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“Hic!” There it goes again. And right on cue, someone tells you it means a person is thinking about you, or that you must be growing. But what’s actually happening when you hiccup — and why is it so weirdly hard to stop?

Here’s the honest truth most articles won’t lead with: scientists still don’t fully know why hiccups exist. But the leading explanation is genuinely strange and wonderful — it may be a leftover from a time before our ancestors even walked on land.

First, what a hiccup actually is

A hiccup starts with your diaphragm — the large, dome-shaped muscle under your lungs that you use to breathe. Normally it contracts smoothly to pull air in. But when it suddenly spasms, you gulp a quick burst of air into your throat. That rushing air hits your voice box, your vocal cords snap shut, and — hic — that’s the sound.

The mechanics are well understood. The mystery is the next question: why does the body do this at all? Hiccups don’t seem to help us. So why do we have them?

The leading theory: hiccups are a leftover from our fishy past

This is the part the textbooks rarely tell you. One of the most compelling explanations is that hiccups are an evolutionary leftover — a reflex inherited from ancient ancestors that breathed through gills.

Think about a tadpole, halfway through becoming a frog. It has both gills and developing lungs. To push water across its gills while keeping it out of its lungs, it does something specific: it sharply sucks in, then snaps its glottis (the opening to the airway) shut. That motion — a quick inhale plus a glottal “snap” — is almost identical to a hiccup.

Scientists who proposed this idea point out that the same brainstem circuitry controlling that ancient gill-breathing motion still exists in us. Hiccups may simply be that old wiring misfiring — a 370-million-year-old reflex with no job left to do, like a biological appendix for breathing.

So why do babies hiccup so much?

Here’s another clue most articles skip: hiccups show up incredibly early — fetuses hiccup in the womb, often more than they will at any other point in life.

One theory is that these early hiccups aren’t pointless at all: they may be practice, helping a developing baby strengthen the breathing muscles it’ll need the moment it’s born. Some researchers also connect the hiccup reflex to suckling, since both involve a similar rhythm of sharp intake and glottal closure that keeps milk out of the lungs.

Why do the “cures” sometimes work?

You’ve heard them all — hold your breath, drink water upside down, breathe into a paper bag, get scared, swallow a spoon of sugar. Here’s what no one mentions: there’s no proven cure for ordinary hiccups, but the remedies that do sometimes work tend to share a logic.

Most of them do one of two things:

• Raise carbon dioxide in your blood (holding your breath, breathing into a bag) — which seems to calm the diaphragm spasm.
• Stimulate the vagus nerve (drinking cold water, swallowing sugar, pulling your tongue) — a major nerve that can “interrupt” the hiccup reflex and reset it.

So the random folk remedies aren’t all nonsense — the ones that work are quietly nudging the same two systems.

Quick list: ways people stop hiccups

No remedy is guaranteed, but these are the ones with a logic behind them. Try one at a time:

• Hold your breath for about 10 seconds, then exhale slowly (raises CO₂).
• Breathe into a paper bag — never plastic — for a few breaths (raises CO₂).
• Sip ice-cold water slowly, or gargle with it (stimulates the vagus nerve).
• Swallow a teaspoon of sugar (the texture stimulates the vagus nerve).
• Gently pull on your tongue or press lightly on the roof of your mouth.
• Bite into a lemon or taste something sour (a sudden sensory “reset”).
• Hug your knees to your chest for a couple of minutes (eases the diaphragm).
• The “basa ang noo” trick — a classic Filipino household remedy of placing a small piece of wet paper or thread on the forehead. There’s no magic to it, but the sudden odd sensation may work as a distraction that interrupts the reflex.

If one doesn’t work after a few minutes, try another — and remember, most hiccups stop on their own anyway.

A quick myth check

Here in the Philippines, sinok comes with its own folklore — actually two beliefs.

One says hiccups mean you’re growing taller (a “growth spurt” sign, especially in kids). The other says you get the sinok because someone far away is thinking of or missing you. Both are sweet ideas, and both are pure folklore — there’s no biology behind either.

Hiccups are a diaphragm reflex, not a message from someone across town or a growth meter. That said, the “growing” belief isn’t entirely random — kids really do hiccup more often than adults, just not because they’re stretching upward in the moment.

