Excessive yawning

[Knickersinatwist]

Has anybody had this as a symptom of anxiety? I find i’m yawning every 30 seconds or so, even if I’m not tired. Only noticed it since I’ve been very stressed and anxious lately, but was probably one of the first symptoms to arise.

[Fishmanpa]

Common anxiety symptom...

Breathing/Shortness of breath

The hyperventilation as above plus your bronchial tubes dilate thus requiring more air than usual to fill the lungs so feels that it’s taking more effort to breathe – it is , you’re taking in more air at each breath.

What you feel:

You feel that your breathing is forced and laboured. You become conscious of how you are breathing and you have a hard time catching your breath. It seems like you have to force yourself to breathe, in fear that if you don’t, you’ll stop breathing and die. Or, for no apparent reason, you feel out of breath and find yourself doing an unusual amount of yawning in an attempt to catch your breath.

What causes this:

When stress biology changes the body, it quickens the breathing and respiration so that the individual is ready for immediate action. Unfortunately, this also means that the breathing becomes shallow in nature (unless we are physically exerting the body such as running, fighting, swimming, etc.) which results in the body not getting enough oxygen. That’s why we feel out of breath. This is a natural occurring biological outcome resulting from stress biology.
Sometimes this symptom will be persistent from day to day, and other times it may appear for awhile, then disappear. Both are common. Once the nervous system calms down, you breathing will return to normal.
Also, because breathing is an automatic bodily function, you’ll never have to worry about not breathing. Your body does it automatically. It may be shallow, but you’ll always get enough oxygen.
Regular exercise helps to maintain regular breathing patterns.
As with all symptoms, when the nervous system gets sufficient rest, this symptom will diminish and eventually subside.

[Hypo84]

Had this before. It is anxiety related.

[MrLurcher]

Yawning was my very first physical anxiety/nervous type symptom.

I remember being 14 and waiting in a church lobby to do my first piano exam, nervous as hell. I was yawning every 30 seconds.

Roll on 18 years and I still get it while waiting nervously for something or under periods of heavy stress. Its become a ‘classic’ symptom for me. Today I waited till 5pm for blood test results and must have yawned 200+ times. Coupled with teeth clenching (a more recent symptom for me) my jaw feels sore as hell tonight.

[LouiseAndy]

My Mam nearly gets annoyed at how often I yawn- there's no reason as to why. It's something I've done for years. I don't think there's anything to worry about !

[Careful1]

I had this a lot when I was a kid and I still have periods of it from time to time.