Email apnea a term to describe breathing dysfunction when using a computer or mobile phone. One literally stops the breath long enough to cause a disruption of the body’s balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, a person may then breath through the mouth to regain control of their breath, also a person may end up with shallow breathing in the upper chest area when on computers and mobile phones. Nitric oxide NO levels are reduced, NO is a bronchodilator and antiviral and antibacterial. NO is produced through the nose and when we breathe in through the nose NO is brought into the lungs, No is not produced in the mouth, one very good reason to breathe through the nose. Shallow breathing can effect our well being and ability to work efficiently and put the body and mind into a state of flight or flight, into the sympathetic nervous system, if this continues for long period of time and becomes our habitual way of breathing, then if may well effect sleep, and cause anxiety and stress and depression. We want to come back into the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest side of the nervous system to balance our system after a stressful situation. Becoming aware of our breath we can begin to notice when we are breathing fast and shallow and then we can make a choice to breathe light, slow and low, we move out of the head and drop more into the body, we become calm and relaxed. I use Alexander Technique and Buteyko method in helping people improve their breathing.
When on a computer or mobile, become aware of your surroundings, keeping your peripheral vision open will help the breath to flow smoothly, often our focus is narrowed and pulled into our activity on computers and mobiles and we lose all sense of what is happening around us. Sensing our feet on the ground and if we are sitting sense our sit bones on the chair, allow the chair to take our weight, allowing the back to lengthen and widen, then sending a thought, for the top of the sternum to lengthen up from the pubic bone, so we are lengthened up the front of the torso without force, imagine the head gently floating of the spine at the Atlanto-occipital joint located between the two ears.
Sense the breath, become aware of the out-breath and the in-breath, is it fast and shallow if so can I slow down the breath, allow the out-breath to lengthen and let diaphragm initiate the in-breath, breathing in through the nose expanding the sides of the ribs and if the back expands with the breath that’s great. Allowing an out-breath to a natural end will help with the in-breath, if we don’t empty the lungs to their natural end and we try to breathe in more air on top of the air we have left in the lungs, this can cause anxiety as we are not getting enough of fresh air. Continue to breathe through the nose, slow, light and low and at the same time keeping awareness of your surroundings, keeping the peripheral vision open, so you are seeing more to your left, right, above and below. Do you notice a change? One can apply awareness of the breath when walking and doing other movements.
Email apnoea was first coined by Linda Stone, a writer, speaker and consultant.