yawns are spread from person to person, from room to room, from building to building, from house to house, from city to city and from country to country, even across an ocean.

Is it necessary to either hear or see a yawn before you can catch it? Face to face, 'phones, tapes and movies all spread yawns - but what happens if someone is talking about a yawn in a book, an e-mail, a letter or, say, a blog? Are these forms of communication just as likely to spread yawns?

I don't think that any scientific research has as yet been conducted in this highly fascinating area of the mind and body, but if you started yawning as you read this, then drop me a comment and let me know.

Maybe this will start a new craze for yawn spreading on the Internet. Maybe in a month or so you will be looking something up on the Internet and clicking on a promising looking website, a maintenance page comes up on your screen: "Warning! Highly Contagious! This website has been closed due to yawns. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible."

Maybe. Or maybe not. Excuse me, I need to yawn.