91色情片

Is it possible to yawn without closing your eyes? If not, why?

Garry Trethewey
Cherryville, South Australia

I have kept my eyes open while I yawned in situations when my mind wandered during a boring conversation, but some small part of me remembered to be respectful and maintain eye contact. It is an effort though.

Cherry Boa
London, UK

Yes, it is possible to yawn with your eyes open if you consciously resist closing them. The tendency to close the eyes is because you get a 鈥渂etter鈥� yawn if you let the facial muscles relax into it.

As a psychotherapist, some narcissistic patients elicit a need to yawn. This obviously isn鈥檛 therapeutic, so I try to resist. That can only be done by controlling muscles around the mouth primarily, but also those around the eyes. A good yawn requires totally letting them relax.

Nicholas Howden
via Facebook

Yes it is. I just did it. But I had to fight the reflex to blink, as yawning makes my eyes water, which triggers blinking.

@ProfeGreg
via Twitter

Yes, but it is so much more satisfying with your eyes closed.

Gillian Forrester
University of Sussex, UK

Yawning is something of a mystery. In 1986, Robert Provine, a pioneer of yawning research, wrote that 鈥測awning may have the dubious distinction of being the least understood, common human behavior鈥�.

When we yawn, we tend to close our eyes, but we can override this 鈥� when driving, for example. Perhaps we can gain some insight by looking at the yawning behaviour of primates.

Primates yawn for two reasons: tiredness or because they feel stressed or vulnerable. Their eyes close when they yawn due to tiredness, but stay open during a stress-related yawn. So, it makes sense that we can also control what happens to our eyes when we yawn. Maybe we, too, yawn for different reasons, and when we find ourselves yawning in a physically or socially challenging situation, we keep our eyes wide open, regardless of how tired we might be.

@Grammar_dammit
via Twitter

Lots of people yawn without closing their eyes. It is sneezing with your eyes open that is near impossible.

@bleetin
via Twitter

Is it possible to sneeze and yawn at the same time? WE NEED ANSWERS!

To answer this question 鈥� or ask a new one 鈥� email lastword@newscientist.com.

Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address.

91色情片 retains total editorial control over the published content and reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format.

Terms and conditions apply.