Listen Instead of Reading
Greetings,
I realized that last week marked one year of The Breathing 411—and 2.5 years of sending a weekly breathing newsletter. 🤯
Writing this newsletter is my favorite thing in the world to do, so thank you for reading, sharing, and practicing these ideas.
Alright, here are 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer for this week.
Enjoy!
4 Thoughts
1. The Mechanisms of How Breathing Improves HRV
“Inhalation causes an immediate rise in heart rate, followed (∼5 s) by increased blood pressure and baroreceptor firing. Exhalation results in an immediate decrease in heart rate followed (∼5 s) by decreased blood pressure and baroreceptor firing.”
- A Practical Guide to Resonance Frequency Assessment for Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback,
Frontiers in Neuroscience
Have you watched the Huberman Lab video showing how breathing immediately impacts heart rate? Check it out. The above passage explains how that process goes on to improve HRV.
Specifically, it’s that ~5-second lag between the rise and heart rate and rise in blood pressure that’s critical. And it’s this lag that makes breathing at a 5in/5out rhythm so beneficial (although it’s slightly different for everyone).
When we breathe like this, the messages from our breath and blood pressure synchronize, increasing their amplitude and increasing HRV.
Thus, there’s to magic behind how slow breathing improves HRV. It’s simply a harmony of body messages, which increases efficiency and, subsequently, improves resiliency and overall health.
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Related: #2 Why Trampolines Are More Useful Than Science To Explain Slow Breathing
Related Quote: “The optimum breathing rate is about 5.5 breaths per minute. That’s 5.5-second inhales and 5.5-second exhales. This is the perfect breath.” - James Nestor, Breath
2. Breathing’s Version of Powered In, Unplugged, and System Restarts
Nasal breathing is like having your computer plugged in. You’re getting a constant supply of energy via your power chord (nose and nasal airways).
Mouth breathing is like unplugging from the charger. Sometimes it’s needed, and you can make it for some time, but eventually you’ll run out of juice.
But suppose you keep your computer plugged in 24/7, even at night when you close your laptop (via mouth tape).
What happens in that case? Well, even then, you’ll eventually have too many things running. You’ll need a restart.
Methods like Wim Hof/SKY/Tummo serve as this restart for your nervous system. They clean out all the junk, allowing you to return to your baseline.
Here’s to using our breathing to optimize our energy and meet whatever demands our systems have.
3. “Can Breathwork Help You Sleep? An Expert Explains”
“If you want to engage in breathwork for sleep, don’t get too hung up on the details. The key is to slow down your breath and really direct it to your belly using your diaphragm.”
In this article, Molly Atwood, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, explains why deep breathing is so helpful for sleep. It’s super quick and practical—I loved it.
It was especially refreshing that there was nothing fancy or complex: “It’s not a super complicated thing to practice,” she says. “I think it would be hard to find something that would steer you completely wrong.” Amen, and enjoy!
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Related: Self-Regulation of Breathing as an Adjunctive Treatment of Insomnia in Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2019
Related: Mindfulness training helps kids sleep better, Stanford Medicine study finds (July 6, 2021)
4. Turning Breathing Knowledge into Breathing Wisdom
“But not until that moment…did that knowledge become wisdom, that is, become how I felt.”
- Alex Lickerman, MD, The Undefeated Mind
What a perfect distinction for when knowledge becomes wisdom: It’s that moment when something you know becomes how you feel.
Here’s to turning breathing knowledge into breathing wisdom through continuous learning, practice, and insights.
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P.S. Dr. Lickerman also describes an insight as “that most mysterious of experiences in which knowledge takes root in a person’s psyche and alters what he believes and therefore how he behaves.” Love it.
Related Quote: “Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.” - Dale Carnegie
1 Quote
“Keep breathing. That’s the key. Breathe.”
- Gimli, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (link to video)
P.S. Thanks E.S. for that quote. Along with sending me ridiculously good science articles, he also hits me with gems like this : )
1 Answer
Category: Nasal Breathing and the Brain
Answer: Nasal airflow is encoded in this part of the brain, which then is projected onto emotional regions of the brain.
…
(Cue the Jeopardy! music.)
…
Question: What is the olfactory bulb?
In good breath,
Nick Heath, T1D, PhD
Diabetes is Tiny. You are Mighty.
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Each Monday, I curate and synthesize information from scientific journals, books, articles, and podcasts to share 4 thoughts, 1 quote, and 1 answer (like "Jeopardy!") related to breathing. It’s a fun way to learn something new each week.