Ever wonder how your smartphone might be influencing your physical and mental health?
Linda Stone, a recent guest on the popular NPR Life Kit podcast show, talks about the unintentional changes that happen to our breathing patterns when using our smartphones or computers. In this podcast episode, the host and guests discuss the correlation between technology use and shallow breathing, and its effects on our body’s biochemistry. Linda Stone coined the term Email Apnea or Screen Apnea to describe this phenomenon. She explains that these changes in our breathing may result from unintentional posture changes or as a side effect of the stress we experience when we receive an influx of emails or online information.
James Nestor, the bestselling author of ‘Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art‘, further discusses the effects of shallow breathing on our mental and physical health. He highlights the negative impact of “sucking in” our stomachs on inhibiting our diaphragmatic activity. Further, shallow breathing often signals to our brains that we are under stress and could cause feelings of anxiety.
Are you curious about what poor breathing might look like? Nestor explained that it involves practices like breathing through one’s mouth, taking shallow chest breaths, or unintentionally holding one’s breath.
Worried about your breathing? Don’t be! We can build better breathing habits with practice. In the podcast episode, Nestor described a brief breathing exercise to reset our breathing. It involved taking deep slow belly breaths through our nose and engaging our diaphragm.
So, next time you open that work email, take a moment to notice your posture and pay attention to your breathing! Curious to reset your breathing? Learn more here.