Breathe Less

 

So, the good news is that we’re still breathing— you as you read this and me as I write it. The bad news is that we’re breathing too much through our mouths. Who knew? I have minor lung damage from pneumonia, so when a friend recommended, I read Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor, I hoped it would help me improve my lung capacity. What it did was open my eyes.

The book starts with Nestor skeptically attending a breathing class recommended by his doctor for health reasons. For the first fifteen minutes of guided breathing he was bored, bored, bored. By the end of the session, he was energized and had broken out in a sweat. The experience prompted years of study on breathing, and I’m fascinated with his findings. Different breathing techniques can address asthma, depression, anxiety, and arthritis, among other things (from singing better to preventing cancer).

The long and short of his message (at least for me) is that we should breathe more through our noses and do so more slowly. He and another man participated in an experiment where their noses were plugged for ten days. After 240 hours of mouth breathing, their stress-related hormones spiked, their blood pressure skyrocketed, and their heart rate variability plummeted (indicating a fight-or-flight mode). They both developed bouts of sleep apnea, often awakened by choking from collapsed tissue in their throats. They both complained of fatigue, irritation, testiness, and anxiety as well as disgusting breath, spaciness, and stomach aches. Nestor said it was awful.

 

Within a few days of normal breathing, their symptoms subsided, proving how important our noses are. Nose breathing is fundamental to yoga practice, which encourages us to breathe consciously in through the nose and out through the mouth. I’ve been trying to focus on nose breathing, and it’s not hard. I just close my mouth. (Duh.) When you nose breathe, you don’t snore, so getting into that practice might improve your sleep (as well as that of your partner or pet).

Nestor’s book focuses on a number of different breathing techniques, but there are two that I’d encourage all of us to practice. One is breathing more slowly. Research has shown that the optimum number of breaths is 5.5 per minute. It’s an easy rule—breathe in 5.5 seconds (through your nose), then breathe out 5.5 seconds, which comes out to about 5.5 breaths per minute. If you do this consciously for even a few minutes a day, it will relax you as it improves your health. The average adult person takes twelve to sixteen breaths a minute; hopefully, you’ll end up breathing more slowly all the time. “A yogi measures the span of life by the number of breaths, not the number of years.” ~Swami Sivananda

The second practice I’d recommend is that of alternate nostril breathing, which improves lung function and lowers heart rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic stress. Put simply, it relaxes you.

Nestor’s instructions:

“Place the thumb of your right hand gently over your right nostril and the ring finger of that same hand on the left nostril. The forefinger and middle finger should rest between the eyebrows. Close the right nostril with the thumb and inhale through the left nostril very slowly. At the top of the breath, pause briefly, holding both nostrils closed, then lift just the thumb to exhale through the right nostril. At the natural conclusion of the exhale, hold both nostrils closed for a moment, then inhale through the right nostril. Continue alternating breaths through the nostrils for five to ten cycles.”

I encourage you to practice these techniques daily and make a conscious effort to breathe in through your nose whenever you think of it. It’s not a lot of work, and you may find yourself a relaxed, happier person.