Yawning, a general indication of sleepiness or boredom can actually serve as an indicator of underlying health problems. While it's easy to link yawns to late nights and early mornings, professionals now believe that excessive yawning can be a warning sign indicative of chronic sleep loss or an underlying medical problem. As per a position paper released by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), frequent indicators of daytime sleepiness need far more attention than they are usually given.

So, what do you do when a normal yawn becomes a warning sign of something more serious?

Yawning is an ancient reflex found in all vertebrate animals from birds and reptiles to human beings. Taking between five and ten seconds, yawning consists of opening the mouth wide, a rapid deep breath, and a slow exhalation. Frequently followed by stretching the arms or head back, it is associated with promoting oxygen flow to the brain.

While apparently insignificant, yawns serve an important physiological function. Yawning is a way to cool the brain, control alertness, and perhaps even be a component of how our body maintains wakefulness.

Why Do We Yawn?

There are several theories as to why we yawn, each presenting a different picture of this ostensibly straightforward reflex. The most recognized reason is drowsiness and sleepiness—yawning typically happens at transition points like waking up or preparing for sleep, as the body regulates its level of alertness. Another reason is boredom or not being stimulated. In intellectually unchallenging settings, yawning can help stimulate alertness through increased blood supply and oxygenation to the brain. Notably, brain cooling has also become another attractive theory; research has found that animals such as rats and parakeets have reduced brain temperatures after yawning spells, implying a thermoregulatory role.

Furthermore, relief of ear pressure is a well-documented advantage of yawning. The law opens the eustachian tubes within the ears, helping to alleviate pressure changes, most evident on airplanes. Finally, social cues and empathy also have a role to play—contagious yawning, or yawning following observation of another yawning, is thought to be connected to mirror neurons and social bonding, though the field of study remains developing.

When Yawning Is a Warning Sign?

Excessive yawning, particularly if accompanied by an uncontrollable need to nap, cannot be dismissed. It can be a sign of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), one of the classic signs of chronic sleep deprivation and some sleep disorders like sleep apnea, insomnia, or circadian rhythm disturbances.

People tend to underestimate what happens when they're sleep-deprived. We have evidence that with chronic partial sleep deprivation, your own sense of how impaired you are gets totally out of whack. You feel like you're all right—but cognitive testing reveals otherwise.

Indeed, such overconfidence is risky. Microsleeps, which are brief periods of unconsciousness lasting several seconds, may happen unexpectedly and have potentially devastating effects, especially while driving or working with machinery. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration puts the estimate of accidents caused by drowsy driving at around 100,000 each year in the United States.

Risk of Common Sleepiness

If you're falling asleep in meetings, having trouble keeping your eyes open at the wheel, or requiring a series of cups of coffee to make it through the day, you might be fighting with something other than tiredness. These are indicators that your brain and body are not working at their highest levels. Advanced sleep deprivation symptoms are:

• Droopy eyelids and slumped shoulders
• Trembling hands or lightheadedness
• Lack of concentration and recall
• Risk-taking and impulsivity increase

If left untreated, chronic sleep deficiency can also result in more severe health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and kidney disease.

How to Measure Your Sleepiness?

Worried about how sleepy you actually are? The Epworth Sleepiness Scale, a standard measure employed by doctors, aids in determining your chances of falling asleep in ordinary situations—sitting in traffic, reading, or watching television. A rating above 10 is clinically relevant and requires a doctor's assessment.

What Else Might Be Triggering Your Yawns?

Sleep disorders are number one, but other possible reasons are:

Medications: Certain prescriptions and even over-the-counter medications have the side effect of drowsiness. Have your pharmacist check your medications for side effects.

Lifestyle Factors: Late-night TV, too much caffeine, alcohol, and marijuana use can all interfere with sleep quality.

Environmental Issues: Bright lights, noise, uncomfortable room temperatures, or bad bedding can interrupt your sleep cycle.

"There's a false belief that marijuana or alcohol will help you sleep," Dr. Gurubhagavatula says. "Though they may put you to sleep quicker, they interfere with sleep architecture so that you have less restorative sleep and more fatigue the following day."

When to See a Doctor?

