You tossed and turned all night. This meeting is dragging on too long. Your kid just yawned across the dinner table and it’s unavoidably contagious. Usually when a yawn pops up, you knowor think you knowexactly what it means, lawsuit closed.

But the scientific side of things isn’t always quite so clear. Long rumored to be a sign of too little oxygen, yawning is actually seen as something totally separate from breathing.( You have to see these 5 things your butt is trying to tell you .) In fact, researchers believe the two are actually controlled by separate mechanisms in the body and brain. And while people certainly report yawning when they’re feeling bored or sleepy, there are also those involuntary yawns that seem to have nothing to do with how we’re feelinglike athletes who yawn before competitions or Sasha Obama’s now rather notorious yawn during her dad’s inaugural speech. Heck, you might even be yawning just from reading this. So what do those yawns truly entail? Here are a few things they’re trying to tell you.( Make 2017 YOUR year with 365 days of simple, effective weight loss and health advice in the Prevention calendar and health planner !)

You really like such person or persons .

Yawns truly are contagious. Experts believe we may have evolved to catch other people’s yawns as a way of displaying empathy for one another and deepening those social bonds( be even more caring with these 3 simple ways to be a whole lot more empathetic ). So it stimulates sense that further research discovered that yawns are more contagious the closer you are to someone. In a 2011 analyze, researchers procured yawns were most contagious between family members, followed by friends, and least contagious between strangers. When yawns did spread between strangers, it even took longer for that second yawn to start than when yawns spread between family and friends.

Your brain needs cooling .

In the search for a scientific rationale for why we yawn, the latest theory to start is that yawning basically gives your brain some fresh airand cools it down. Further supporting this theory was a 2011 analyze that found that people yawn more during cooler months and less when the outside temperature is warmer. The cooling of the brain would in turn lead to the extra energy we need in moments when we let out a big yawnand because sleep deprivation increases brain temp, we may need extra yawns when we’re sleepy for additional cooling power.( Check out these 7 crazy things you do in your sleep .)

You has got a big brain .

Apparently “the worlds biggest” your yawn, the bigger your brain, according to a recent report in the journal Biology Letters . The researchers found that mammals that let out big, long yawns( like, oh, humen !) had heavier brains with a higher number of brain cells. Presuming that yawns do indeed cool the brain that are intended to energize it, bigger brains with more neurons would require more oxygen to wake things up, hence resulting in bigger yawns, the thinking goes.

You could be having a heart attack .

Or a stroke. Or you might have a tumor. But before you freak: Only excessive yawn, way more yawn than you’d ever expect to produce, is linked to these harrowing health concerns. Heart assaults can induce the vagus nerve, which operates from the brain to the abdomen, leading to a reaction that could trigger excessive yawn( you need to know these 7 weird signs you could have heart difficulty down the road ). Researchers have employed MRIs to examine the locating of tumors or blockages in the brain, but questions still remain as to how those might interrupt pathways that lead to yawning. People with epilepsy and multiple sclerosis also often report frequent to excessive yawn. These conditions( as well as migraine headaches and even anxiety) have been linked to problems regulating brain temperatureso excessive yawn may be the body’s endeavor at helping out.

This article originally appeared on Prevention.com .

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