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Ever caught yourself yawning over and over, and then hours later, a migraine hits?
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That random yawn might actually be your body's early warning system trying to get your attention.
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Welcome to Migraine Heroes, a podcast for people living with chronic migraines with
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years of pain, misunderstanding and lack of answers.
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I'm Diane Ducarme.
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I've helped more than a thousand people reduce the burden of migraines and feel more in control.
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My mission in life?
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To help a million people.
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Each episode brings you grounded insight into what your body might be asking for and what
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Just to keep you fully supported, this podcast is educational.
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For diagnosis or medication, always work with your doctor.
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Now take a breath and let's dive in.
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In this episode, you will learn how to recognize yawning as an early neurological signal so
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that you can act before the migraine fully develops.
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What is happening inside your brain when yawning appears and why it is not random at all.
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And a simple, actionable way to respond in real time, helping you reduce the intensity
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or even stop the migraine cascade entirely.
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Stay with me till the end because at the end of this episode, you will understand how to
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turn a simple yawn into a powerful early intervention signal.
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Now let's be honest, you might have dismissed yawning as nothing.
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Maybe you thought, I'm just tired, I'm bored, I need a rest.
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And yet there's this confusing pattern.
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The yawning comes first and then the migraine follows.
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And that uncertainly feels a bit frustrating or unsettling.
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And maybe, just maybe, you did try to share that with your partner.
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I swear, each time I start to yawn like this, I get a migraine.
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And instead of being hard, you were met with love but a really puzzled look.
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And yet we are here to discover you were right.
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Not only has Eastern medicine long understood these subtle pre-attack shifts in the body's
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energy and rhythms, but now Western science recognizes yawning as a potential early neurological
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signal in migraine in what is called the prodrome phase.
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So what you felt, what you noticed, what you tried to explain, it wasn't random.
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It was awareness, it was your body speaking and you, you were listening.
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Now, let's start with the act of yawning under normal circumstances and what purpose
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So yawning has a few very normal and helpful roles in the body.
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At its core, yawning is a regulation tool.
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It helps your brain and nervous system shift states.
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More simply, yawning tends to happen when you're moving between levels of alertness.
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Waking up, getting tired, feeling bored, or transitioning into or out of focus.
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It's your brain's way of saying, let's adjust.
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And physiologically, a yawn does a few things.
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It increases oxygen intake and blood flow.
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It helps cool the brain slightly, which supports its optimal function.
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It activates and resets part of the nervous system, especially the balance between calm
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So you can think of it as a mini reset button for your brain.
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Now from a Western scientific migraine perspective, yawning is increasingly recognized as part
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of the prodrome phase of a migraine.
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The early morning state that can occur hours or even days before the actual migraine pain.
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A pivotal study published in Nature Reviews Neurology by Goldsby highlights that the hypothalamus
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becomes active early in a migraine attack, even before pain begins.
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And this region is deeply connected to behaviors like yawning.
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Now I just want to remind you, we put all of the links to these scientific journals
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and articles in the show notes.
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Now another study, which was this one published in Cephalalgia, documented that up to 70%
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of migraine patients report prodromal symptoms, including yawning, fatigue, and mood changes.
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And these are not random.
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They are predictive neurological signals that a migraine is coming.
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Yawning, in particular, is quite strongly linked to dopamine activity.
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And there was a research done in the Journal of Neuroscience that showed that yawning is
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triggered by dopaminergic pathways in the brain.
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So during the prodrome phase of migraine, dopamine sensitivity increases, which explains
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why people may experience excessive yawning.
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So additionally, functional imaging studies, such as those in Brain, the journal Brain
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I mean, demonstrates early activation of the hypothalamus and brainstem before the
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migraine onset, reinforcing that symptoms like yawning are biological markers, not coincidences.
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Now you have it scientifically based for your partner.
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But now concretely, what's happening?
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Let's take all of that jargon out.
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Your brain is starting to change state, quietly, subtly, before the pain even begins.
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It's a bit like dimming the lights before a show starts, nothing dramatic yet, but something
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is clearly shifting.
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Or like when the clouds grow dark before a storm, the air feels a lot heavier, the light
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softens, the wind begins to rise, and you can sense something is coming, even if you
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And inside your brain, the systems that keep everything steady, your mood, your energy,
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your alertness, begin to wobble slightly.
