Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Incomplete Yawns

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

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?!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 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. How many times did you yawn? I like a bunch. I yawn quite a bit. Like more than six or seven? Yeah, definitely. And the reason why is because everyone knows yawning is contagious and if you want to know more about yawns, 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 suggestive or suggestible.

Right. But the thing is, yawning is 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 it's been a problem, but it's happened to where 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. Yawning researchers use anhedonia, which is a larger neurological term for basically an inability to feel happiness or pleasure. And they say that the anhedonia is the frustration because of 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 a yawn becomes incomplete. It's that very last hitch, that very last part, which is also the part that's super duper satisfying. And because it's just such a, there's such a process that you just know everybody knows that's a full yawn. If you don'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 have cosmos. Right. But 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 complete the yawn.

Oh, see, I think I've usually just let it go. Oh, wow. 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 few minutes. Like, I guess, whether you're trying to or not, and we'll get to ways you maybe can try to yawn on purpose to satisfy that completion. But, 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 have to, you know, 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 finish 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 if they're not loose, because of anxiety or stress or whatever, it can really dampen your ability to yawn. One more troublingly, Chuck, is it could indicate a sign of dysfunction in your nervous system. I know. And that's not great. It could be, and here's the thing, is they don't, like, as much as they know about yawns, 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. But they just don't know exactly how

it affects it. But they do show that, like, when you yawn, you have a temporary elevation of cortisol levels. So it could be the central nervous system. It could be linked to cortisol not doing what it's 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. Should we take a break? Yeah, let's take a break. All right, we'll be right back. I'd be on very quietly once, by the way, in the first part. And we'll be right back. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing

can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael and a different hot sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody,

yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangeh Shatikler. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life in India. It's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention, because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams,

canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had a handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Chuck, if you find yourself in this desperate effort along the very edge of sanity, there are some things you can do to help complete that yawn, because again, the universe owes you and you need to get what's yours, right?

That's right. I never really thought of putting it that way, but I love it. You need to get what's coming your way. And one of the ways that you can do it is, well, one is to just open your mouth really wide. Sometimes that can help trigger a yawn. Yeah. Just the very act of doing that almost primes your mind to do a yawn. Your mind's like, oh, okay, fine. We'll just go ahead and yawn. And this actually, it's a multi-step process. If you don't 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 just kind of keep holding on,

even mid yawn, like mouth wide open. You've already drawn in a pretty significant breath, but you haven't reached the end until finally your central nervous system is like, all right, fine. We'll give it that last little kick and then you can complete the yawn. So it takes patience and it also takes concentration to not concentrate and help it along just to let it happen. You're just making your body let it happen. Yeah. I mean, it sounds, it's way easier said than done than say, like try and relax. Yeah. But you should try and relax. 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 hear us say the word yawn a bunch. You can go on,

I'm sure there are YouTube videos of people just yawning one after the other in 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 the music of yawn homer, it might get you going. It's that contagious. Wait, who is yawn homer? I know that name. He did Axel F from Beverly Hills. Oh, right. So, and I think he also did some Miami Vice work too. Oh, I'm sure. 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 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 lawn mower engine cord, but doing it through breathing. And that actually is probably not going to work, especially if the reason why you can't yawn is 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 is that, yes, indeed, 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'll make it even harder for you to complete a yawn. Yeah, not good. Don't want to deep breathe. You know, we'll finish up, I guess, with a couple of other, and I think we probably talked about this in yawning, but it's worth talking about again, a 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 no longer pay attention to it. It's not rewarding. It's not satisfying. You don't even realize you're doing it. And that it indicates like you're missing that hit of dopamine that makes yawning pleasant, and it's actually an indicator of Parkinson's in some cases. Interesting. Okay, I thought that meant maybe it went away altogether. Yeah, you'd think so with the name, but they just kind of came up with a clunky name. The other is excessive yawning, which 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. Yeah, stop laughing, everybody. Yeah, you have something that is overtaken your body. It can be very disruptive, even if it's something as simple as a yawn. And there have been all kinds of stories about people that yawned for days and days and weeks at a time. I can't remember what the record was with that one lady, but it's not a good thing. No, no. Doing anything too often is not a good thing. They say moderation is the key to life, right? Yeah, I could think of a couple of things. Well, since Chuck just said something hilarious, I think that this one's over, don't you?

Okay, short stuff is out, everybody.