Short Stuff: Incomplete Yawns

Is there anything – anything – worse than a yawn you can’t finish? It’s hard to think of anything else and as your obsession with yawning like a normal human being grows it only becomes more difficult. Why? Why?!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's
Chuck and this is short stuff featuring Jerry. There you go, Chuck,
how many times did you yawn reading this? I think
like six or seven? Oh really, yeah, that's it in
a minute. Well, I mean it took me a few
minutes to read it. Yeah, I mean like a bunch

(00:27):
of yawned quite a bit more than six or seven. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
So um, and the reason why is because everyone knows
yawning is contagious. And if you want to know more
about yawns, um, you can go listen to our episode
on that. I don't remember when we released it, but
we definitely have a yawning episode. Yeah, and not only contagious,
but uh suggestive or suggestible mm hmm. Right. But the

(00:51):
thing is yawning. It's such a non thing for most
people that you just kind of take it for granted
until Chuck, until you have the horrible experience of not
being able to complete a yawn. I feel like this
has happened to me here and there, but not so
much that has been a problem, but it's happened where

(01:13):
you do notice it and you go, oh, that's not
satisfying at all, right. And as a matter of fact,
they have a name for that um. Yawning researchers use
and hadonia, which is a larger neurological term for basically
an inability to feel happiness or pleasure UM. And they
say that the an hardonia is the frustration because of

(01:33):
an incomplete or inharmonious development of a yawn, possibly due
to unconscious inhibition of the letting go that underlies a
complete yawn. And that's where yawn becomes incomplete. It's the
very last hitch, that very last part, which is also
the part that's super duper satisfying. And because it's just

(01:54):
such a there's such a process, that's that you just
know everybody knows that's a full yawn. If you won't
complete a yawn, it's really hard to just be like, oh, well,
didn't complete that yawn. What else is there to do today? Yeah.
It almost has the same effect of the sneeze that
never happens, is you sort of feel like, all right,
you owe me one, right, who are cosmos? Right? But

(02:18):
you don't set it to the side and like say
I'll get you later, Like at least for me, I
can't do anything but just spend however long it takes
to to complete the yawn. Oh see, I think I've
usually just let it go. Um. It can become a
problem though, and it's not like a lot of times.
It isn't just a one off like when it happens
to me, and that it can happen, you know, every

(02:41):
few minutes, Like I guess whether you're trying to or not,
and we'll get to have ways you maybe can try
town on purpose to satisfy that completion. But uh, you know,
there's a lot of things that could be going on.
The most sort of innocent of all could just be
that you're stressed out or you know, you're a little
more anxious than usual. Because in order to yawn, you

(03:02):
have to you know, you you have to be able
to relax to complete that second part. Those muscles in
your face need to be able to have that uptick
where they stretch out and then sort of that relaxation
point where you finished the yawn. Yeah, because if you
stop and think about that last bit of the yawn
really does pull on a bunch of different muscles, and

(03:22):
if they're not loose because of anxiety or stress or whatever,
it can it can really dampen your ability to yawn. Um.
More troubling LYE Chuck, is it could indicate a sign
of dysfunction in your nervous system. I know, and that's
not great. Um, it could be. And here's the thing is,
they don't like as much as they know about yawns,

(03:42):
they don't fully understand how every single part of it
works within like biologically speaking, in your body. Because we
know that cortisol has something to do with it, um,
but they just don't know exactly how it affects it.
But they do show that like when you on you
have a temporary elevation of cortisol levels. So it could

(04:04):
be the central nervous system. It could be linked to uh,
cortisol not doing what is supposed to be doing, or
maybe a lack of it. Yeah. I think some people
are saying, like, cortisol is a stress hormone that innervates
the central nervous system. So maybe, yeah, maybe it's just
not quite doing it quite enough so that your muscles
can be activated to stretch the way they need to.

(04:28):
Should we take a break, Yeah, let's take a break,
all right. We'll be right back beyond. Very quietly once,
by the way in the first part and we'll be
right back. So Chuck, if you find yourself in this

(05:03):
desperate effort along the very edge of sanity, UM, there
are some things you can do to help complete that yawn,
because again, the universe owes you, um, and you need
to get with yours right, that's right. I never really
thought of putting that way, but I love it. Uh.