If you're yawning constantly and think sleep deprivation is catching up to your health, don't wait. Monitor your symptoms—level of fatigue, amount of sleep, use of stimulants or sedatives—and take this data with you to your healthcare provider.

"Daytime sleepiness is not merely an annoyance—it's a red flag," says Dr. Gurubhagavatula. "By finding the cause and treating it, you can significantly enhance not only your sleep, but your overall quality of life."

Yawning can be one of the most prevalent human activities, but when it gets out of hand, stop and listen to what your body is saying. From bad sleep habits to un-diagnosed medical ailments, your yawns can be the first and most obvious signs of an underlying health problem.

So the next time you catch yourself yawning for the third time before noon—don’t just reach for another cup of coffee. Instead, consider it a wake-up call to prioritize your sleep and protect your long-term health.

We have all have experienced fevers, there are many different beliefs about it in different cultures and multiple ways to treat it, ranging from modern medicine to ancient practices. When one has a fever, their body feels warm and weak, they also do not have energy to do extended movements. As fevers are a range, some being slight to others being signs of dangerous conditions, dealing with them can be tricky. Things like fever dreams, conversations and thoughts are often incoherent. There are things called fever hallucinations as well, but why does this happen?

Fever means your body temperature has gone above what's normal. But what's "normal" can be a bit different for everyone and can change based on how active you are and the time of day. Generally, a fever is when your temperature is higher than 99 degrees Fahrenheit in the early morning or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit at any other time.

Do Fevers Make Us More Irritable?

In a 2013 review published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, the researchers found that not only do fevers cause people to feel cold, weak and other bodily sensations, but the participants also expressed emotional changes, vivid dreams/hallucinations.

In one of the interview with a participant from the study, researches noted them experiencing feelings of anxiousness, crabby, angry and frustrated, “Like I said, I think fever is really tied in to how you feel emotionally. Because I know every time I have a fever, I just get snotty, for lack of a better term, because I'm just really agitated.”

“I feel tired. I feel irritable”

How Is Body Heat And Brain Health Connected?

Harvard Heath explains a part of your brain called the hypothalamus acts like a thermostat for your body. When you're healthy, it keeps your body at its usual temperature. A fever happens when the hypothalamus gets set to a higher temperature than normal. This change in the brain's thermostat is usually caused by tiny things in your blood called pyrogens.

According to a 2023 review by Yale School of Medicine heat can change things in the environment, it can also change how our brains work. In a study, researchers found that even small increases in temperature while the brain is active can really change what the brain does, and sometimes these changes can be negative.

Experts from Yale explain that changes in temperature in the brain also affect how our nerve cells (neurons) fire signals. These cells have tiny pumps that give them electrical energy, which they release when the brain is active. The researchers found that if brain cells get heated up too fast, faster than these pumps can adjust, the cells might become more active or less active than usual.

Even tiny temperature changes from brain stimulation can lead to big changes in neuron activity. As neurons get warmer, they can even stop working, and when they cool down again, they can become very easily excited.

Fever Hallucinations and other Psychological Affects

According to an Infections & Chemotherapy 2022 review, fevers can cause febrile convulsions, which is a seizure caused by a fever in young kids. It can also cause confusion, like not understanding where you are, not recognizing your surroundings. It can also cause unstable emotions, conscious and cognitive disturbances like illusions on hallucinations.

These can also be symptoms for things like influenza infections or encephalitis. Like the Yale experts explained even small temperature changes can have such a big impact on brain activity, we need to start paying attention to these small changes. He points out that it's a basic rule of physics that when you send electricity through wires to stimulate the brain, you will create heat, both in the wires and in the brain tissue itself.

Researching more on these matters can help us find better treatments and help doctors change the course of several procedures to help their patients.

Turkey has banned elective caesarean surgeries for childbirth at private hospitals and healthcare centres. "Planned Caesarean sections cannot be performed in a medical centre," said a gazette entry outlining new regulations governing private healthcare institutions in Turkey. It came as the country's president, Tyyip Recep Erdogan, has been pushing hard to have women give natural births, asserting that C Section surgeries promoted Western culture.

