Breathing is the most natural thing in the world – we breathe in and out about 16 times a minute and think nothing of it.
But how you breathe can have profound effects on your body and brain: research suggests that slowing your breathing rate and focusing on slow, deep inhalations and exhalations can slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure.
And according to a recent study from Stanford University’s Department of Neurobiology in the US, sighing — taking a deep breath and then exhaling longer — is a great way to reduce stress and increase positive feelings.
So the unfortunate lovers of romantic novels who sigh a lot when they are thwarted in love might be onto something.
Sighing — taking a deep breath in briefly and then exhaling longer — is a great way to reduce stress and increase positive feelings
Slower breathing can also help you fall asleep (a big plus for me), and slow, deep breathing for five minutes three times a day has been shown to reduce the effects of chronic pain.
Fans of yoga will already know a lot about the importance of focusing on your breath and spending a few minutes a day practicing slow, deep breathing to support your health.
Now science is catching up. But why is slow breathing so beneficial? I recently interviewed Ian Robertson, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, who described slow, deep breathing as “an incredibly powerful way to give yourself a mini-sedative.”
He added that part of the reason is that “when we’re very busy or stressed, we tend to hold our breath or breathe faster, which can make us feel even more panicked; Just by slowing your breathing, you can calm things down and you may be surprised at how quickly you feel better.
I learned to control my breathing while doing one of my favorite episodes of my podcast series, Just One Thing.
And it was life changing; When I’m stressed and having a bad sleep, a few minutes of slow, deep breathing can change my mood and bring a quiet joy to my day.
One of the ways your breath slows down is because it affects special sensors in your brain that detect the levels of carbon dioxide in your blood — these sensors respond quickly by either releasing or inhibiting the release of a chemical messenger called norepinephrine, which makes us can feel stressed and anxious.
Slowing down your breathing not only lowers norepinephrine levels, but also activates the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, which controls how your body functions during rest periods, slowing your heart and lowering your blood pressure. And that has an additional calming effect.
Professor Robertson calls slow breathing “the most precise medication you can ever give yourself,” with the bonus that it’s free of side effects: “It works like a mini reset button for your brain.”
Fans of yoga will already know a lot about the importance of focusing on your breath and spending a few minutes a day practicing slow, deep breathing to support your health
There are many ways to do this, including box breathing, where you breathe in deeply for a count of four, hold two, and then breathe out to four; Also known as 4:2:4, it is taught to military and emergency services personnel to relieve stress.
I find it very effective, especially when I’m having racing thoughts and having trouble falling asleep again in the middle of the night.
But is it really the best breathing technique when it comes to reducing stress and anxiety? That’s what researchers at Stanford University wanted to find out.
For their study, published earlier this month in the journal Cell, they recruited 108 volunteers and divided them into four groups.
One group spent five minutes a day sighing cyclically, breathing in slowly before taking another shorter breath to fully inflate your lungs, and then exhaling for as long as possible.
The second group performed box breathing—inhaling, holding the breath, exhaling, and holding the exhaled breath. The third group did cyclic hyperventilation – which sounds pretty awful. You breathe in deeply and then breathe out very briefly 30 times before fully exhaling. And try not to pass out.
The fourth group was asked to practice mindfulness meditation for five minutes a day, a proven technique for reducing anxiety. The idea is that you sit still and focus on your breathing, but don’t consciously try to control it. (There are many apps to help you with this, or you might want to sign up for a mindfulness class.)
After eight weeks, all study participants reported a significant reduction in their anxiety, but those who performed the cyclic sighing benefited the most when it came to less stress and more positive feelings.
Researchers believe that any form of controlled breathing can be better than meditation, at least if you only do a few minutes a day, because it allows you to focus on changing your breathing, which is a great way to distract you from your thoughts .
They think that cyclic breathing is particularly effective because it involves a long inhalation followed by an even longer exhalation. This appears to be particularly effective at inducing changes in your parasympathetic autonomic nervous system, causing your heart rate to slow and make you feel more peaceful.
I tried it and it works. The only disadvantage? Doing it when other people are around makes you sound like you’re upset or maybe just in love.