Before important events, in moments of emotional experiences, we begin to get nervous. To help calm down, others suggest breathing deeply. Following their advice, we feel how the tension gradually disappears. What are the benefits of deep breathing?
Deep breathing is a folk remedy that has stood the test of time. Is there a scientific basis for the alleged stress relief of technology use? There is evidence. Let’s start with the exercise and then delve into the physiology of breathing.
Find a comfortable place where no one will interfere, take an upright posture, lower your shoulders back, chest forward. Relax your gaze and place your hands on your knees. Breathe into your belly, allowing it to expand as you inhale and contract as you exhale. Inhale through your nose for a count of 4. Exhale through your nose for a count of 6. Repeat this process 5-6 times.
You have just lowered your breathing rate to 6 breaths per minute and emphasized exhalation. Adults breathe at an average of 15 breaths per minute, and the exercise asks you to lower your basal breathing rate by just over half. Try to take deep slow breaths, lengthening the exhalation.
The next time someone tells you to take a deep breath, take some wise advice.
What happens in the body at each stage of the exercise? It has two opposing peripheral nervous systems that act as a sort of gas and brake, speeding up and slowing down various bodily functions. The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) is the brake in this analogy, while the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is the gas. The heart rate is mainly altered by the PSNS («brakes») via the vagus nerve. The fact will become important after a while, let’s continue.
The body is constantly trying to maintain balance. When we breathe in, blood moves from the heart to the vessels in the lungs. This creates a relative shortage of blood for the rest of the body. Our main «motor» compensates for this by increasing the heart rate and pushing more blood through the body. The increase in heart rate was made possible by a decrease in PSNS. On exhalation, blood returns to the body from the lungs, and the heart slows down as the PSNS increases. An increase in heart rate during inhalation and a decrease during exhalation is known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia — a sign of a healthy heart.
While the heart performs this function, the lungs also work hard. They have slowly adapting pulmonary stretch receptors. They are activated by the expansion of the lungs during inhalation. This activation causes an inhibitory signal to travel to the brainstem and suppress the SNS and PSNS. This reduction in «gas» gives the body more of a relaxing effect than the body would normally experience during faster, shallower breathing.
There are a number of other processes that contribute to the respiratory balance between PSNS («brake») and SNS («gas»), but their detailed description will turn this article into a novel. So let’s just focus on one.
As blood returns from the lungs to the body, the «gas» of the SNS is suppressed by the expansion of the lungs during inhalation, the «brake» of the PSNS increases during exhalation. By slowing down the breathing rate, we give more time to the body to emphasize the above two self-regulatory mechanisms. And, emphasizing the exhalation, we increase the amount of «brake» outflow. In a state of constant anxiety, there is no better remedy than a biological brake. It acts as a sedative.
The next time someone tells you to take a breath, heed this wise advice.
Source: Psychology Today