(05:24):
You need to get what's coming your way. And one
of the ways that you can do it is, um, well,
one is to just open your mouth really wide. Sometimes
that can help trigger yawn. Yeah, just the very the
very act of doing that like almost primes your mind
to do a yawn. Your your mind's like, okay, fine,

(05:45):
we'll just go ahead and yawn and UM. This actually
there's it's a multi step process. Like you if you don't,
um start yawning, basically right after you open your mouth,
you're supposed to just hold your mouth open until you do,
and that will start the yawn and that yawn will
get started. And it doesn't mean it's going to get complete,
but you don't give up, you um, you just kind

(06:08):
of keep holding on even mid yawn, like mouth wide open.
You've already drawn in, you know, a pretty significant breath,
but you haven't reached the end until finally your your
central nervous system is like, alright, find we'll we'll give
it that last little kick and then you can completely yawn.
So it takes patience and it also takes concentration to
not concentrate and help it along just to let it happen.

(06:31):
You're just making your body let it happen. Yeah, I
mean it sounds. Uh, it's ways you're said than done
than say like try and relax, but you should try
and relax. Um. One thing that you can also do,
because we said they're contagious and it's not. You don't
have to be in the room with someone. You can
maybe listen to this episode and here's say the word

(06:52):
yawn a bunch. You can go on. I'm sure there
are YouTube videos of people just yawning one after the other,
uh and different ways. And if you watch that stuff
and listen to that kind of thing, or read the
word yawn over and over, that can work. Yeah. Even
if you're like listening to this music of yawn Hommer,

(07:13):
it might get you going. It's that contagious. Wait who
he did acts a left from Bevere top so and
I think he also did some Miami vice work too.
So there's one thing that a lot of people will
tell you to do that is actually counterproductive. You should
not do it because deep yawning is you know, part

(07:35):
of it is taking a very deep breath. Some people say,
take a bunch of deep breaths, like basically like you're
pulling on a lawnmower engine cord, but doing it through breathing,
And that actually is probably not going to work, especially
if the reason why you can't yawns you're stressed out
or anxious, because you're probably going to hyperventilate yourself by
taking those deep breaths, And what that tells your body

(07:59):
is that, yes, and need I'm anxious because hyperventilating is
a part of anxiety. And now you're saying I'm super
duper anxious, and it will probably have the opposite effect.
It will make it even harder for you to complete
a yawn. Yeah, not good, don't wanna don't a deep breath? Um,
you know, we'll finish up. I guess with a couple
of other uh. And I think we probably talked about
this and yawning, but it's worth talking about again. A

(08:21):
couple of other maladies with yawning, and am I to
understand that disappearance of yawning means that you just don't
yawn anymore at all. The way that I took it
is that you do yawn, but you you you no
longer pay attention to it. It's not rewarding, it's not satisfying.
You don't even realize you're doing it. Um, And that

(08:41):
it indicates like, uh, you're missing like that hit of
dopamine that makes yawning pleasant. And it's actually an indicator
of Parkinson's in some some cases. Interesting, Okay, I thought
that maybe it went away altogether. Yeah, you'd think so
with the name, but they just kind of came up
a clunky name. Uh. The other is excessive yawning, which

(09:03):
I know we talked about because there have been some
really sort of you know, it might sound kind of
funny that you can't stop yawning, but it's not funny
at all. Um, if you stop laughing, everybody, Yeah, you
have something that is overtaken your body. Uh. It can
be very disruptive, even if it's something as simple as
a yawn, And there have been all kinds of stories

(09:23):
about people that yawned for, you know, days and days
and weeks at a time. I can't remember what the
record was with that one lady, but it's uh, you know,
it's not a good thing. No, no doing anything too often.
It's not a good thing. They say moderation is the
key to life. Right, So yeah, I could think of
a couple of things. Well, since Chuck just said something hilarious,

(09:45):
I think that this one's over, don't you. Okay, Short
stuff is out, everybody. Stuff you Should Know is a
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