this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

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As far as I know, the purpose of yawning isn't really understood, but it's present in nearly all land vertebrae. Maybe it's a universal bug in the breathing animation code.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It clears your sinus / ear tubes, useful for pressure equalization even when walking mild elevation changes

Probably at least somewhat related to that somehow I bet

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But my pets yawn when I yawn

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Nice pet monkeys you've got there

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Does it also help reticulate my splines?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yawning is for getting more air when you don't have enough.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Its actually pretty difficult to have inadequate blood oxygen if you have full functional lungs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

You actually breath less when you sleep, so you yawn when you wake up to transition to a higher breathing state

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

It's the equivalent of degaussing your character.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

musk believes we're living in a simulation, so I'm sure we don't.

In my opinion it's the modern "explain what cant be easily explained with gods"

It also helps them being inhuman and cruel, because it's a simulation anyways, right?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

neither is sleeping - nor dreaming. sleep is still such an interesting and elusive thing.

i've recently fallen into what i can only hope is a trap. i think i'm already dead, and this experience is just me remembering my life.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Woof. I dread to think that I would remember in such precise detail all the dozens of lemmy posts and comments I've read this morning. But it's quite a thought!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

i can't quite describe the intensity of the horror. it's like a dream where you can't run, but at time same time someone's forcefully twiddling a finger on your precious in-between. it's a scream you just can't type.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Can you really recall every single detail? I’m not sure about you, but I can easily spend 30 minutes reading comments and then forget exactly what I was reading. Could I be reading gibberish that feels meaningful in the moment, but is gone as soon as I move on? Kind of like a dream?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

oh no there's a wikipedia article. i'm not going to get any sleep tonight

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

He once saw a painting that told his whole life story...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Yawning also has a social effect, which is why it is "contagious"

If a big part of the tribe gets tired, then everyone will want to rest.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Many many animals yawn. Not just mammals but birds and reptiles. Even if we don't understand fully why something happens, seeing it throughout the tree of life like that probably means there's some reason for it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I thought I'd read that yawning is just to help boost your oxygen levels, but I don't have sufficient motivation to actually look it up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

That's easy to check. I'm currently insanely jet lagged and super tired, yawning every few minutes. My pulse oximeter is indicating 99% saturation, so that's not it.

Edit: on the other hand, I'm a flight attendant, so my body is used to lower oxygen atmospheres, so I usually have >98% O2 levels.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe you're at 99% because you've been yawning?

Ok, I am sufficiently caffeinated and bothered to look up a study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3678674/

According to the above, they suspect it has to do with helping to keep you relative alert/awake but also, possibly to cool the brain and adjust ear pressure.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The thing is that my o2 saturation doesn't drop between yawns, which is what leads me to believe that's not it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be anything (at least in that study) to suggest it actually impacts blood oxygen levels either.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

It's your soul trying rush out, but saying"God Bless You" crams it back in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Always compiling those damn shaders

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Smog is just the developers' workaround for overpopulation because the universe machine can't handle that many animated entities without distance culling.