Yawning

Memory. I'm fourteen and I have spent almost all afternoon lying on the front lawn in my pink and black striped bikini reading Moliere. We live on 5th Ave. (Puyallup, WA. not New York City) which is one of the busier streets in the little town whose only claim to fame is hosting the state's fair every September. By the evening I have absorbed enough sun tan lotion, car exhaust and UV rays to make my brain function at less than optimal levels. This puts me in the mood for one of America's great summer past-times: a cheesy, fluffy summer flick! As the streets take on that neon pink and orange hue, the popcorn and pop comes out as I plop myself down on the floor and indulge.

I've gotten quite sensible in my older age and, when given the choice, I will usually opt for "An Inconvenient Truth" over "Spider Man III". As soon as the temperature hits thirty, though, I am gone. All of a sudden, my craving for things light, fluffy and downright fun emerges. What does all of this have to do with voice, you ask? Well this week's "Question of the Week" seems to suite my humour. It's not particularly heavy and the answer is a whimsical one, at least according to the sites I will direct you to.

In the midst of this heat wave, ten bodies filled a hot studio and began to breathe, with relish. Now what happened was predictable, everyone began to yawn. Big juicy yawns. When asked why this was the case, I gave my usual response, the physiological theory, "we yawn because we want to draw in more oxygen." Usually this does the trick, but this particular group was keen and the questions continued. So I thought I would track down a little more information. Here's several cute and helpful sites that informed me that my theory is purely that-- just a theory. In reality, no one has discovered the definitive answer for why we yawn.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question572.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html
http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/yawn.html

Just remember, though, whether we know why we yawn or not, it's ability to open up the soft palate and create more space in the lungs is helpful for voice work. So yawn away!