Why do people stare? (involuntarily)

[rimshaker]

I wondered about this since elementary school. Surprisingly, no one has ever been able to give a 100% accurate answer since. I'm not referring to staring at something on purpose.... i'm referring to when all of a sudden, your eyes get fixed on something for about a minute or so, and you just gaze. I've always thought of it as the biological equivalent of yawning for the body, except it's for the brain instead. The brain's equivalent of yawning??

 

[Mingon]

Depends what you mean by yawning? Traditionally it was though that yawning was to re-vitalise the brain with a gulp of oxygen, now research points to yawning being a sign to sleep from an alpha male.

 

[Agent004]

Mingon, I think you misunderstood rimshaker. What rimshaker meant is why do we suddenly, fixed our focus (eye sight) on something without any reason, there is no reason to stare and you don't really get it anything out of it ( at least we do not feel we do). We don't have the urge to stare either, so

 

[rimshaker]

Yawning is widely regarded as the body rebalancing its pressure. People yawn when they get sleepy most likely because of slower breathing. It's got to do with pressure change, that's all i've heard.

But do you understand what I'm asking about when i refer to staring?? Usually it happens out of nowhere for no particular reason, your eyes just fix on someting and you start gazing for a while. Actually it feels kinda relaxing for your head, at least mine

 

[Chooco]

i do that lots in chemistry class, i'll just gaze at the teacher while he's talking and my eyes unfocus as if i were looking right through the wall

usualy it's due to thought of chemistry just flowing rampant through my head. i don't ever get enough sleep because i can never stop thinking

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

I think its looking at something, but not actually seeing it.. if you know what i mean.

Its a bit like closing your eyes, you don't 'see' anything, but instead your eyelids are open. Only when something sudden or unexpected happens will you actually react.. otherwise, i call it sleeping with your eyes open - very useful.

 

[Mingon]

<< Yawning is widely regarded as the body rebalancing its pressure. People yawn when they get sleepy most likely because of slower breathing. It's got to do with pressure change, that's all i've heard. >>



Newer research points away from this (if you believe it) as the problem with yawning being a body imbalance is that their is no real link as to why when 1 person yawns another follows. The Suggestion now is that yawning is a physical signal to sleep normally originating in the wild from a dominant male.

As for staring I think its just a slight pre - hypnotic stage that the body enters occasionally when it has fixed on a point and the mind is focused on a single subject. An example of this is when your running on a treadmill if you fix on a point you can enter a relaxed state.

 

[NurseMSIC]

I think, in a similar way to the last posting, that it has something to do with the brain shutting down parts of the body for a while when they are not needed, so it goes something like this:::

Ealier today i saw a beautiful woman.
I want to look at her bouncing along again now.
I am going to stop what i'm doing.
I am also shutting down non-essentials that could distract me.
Dont need my eyes, so they can stay open but i'll just not be aware of them.

Ah - beautiful woman, come to me!


How does this sound???

 

[Shalmanese]

Basically, I think of it as the brain entering low power mode where each device is still on but in low power mode. I guess there is an evolutionary advantage to this as people frequently had to look at a landscape that was unchanging for 99.9% of the time but it was the 0.1% of the time that was important. Hunting, keeping sentry, that kind of stuff. Your brain is not good at concentrating on anything for long periods of time so it just sets the eyes in low power scan mode

 

[rimshaker]

<< I think, in a similar way to the last posting, that it has something to do with the brain shutting down parts of the body for a while when they are not needed, so it goes something like this:::

Ealier today i saw a beautiful woman.
I want to look at her bouncing along again now.
I am going to stop what i'm doing.
I am also shutting down non-essentials that could distract me.
Dont need my eyes, so they can stay open but i'll just not be aware of them.

Ah - beautiful woman, come to me! >>



That dosen't help in answering my question.... i do that every day! Hell... more like once an hour!!