The science of yawning
Why we yawn? How yawning works at different levels - blood flows, muscular and skeletal aspects, neurological pathways, social (being rather contagious), etc. - and how those mechanisms help achieve the goal of yawning. It looks like there are no single definitive answer to "why" question and myths about regulating the CO2-vs-O2 balance have been dispelled several years ago, so very interested to hear your thoughts on this topic. Also, interested to know why we DON'T yawn when we sleep.
Effect on intensive exercise on sleep as aid to learn – supporting or unfavorable
Hy, after 7 year of working I have just returned to university full time to pursue a challenging degree in computational science. Being away so long I have to process quite a lot of new concepts and fill some gaps very fast and therefore I really prioritize good sleep and eating habits (getting up with the sun, spread out learning sessions, post meal walks, fasting, no blue screens after 8pm, meditation). For medical reasons I could not exercise the last year, I can do so now. However, every time when I start to exercise again It has an strong effect on my sleep demand (+2hrs a night for the first couple weeks) and so I really wonder if starting to intensively exercise again in parallel to this intensive learning time would be counterproductive. To put in in a simple question: does the rest & sleep I need from exercise even favor my learning since it aids me sleeping long and deep or is this in competition to me learning and processing a lot of new concepts. Being able to keep up and have a good start at Uni is important to me, so I could postpone the exercise until this is more settled. Many thanks for taking the time to read this and maybe share some insight. Footnote: I am very average in my fitness and asthmatic, so intensive exercise to me is a daily run for 5-10km or joining the gym again.