Why Does Stretching And Yawning After Waking Up Feel So Pleasant?

Why does stretching and yawning after waking up feel so pleasant and what are the benefits?

Marie Ayres

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London, UK

The stretching you do after waking isn’t really stretching. It is a process involving the nervous system called pandiculation. Yawning is also pandiculation.

The process happens in three stages: contraction, release and then lengthening of the muscles to their natural resting length. It is the release of tension, the sensation of the muscles softening, that feels so good.

Pandiculation on waking resets the tension and resting length of the skeletal muscle, by activating the spindles – sensory receptors located within the skeletal muscles. Its purpose is to prime the muscles for movement.

Cats sleep a lot and can often be seen pandiculating afterwards by extending their backs and pushing their front legs forwards. This prepares their muscles for action, to run away from a dog or to pounce on prey. For humans, it helps us to wake up and walk to the kitchen to put the kettle on.

David Simpson

Yateley, Hampshire, UK

A friend and I discussed this some 40 years ago, because he contended that all humans, cats and dogs yawn and stretch.

His argument fell apart because I don’t do this. I wake, then look at the clock and, if it is after 5am, I get up. No stretching or yawning is involved. However, talking or writing about yawning does cause me to … yawn.

Diamond Sutherland

Waukee, Iowa, US

I have no doubt that there are all sorts of amazing things going on when people stretch on waking.

However, even with those benefits, not all of us are as lucky with our bodies. If I stretch first thing, it does nothing except send alarm bells that I have caused pain. It took me years to learn that it was OK to slowly ease into my body.

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