A method and apparatus (100) are provided for detecting tiredness of a vehicle driver. The apparatus (100) is configured to receive a signal from at least one microphone (104), to acquire a time characteristic of yawning actions in the signal, and to use an analysis of the time characteristic to detect or not detect a tiredness of the driver (106) from a frequency of yawning, a yawn intensity and/or a temporal compression between successive yawning actions.