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And one of the key players here is dopamine, a chemical that helps regulate motivation
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And when it fluctuates, your body can respond, including with yawning.
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At the same time, a part of your brain called the hypothalamus, your internal regulator,
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your control center, starts noticing that something is off.
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It begins sending early signals that your system is moving out of balance.
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In your nervous system, it starts preparing, quietly shifting gears in the background,
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without asking you.
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So the yawning isn't random, it's not boredom, it's not you being off.
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Yawning is simply one of the first visible signs that the internal shift has begun.
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It's not the problem, it's the body's first response.
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Like when the sky darkens before the storm, you don't just stand there, you start closing
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the windows, bringing things inside, preparing.
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That's what your body is doing.
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It senses the shift before you fully feel it, and it begins to protect you.
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Now, from an Eastern medicine perspective, yawning is not something insignificant.
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It's not brushed aside.
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It's understood as the body trying to create movement when something is starting to get
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Very often, before a migraine, there's a sense of pressure building, like energy, tension,
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or heat, beginning to rise towards the head, as much as you feel that sometimes.
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And this is where yawning becomes incredibly interesting.
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Deep yawn is not passive.
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It's not just tiredness.
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It's a full body response.
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When you yawn, you actually take a long, deep inhale, and your lungs expand fully.
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Your diaphragm moves strongly, right between your chest and your abdomen, just above your
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liver, and it creates a kind of internal pump.
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What I'm explaining here is super important.
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It forms a liver pump.
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You have a heartbeat.
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Now, you also have a liver beat, and it's that beautiful diaphragm that is pumped by
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That movement, it matters.
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That movement is a movement you do passively all day long.
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The average person is going to breathe 20,000 to 25,000 times per day.
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And in that moment, your body decides to do that super deeply, to fill your lungs to the
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And it's not random.
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It helps bring fresh oxygen up to the brain, create circulation, release some of the pressure
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that may be building.
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So from an Eastern Lens perspective, you could say your body is trying to get things moving
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again, especially when that upward pressure is starting to build.
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It's trying to cool the head, soften the intensity, and regulate itself early before things escalate.
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So yawning is not a problem.
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It's the body's first response, like when a storm is approaching and you start closing
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your windows or bringing things inside, preparing without even thinking.
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Your body is doing exactly that, anticipating, adjusting, protecting.
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It's instilling movement where there is tension.
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It's preparing you to handle what's coming.
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So the next time it happens, try this.
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The next time you notice repeated yawning, don't brush it off and don't suppress it.
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The worst thing you can do is to feel ashamed or embarrassed.
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If you need to, step out of the room and allow yourself to fuel fully.
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There is nothing to be ashamed of.
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Your body is already trying to help you.
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Then, pause immediately.
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Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and take slow, deep breaths, inhaling through your
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nose for 4 seconds and exhaling for 6 seconds for at least 3 minutes.
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And after that, drink a glass of warm water and gently reduce sensory input, dim the lights,
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step away from the screens, soften the environment around you.
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This simple intervention supports what your body has already started, helping you to calm
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your nervous system, restore balance, and potentially soften the intensity of what
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might be building.
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Now, inside the Migraine Heroes app, we've created the Migraine Now button.
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It's a space designed to guide you in real time, whether you feel something is coming
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or you're already much further along in the process.
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It gives you simple, immediate steps to follow.
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And I'm now on version 6.0 and I'm keep on refining it and refining it.
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But here's the truth.
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If a piece of advice, just like this one, works for you, it works.
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And that's incredibly valuable.
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The idea that you could potentially stop a migraine in its tracks using something so
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simple as embracing your yearning and storing your state to what you would like it to be,
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is super powerful.
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Now, I want to be honest, it won't always work.
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Migraines are complex and yours is unique.
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If there are deeper root causes driving your migraines, this alone may or may not be enough.
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Especially at the beginning.
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But that doesn't make it useless.
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Quite the opposite.
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Every time you recognize the signal earlier, every time you respond instead of pushing
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through, you're moving closer to a place where these simple interventions can work.
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That's the journey.
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And remember, every small step you take moves you closer to freedom.
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You are powerful, you are resilient and you are not alone. Keep rising. Migraine Hero. You are powerful, you are resilient and you are
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not alone. Keep rising.
