Yawning – What For?

Air is coming in, it’s coming in, it’s coming in. Now it’s in the highest of high stretching my fully expanded mouth. I closed my eyes, stretched my arms and exhaled air back out. Yaaaaawwnnn. Ah, that’s satisfying.

We’re told guesses on why we yawn. It is a response when the brain needs oxygen. People think that it preludes sleep. But contradictories dismissed them. We don’t yawn while we’re exercising – the time when oxygen use is expeditious. Singers yawn before taking the stage – which doesn’t sound like a drowsy person.

But yawning has an alerting effect. It keeps us wake and more responsive. And it just felt damn good.

It may cool our brain as it sends air towards our headspace. Albany researchers found that those with cold packs in their foreheads are less likely to yawn than those with warmer packs. Since our brains burns a third of our calorie intake, it’s hot enough. It needs some cooling mechanism and yawning is some sort of our ventilation.

Yaaaaaaaaawwwnnnn. That’s a long one, really passionate. Writing YAWN couple of times won’t keep my mouth closed.

Everybody yawns. A growing 11 weeks old fetus already knows how to yawn. 50% of those who’ve seen other people yawning did the same. Probability is higher when we have a closer relationship with the yawner, says University of Pisa’s Elisabetta Palagi. Even dogs yawn with their owners, says Lund University’s Elainie Madsen. Many called this an evidence of empathy.

An interesting theory thinks yawning is a threat. Since it opens the mouth and exposes the sharp teeth, it may be considered as an aggressive behavior among certain species. The alpha primates yawn more frequently than the beta population. The leader is thought to yawn first while the rest follows to keep them alert in the wild. Thus, yawn is associated with dominance.

Even more intriguing, yawning is claimed to be a sign of sexual attraction. I don’t know but perhaps these scientists are bored.

How many times did you yawn while reading this?

Procrastinators and Planners

A procrastinator will sleep his full hours and then will wake up for a coffee while watching the doves dangle on sagging electrical lines. He will gather his presentation for his speaking engagement in the last 30 minutes. After all, he only needed half an hour of preparation.

A planner will take the night to assemble his speech and materials. He will practice and anticipate possible circumstances to attempt control over the impending situation. Once all is polished, he will then rest and calm himself as everything is well-managed.

Is one strategy better than the other?

There is greatness in procrastination. The National Sleep Foundation argues that the workplace loses $18 billion worth of productivity due to sleepiness. A period of relaxation is requisite to optimal functionality of our own selves. Doing after resting is productive.

Social psychologists Dianne Tice and Roy Baurmeister studied how procrastinations affected college students. Those who procrastinated experience higher stress levels than those who didn’t. The time off balances the deadline scare.

But the door is slammed on procrastinators many times. Researcher Piers Steel called procrastination an “irrational delay”. They are called lazy, dumb and barren lads. Yet the world has known procrastinating achievers in the names of Leonardo da Vinci, St. Augustine, Bill Clinton and Abraham Lincoln.

Many have advocated planning. It is focused on achieving what needs to be done. It is more efficient as they use the time to gather resources for delivering the best output from sedate deliberation. They are the now-doers and no waiting in between.

There are also disadvantages of planning. Even after spending as much time needed for perfect planning, the unpredictable will come and errors will occur. If the planner can’t adapt to that, he’s done. But if everything happened according to the plan, the outcome is near perfect. Achieving planners include Confucius, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford and Benjamin Franklin.

Essentially, procrastination is leisure first before play; planning is work first before leisure. If the balance between leisure and work is not satisfied, there is a chronic problem. If the procrastinators waited too long for the best time, it will never come. If the planners tried to isolate every factor of the situation, he won’t be successful.

Anything could happen in procrastinating and planning. Both tactics have produced world influencers while the other edge damaged some who strategized badly. It comes down to what fits the person.

Are you a professional procrastinator or planner?