When hiccups are worth a doctor’s visit

Almost always, hiccups are harmless and pass within minutes. But if a bout lasts more than 48 hours, it’s worth seeing a doctor — long-lasting hiccups can occasionally point to an underlying issue.

For perspective on how extreme it can get: one American man, Charles Osborne, reportedly hiccupped continuously for around 68 years.

So the next time you get the hiccups…

It’s not a sign someone’s thinking of you, and it’s probably not making you taller. It may be something far older and stranger — an echo of the way our distant, water-breathing ancestors once took a breath.

Bakit kaya? Now you know.

Frequently asked questions

There’s no guaranteed cure, but holding your breath, sipping cold water, or breathing into a paper bag tend to help — they work by raising carbon dioxide or stimulating the vagus nerve to interrupt the reflex.

References

1. Straus, C., et al. (2003). A phylogenetic hypothesis for the origin of hiccough. BioEssays, 25(2), 182–188. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10940981_A_phylogenetic_hypothesis_for_the_origin_of_hiccough
2. Shubin, N. The evolutionary origins of hiccups and hernias. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-old-body/
3. Live Science. Why do we hiccup? https://www.livescience.com/33688-hiccup-purpose.html
4. Cleveland Clinic. Hiccups: Causes & how to get rid of them. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17672-hiccups
5. Summa Health. Why do we hiccup and how can we stop them? https://www.summahealth.org/blog/entries/2021/07/why-do-we-hiccup-and-how-can-we-stop-them

Be honest — somewhere in reading that title, you probably felt the urge to yawn. Or maybe you saw someone yawn earlier and immediately did it yourself. Yawning spreads like nothing else. But why?

It turns out almost everything most people believe about yawning is wrong — and the real explanation is far more interesting. Like why your stomach growls when you’re hungry, it’s one of those everyday things your body does on autopilot — with a reason most people never learn.

The myth: “we yawn because we need oxygen”

For a long time, the popular explanation was that yawning floods the brain with oxygen — that when you’re low on it, a big deep breath fixes the problem.

It’s a tidy theory. It’s also wrong. Researchers tested it directly: when people breathed air with extra oxygen, they didn’t yawn any less. And breathing air with more carbon dioxide didn’t make them yawn more. If yawning were really about oxygen, those changes should have mattered. They didn’t.

So if it’s not about oxygen — what is it about?

The leading theory: yawning cools your brain

The strongest current explanation is that a yawn works like air-conditioning for your brain.

When you yawn, the deep inhale and the wide stretch of your jaw increase blood flow and pull cooler blood toward your head — helping bring your brain’s temperature down. And that matters, because a brain that runs too warm doesn’t perform as well.

This fits what you already notice in real life: you yawn most when you’re tired, bored, or just waking up — exactly the moments when your brain temperature tends to creep up. The yawn is your body’s built-in cooling system kicking in.

The real mystery: why is it contagious?

Here’s the part scientists are still working out. When you see someone yawn — or even just read or think about yawning — there’s a strong chance you’ll yawn too. This is called contagious yawning, and the leading explanation links it to empathy: our ability to sense and mirror what other people are feeling.

The evidence is intriguing.

Studies have found that people are more likely to “catch” a yawn from someone close to them — family or close friends — than from a stranger, and brain-imaging work points to regions involved in social bonding. It’s worth being honest, though: scientists still debate this.

Some researchers argue the empathy link isn’t fully settled, and that things like how much attention you pay to the other person could also play a role.

Either way, contagious yawning seems to be tied, at least in part, to how socially connected we are — your brain quietly syncing up with the people around you, without you ever deciding to.

A few things about yawning you probably didn’t know

Once you start looking, yawning gets stranger and more fascinating:

• Dogs can catch your yawns — and they catch yours more than a stranger’s. Contagious yawning isn’t just a human thing. It’s been documented in chimps, baboons, and dogs, and research shows dogs are more likely to yawn in response to their owner’s yawn than a stranger’s — the same “closer bond, stronger contagion” pattern seen in people.
• Young children mostly don’t do it. Contagious yawning barely shows up in human behavior until around early childhood, which is part of why scientists link it to social development rather than a simple reflex.
• People who score high on psychopathic traits tend to catch yawns less. Studies have found that individuals scoring higher on traits like callousness and manipulation are less susceptible to contagious yawning — another clue that “catching” a yawn is tied to social connection.
• Bigger, more complex brains yawn longer. In studies across more than 100 mammal and bird species, even after accounting for body size, animals with larger and more complex brains tend to have longer yawns — which fits neatly with the brain-cooling idea.

