Yawning may signal desire for sex

PARIS, June 25 (UPI) -- Yawning can indicate more than just a desire to sleep, scientists say, and may even be a sign of sexual desire and other emotions.

The suggestion was put forward at the first International Conference on Yawning held in Paris Thursday, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The average person yawns 240,000 times in a lifetime, but much about yawning is still a mystery, one scientist says.

"We can send a man to the Moon but we cannot explain this most trivial of acts," Wolter Seuntjens, a Dutch academic who is a pioneer in chasmology (the science of yawn studies), said.

About the only things researchers are sure of, they say, is that the common theory saying yawning provides extra oxygen to the brain is completely wrong.

Yawning may in fact demonstrate a range of emotions including interest, stress and even wanting to have sex, Seuntjens said.

Seuntjens noted many sexologists reported people who said they yawned during sex or foreplay.