Yawning do weird things to our ears. Yawning could make our ears pop when they feel blocked through the Eustachian tubes. At the same time, yawning causes our hearing goes dull temporarily. Why?

That’s because during yawning, the tensor tympani and stapedius muscles in our middle ears become tense. These tense muscles cause the little conductive bones connected to the eardrum to become more rigid. These rigid bones are less able to pass sound vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear. As a result, a temporary hearing reduction occurs throughout the duration of the yawn.