breathless at your laptop? you may have email apnea

if you’re feeling a little light-headed today after checking your email, you’re not alone. in fact, it has a name: email apnea.the “temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email” was identified in 2007 by former microsoft tech researcher linda stone. she had been experimenting with breathing techniques to ease chronic respiratory infections when she discovered that she was holding her breath while reading and writing emails. the realization led her to investigate further into the strange phenomenon.“i spent seven months observing and talking with others, and even tested friends at my dining room table, using a simple device that tracked pulse and heart rate variability (hrv),” stone writes on her website. “i also spoke with researchers, clinicians, psychologists, and neuroscientists to get a sense of what happens to our physiology on cumulative shallow breathing and breath holding.”she coined the term email apnea and found that about 80 per cent of the people she studied were suffering from it.why is holding your breath bad?for starters, holding your breath throws off the body’s balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitric oxide (important for fighting infections). lacking proper levels of these components can increase stress while the body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re-absorb sodium and our biochemistry gets thrown out of whack, according to the national health institute.stone’s research also found a relationship between breath holding and the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that controls the sympathetic — or ‘fight-or-flight’— nervous system. holding your breath triggers that fight-or-flight response in our brains, making it easier to feel anxious, while jacking up our heart rate and causing our liver to use up some glucose, which results in sugar cravings.why do we do it?according to a 2006 study, when we are hyper-focused on a particular task (like reading or responding to email), our brain has a tendency to turn off subconscious activities, such as breathing. the researchers found that “self-related function actually shuts down during such intense sensory tasks,” a phenomenon the researchers referred to as “losing oneself.”just breathebeing aware of your breathing is a good first step toward battling email apnea. simply noticing that you are holding your breath and taking small, short breaths can help alleviate the effects of breath-holding and even make it easier to break the habit.since stone’s initial writing on email apnea, practicing proper breathing techniques has become more popular, with breathing exercises now an important part of many fitness and health regimens.if you find that you are holding your breath while in front of your computer or devices, some techniques to try include standing up, stretching, purposely taking deep breaths and going for frequent walks throughout the day.