There’s also a newer theory worth knowing: some researchers think contagious yawning evolved to keep a group alert and in sync — a kind of shared “stay sharp” signal that may even improve how well people notice threats around them.

A quick myth check

Across many cultures — including here in the Philippines — there are old beliefs about yawning, like covering your mouth so your “soul” (or good luck, or a spirit) doesn’t slip out. It’s charming folklore, but there’s no biology behind it.

Covering your mouth when you yawn is good manners, not soul protection. The real story — brain cooling and social connection — is honestly more interesting than the superstition.

So the next time you catch a yawn…

It’s not because you’re low on oxygen. It’s your brain cooling itself down — and, when it spreads, a small everyday sign of just how wired we are to connect with each other.

So, did you catch a yawn while reading this? Bakit kaya? Now you know.

References

1. Gallup, A. C., & Gallup, G. G. (2007). Yawning as a brain cooling mechanism: Nasal breathing and forehead cooling diminish the incidence of contagious yawning. Evolutionary Psychology, 5(1). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/147470490700500109
2. Princeton University. (2011). More than a sign of sleepiness, yawning may cool the brain. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2011/09/19/more-sign-sleepiness-yawning-may-cool-brain
3. Gallup, A. C. (2012). The thermoregulatory theory of yawning: What we know from over 5 years of research. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 6, 188. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2012.00188/full
4. Norscia, I., & Palagi, E. (2011). Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens. PLoS ONE, 6(12), e28472. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0028472
5. Live Science. (2025). Why is yawning contagious? https://www.livescience.com/human-behavior/why-is-yawning-contagious
6. Science (AAAS). Why yawns are contagious — in all kinds of animals. https://www.science.org/content/article/why-yawns-are-contagious-all-kinds-animals

Frequently asked questions

You know the feeling. You’re sitting in a quiet classroom, everyone’s heads down, and then — GRRRRRR. Every head turns toward you. You smile, embarrassed, and think, “I’m just hungry.”

But that growl isn’t simply the sound of an empty stomach. There’s an actual, surprisingly clever process happening inside you — and it has a name.

It’s called borborygmi

That rumbling sound has a real medical term: borborygmi. And here’s the part most people get wrong: it isn’t random, and it isn’t just “because you’re empty.” Your stomach growls in a specific, organized way — and it tends to get louder when you’re hungry, not when you’re full. The reason why is the interesting bit.

First, where the sound actually comes from

When you eat, food moves through your digestive system through a process called peristalsis — wave-like muscle contractions that squeeze food, liquid, and gas downward through your gut.

Here’s the key: those contractions don’t stop when your stomach is empty. They keep going. The difference is that when there’s food and liquid in there, it muffles the sound. When your stomach and intestines are empty, there’s nothing to soften the noise — so the same squeezing you’d never normally hear suddenly becomes loud and clear.

But “there’s nothing in there to muffle it” is only half the story. The louder, more frequent growling when you’re hungry points to something more active going on.

The part nobody talks about: your gut has a cleaning crew

About every 1.5 to 2 hours, when no food is coming in, your body releases a hormone called motilin.

Motilin triggers something called the migrating motor complex — think of it as a cleaning wave that sweeps through your stomach and small intestine. Its job is to clear out leftover food particles, bacteria, and gas, even when you haven’t eaten anything.

It’s basically your body running an automatic housekeeping cycle, whether you’re in class, at your desk, or asleep.

The longer you go without eating, the stronger and more frequent these contractions become. And because there’s no food in there to absorb the sound, you hear every bit of it.

So the next time your stomach growls…

It’s not just begging for food. That sound is your digestive system doing real maintenance work — a built-in cleaning crew that runs on schedule, with or without your permission. (Here’s another: why we yawn — and why it’s so contagious.)

So when your stomach rumbles in the middle of a quiet class, now you know: it’s not just hunger. It’s your body, quietly doing its job.

References

1. Colorado State University. The Migrating Motor Complex (Pathophysiology of the Digestive System). http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/stomach/mmcomplex.html
2. Deloose, E., Janssen, P., Depoortere, I., & Tack, J. (2012). The migrating motor complex: control mechanisms and its role in health and disease. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 9(5), 271–285. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22450306/

Frequently asked questions