The move has triggered massive criticism from the opposition and right-wing organisations. "As if the country had no other problems, male football players are telling women how to give birth," Gokce Gokcen, deputy chair of the main opposition CHP, on X. Meanwhile, many human rights and women's rights organisations have also raised their voices against this new law, calling it out for restricting women's rights and liberty.

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What Is A C-Section Birth?

C-section or caesarean birth is a surgical procedure wherein a baby is delivered through incisions made in mother's abdomen and uterus. The name caesarean comes from the Latin word "caedare" which means "to cut." Interestingly, there are rumours that link the name to Roman emperor Julius Caesar, stating that he was the first person to be born via this procedure. However, there are no records of this.

However, there are many cases where a caesarean section surgery becomes almost necessary. A doctor may order a C-section if:

• Your baby is breech, or the lower part of the body is in the birth canal instead of the head.
• Your baby is in a transverse position, or lying sideways in the birth canal.
• Your baby’s head is unusually large.
• Your baby’s heartbeat is slowing down, or there is a problem with oxygen delivery to your baby.
• You are giving birth to more than one baby. Sometimes one baby will be in an abnormal position, so all of the babies are then born via C-section.
• Your baby has a birth defect that makes vaginal delivery unsafe.
• You have umbilical cord issues.
• You have health conditions that make vaginal delivery unsafe. These include high blood pressure, HIV, open herpes lesions, or heart problems.

What Are The Complications Of Having a C-Section Surgery?

There are many complications that come with this method of delivering a child. They include:

• Reactions to the medicines used during surgery
• Bleeding
• Abnormal separation of the placenta, especially in women with previous cesarean delivery
• Injury to the bladder or bowel
• Infection in the uterus
• Wound infection
• Trouble urinating or a urinary tract infection
• Delayed return of bowel function
• Blood clots

Bottom Line

Despite the potential risks and complications, C-sections are much safer than they once were. With evolution in medical science, doctors are now taking great care to make incisions that will reduce the risk of nicks to the baby and infections to the mother. Meanwhile, the use of anaesthesia, also reduces the pain of the childbirth.

ALSO READ: Dishonesty Is 'More Than A Vice', It Could Make You Sick With

Being dishonest doesn’t come naturally to people, it is a learned virtue, whether out of necessity or pleasure. When kids lie, a lot of it stems from them not wanting to get in trouble, for example, breaking a household item or doing something they were told not to do like running around inside the house. However, when people do learn to tell lies, it can become like a go to tendency for many. It is easier to make something up rather than explaining complex truths.

According to a study published in the Psychological Science 2015, kids start lying around the age of two to three years old. Their habit then progresses rapidly, till the age of 3 and 7.

Not all lies are the same, some are really small and don't hurt anyone, like saying you like someone's new haircut even though you don't. These little white lies often just help keep things smooth and make people feel good. Then there are much bigger lies, like saying someone else did something wrong when they didn't, or lying to people about money. These kinds of lies can cause a lot of damage and have bad consequences for people's lives.

Stress Response of Lying

When we know that being dishonest could really hurt how others see us, the act of lying itself makes our bodies feel stressed. When we tell a lie, things start to happen without us even thinking about it. A 2015 review published in the Current Opinion in Psychology explains that our heart might beat faster, we might start to sweat a little and our mouth can feel really dry. These physical changes are what those old-fashioned lie-detector tests used to try and pick up on.

Some people don't feel as much empathy as others, and they might not have the usual stressed reaction when they lie. The American Psychological Association explains that some people can learn to control their bodies really well and might be able to lie and still pass a lie-detector test. On the other hand, someone who is telling the truth but is just really nervous about being tested might look like they are lying.

Gut-Brain Connection and Extreme Reactions

While it's not common, some people might have a really strong physical reaction to lying, like feeling sick to their stomach or even throwing up a lot. This shows how connected our gut and our brain are. When we feel really anxious, like when we are worried about getting caught in a lie, it can actually make our stomach feel bad. So, for someone who is constantly lying and worried about it, this anxiety could potentially lead to physical sickness.

Living a life where you are often not telling the truth can actually take a toll on your health over time, not just in the moment. Research has suggested that people who lie a lot might have problems like high blood pressure, their heart might beat faster more often, their blood vessels could get tighter, and they might have more stress hormones in their bodies on a regular basis.