Think to Decrease Pain

I may shrug when a woman’s pronged heel trod on my bare foot while the next adult will roar aghast at an injection. We are all susceptible to physical pain. A neural activity is spurred upon a pressure or cut. But we feel different pain intensity; thus a terrible pain may be a tickling scratch to the other.

Our genes are a determinant of pain tolerance. Red heads are more sensitive to pain possibly due to a mutation in their genes. You encounter pain the way you experience it because that is how you are coded.

Men have higher tolerance than women. Certain researchers claim this to masculine and feminine stereotyping. People with smoking vice and obesity are susceptible to feel more pain while the fit ones can withstand more pain. And as we age, we increase tolerance on cutaneous pain, meaning the pain on our superficial skin. However, older people have decreased tolerance on the deep pain.

How the pain is interpreted has a bigger role in tolerance. It is more psychological than physiological. “Mind over matter”, we heard people say.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Wisconsin revealed the mind power to increase our pain tolerance. In their study, they asked participants to plunge their hand to ice cold water and keep it submerged until the pain is unbearable. Those who are asked to reminisce their sexual fantasies lasted the pain twice as long as those who thought a neutral fantasy like walking.

To combat the negative emotion of pain, think of something that elicits a positive emotion. This will increase your pain tolerance.

What thought will give you a positive emotion?

What’s Up with Scientific Nomenclature?

If the doctor says you are infected with orthomyxoviridae virus, would you freak out? If the doctor walks out after giving you prescription, you would probably rummage for your phone and search for it. You would then learn that orthomyxoviridae is a family of influenza virus. It meant you have flu.

The scientific community has their own language. It is complicated, hard to pronounce and often threatening.

Scientific nomenclature is continually expanding its dictionary. In the latest update of DSMV-5, a bible of psychological disorders, Gender Identity Disorder was renamed as Gender Dysphoria. Although the purpose was to update the book to the latest information and to stray away from confusing transgender people as disordered, it seems like they’re itching to convert simple nomenclature to sophisticated terms.

Scientific nomenclature is for standardization of names. One breed of dog may look similar to another but a feature could render them different species. An owl may be called a different name in Russia. Organisms have varying common names per region. Scientific naming ensures that species are properly classified and international scientists can relate to each other.

Scientific names use Latin. It is a dead language; and unlike the languages we still speak today, it will not change. It is the world’s language when scientific discoveries exploded. And it is the root of many languages in the world, making the scientific names descriptive.

Like Latin terminologies are not confusing enough for normal people, the scientific language can be updated and have synonyms. The bobcats we know is once known as Felis rufus, and then changed to Lynx rufus. All bats whose generic name is Nycteris may also be named Lasiurus; thus Lasiurus borealis is a synonym of Nycteris borealis.

Maybe scientists feel good on sounding smart.

Do you bother to pronounce the scientific names right?

Where Facebook is Actually Good at

Personal information and time are the only currencies Facebook asks in exchange for its service. It won’t care where you’re from or how fat your wallet is. Everyone is a market for a company or a business; thus Facebook could earn from anyone regardless of background.

Since it is free to signup and use the social networking platform, Facebook has been welcoming and non-judgmental. Facebook is good at creating a classless virtual world. With more than a billion users, Facebook has a society where all people are equal.

Art Jipson, University of Dayton sociologist and criminologist, interviewed homeless people. He learned that the homeless are enjoying the benefits of Facebook. One of the interviewee said, “no one on the ‘net cares if I didn’t get a shower yesterday or smell some. They don’t judge me, you know? … I feel accepted. I am accepted.”

Apart from the privacy issues and addiction tendencies, Facebook can connect people especially those who needed it. Another homeless found care from Facebook: “I have as much right to that as anyone else. Just because I am homeless does not mean that I don’t care about this stuff, you know? My family is on Facebook. My friends are on Facebook. People who care about me are on Facebook.”

They only need a phone to log in social networking sites. It’s good to know that those whose homes are drawings in the air are beneficiaries of belongingness social media promises.

What do you use Facebook for?

Tag Archives: study