I was reading an article in the Huffington post by Linda Stone ( a former Apple executive) who became cognizant of the fact that she was inadvertently holding her breath while reading or answering mails. She coined the term Email apnea to describe this breath holding , being somewhat similar to Sleep Apnea. She did a survey and concluded that a vast majority ( almost 80%) of people in various organizations would involuntarily breathe shallowly or hold their breaths while reading or responding to emails. In order to find out more about the possible ramifications of this she researched and discovered that breath holding even for small amounts a day added up to significant physiological changes in the body over a period of time. The body’ s balance of O2, Co2 and NO gets unbalanced leading to sympathetic overactivity in the body . Shallow breathing with poor posture, breath holding and hyperventilation triggers the sympathetic nervous system preparing the body for a fight or flight response. But the fight or flight activation in a situation where all one is doing is sitting and answering mails is akin to getting all dressed up with nowhere to go . There have been subsequently a lot of research on this phenomenon with testing of heart rate variability which is an indirect measure of the sympathetic response . Cumulative breath holding contributes over a period of time to stress related diseases , the body becoming acidic with an altered balance of 02, Co2 etc . This can lead to increased anxiety, poor concentration , fatigue and irritability . Many people who spend prolonged periods in front of the screen complain of these symptoms

As I was reading this article the first thought that crossed my mind was that fortunately my job didn’t require me to answer many mails so this wasn’t too relevant for me. Also since I followed a consistent mindfulness practise I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t be having such a faulty breathing pattern . Then I paused for a moment and noticed with a kind of shock that I was partially holding my breath while reading the article. This was an unexpected revelation to me and made me realize how common this condition was and certainly not limited to emails. Whenever we are in some stress or anxiety , by default many of us do hold our breaths or start breathing shallowly . It is not only stress but when we increase our concentration or alertness also the same thing may take place due to sympathetic activity and arousal. I then began observing my patterns throughout the day with various activities. And needless to say I was quite dismayed to find out that this happened fairly regularly while at work. Whether it was during rounds while seeing patients , writing prescriptions in OPD , or even reading any article . I found that most often activities that required either alertness or a kind of urgency were the main culprits . Then gradually over a period of time with unawareness and habit it becomes a repetitive trait in many of us . When I enquired about with my colleagues many were totally oblivious to it at first but then they noticed how they were having this so called Email apnea too .

So what do we do about it and how can we change this pattern? Fortunately its not an ardous task to tackle and our main weapon is awareness. We need to become aware and mindful of our daily activities and how it is affecting our body and breathing . We start by observing ourselves carefully and try to find out when it is that we have these spells? What activities are associated with it ? What is our emotional state at that time and what kind of thoughts are passing through our minds ? All these simple questions and observations make us aware of our involuntary repetitive habits which helps in breaking the spell. Once we notice that we are holding our breaths we can simply pause and breathe freely again. Richie Bonstock author of ‘Exhale ‘ suggests that when we realize that we are holding our breaths rather than taking a deep breath we can relax our bodies by exhaling slowly. A useful technique is to follow the acronym ‘ STOP ’ from time to time - Stop, Take one conscious breath, Observe what is happening within us and then Proceed with whatever we are doing. It hardly takes a minute or even less and is very useful to break the cycle of unawareness . We can then proceed with our activities more mindfully

I wrote this post to increase my own awareness about this condition and I hope you find it helpful too. While reading this simply pause for a second now and observe whether you are holding your breath involuntarily . If so just relax , take a breath freely and resume reading again😊