In health, we often talk about how to eat, sleep, move, and manage stress. And no wonder – those are the big pillars, after all.
But there is this one thing we do during all of those other activities: we breathe.
And as it turns out, just like we forgot how to eat, move, sleep, and manage stress, we’ve also forgotten how to breathe properly.
I’m somewhat of an OG when it comes to this topic – I first got into breathwork about 7-8 years ago after being introduced to a practice called “Warrior Breath” and a few other little techniques, which I started experimenting with before my daily meditation sessions.
Every time I did this, I consistently reached a more blissful and heightened sensory state while meditating (in fact, one of those times is the only other time I have entered a hallucinatory state similar to when I took a “heroic” dose of psilocybin mushrooms).
This was also around the time I came in contact with Wim Hof and the mystical abilities that seem to flow from his breathing practices.
More recently I learned about this study on cyclical hyperventilation and the immune system on the Huberman Lab podcast. Since then, I’ve been doing a hyperventilation practice every time I feel a potential infection coming on. And I must say, anecdotally, it seems to work well, at least some of the time.
Suffice it to say that, since I first got into breathwork, the significance of breath as it relates to health has been permanently on my radar. But it wasn’t until I read the book “Breath” by James Nestor in early 2022 that I broke through to a completely new realm of understanding and manifestation of healthy breathing.
My breathing problem
The context in which I discovered the book was that my girlfriend noticed I had started snoring almost every night – a problem I had never had before in my life (and one I take seriously, knowing what I know about its health implications)!
It got to the point where I was frequently waking up in the middle of the night with heavy anxiety, exhausted and wired up all at the same time, almost on the verge of a panic attack. It often took me hours to fall back asleep. I assumed this had to do with the stress of actual life problems, like the pressures of running my business and questioning my choices overall (ahem… deeper issues, anyone?).
But something seemed off about this conclusion since I was perfectly able to cope and feel fine during waking hours.
Then a friend told me about his similar experience caused by snoring and how he was currently undergoing testing and treatment for sleep apnea. As soon as I heard this, something clicked in my brain, and I intuitively knew what was wrong with me. So, I sprung to action and started looking for the best strategies to fix it.
That’s when I found Nestor’s book, among other tools.
After reading the book, I realized what was actually happening to me at night: I was waking up with the early signs of carbon dioxide poisoning (a condition widely recognized as one of the most miserable a human can experience… no wonder I was feeling anxious)!
The stress of my life had not caused my sleep problems and nightly panic attacks. It had caused me to stop breathing right, and that had caused the symptoms I was experiencing.
After this breakthrough and after reading Nestor’s book, in typical fashion, I went down a rabbit hole of studying and experimenting with anatomy, posture, and breathing exercises to figure this whole thing out.
I’ve now improved all of these problems by more than 80% and have gotten some unexpected benefits as well.
The following is a collection of notes from the book and insights I’ve gained during the process.
Nose breathing
Many of you will be (at least somewhat) aware of this, but the most important “news” about healthy breathing is that we’re not supposed to breathe through the mouth (except during extreme physical exertion) – we’re supposed to breathe through the nose.
This message has been repeated all throughout social media lately, but if you still haven’t taken significant action to ensure you spend at least 90% of your time breathing effortlessly through your nose, here are some things that will hopefully scare you straight:
One little fact I learned from James’ book is that mouth breathing causes the body to lose 40% more water… that’s not good!
It’s also a common cause of bad breath. Perhaps you’ve noticed how your breath can get worse when you have a cold, and part of the reason for that is that you can’t breathe through your stuffy nose (if you’re interested in learning more about this, check out my recent podcast with functional dentist Dr. Staci Whitman).
Speaking of, mouth breathing makes you more likely to get sick, since the tissues in the nose are designed to be a first line of defense, filtering the air you breathe, and stopping air born bugs and toxins from entering your system.
Over time, breathing through the mouth also alters the structure and function of your face. Basically, the principle “if you don’t use it, you lose it” applies. I’ve experienced this firsthand as I’ve worked on my breathing over the past year: my nasal pathways and sinus cavities have become more spacious and clear. According to Nestor’s research, the tissues in there are significantly flexible and malleable, which certainly seems to be true from my experience.
On the other hand, if you constantly breathe through your mouth, you lose space in the nasal pathways, and facial features change over time, producing the typical unattractive underdeveloped tucked-in-chin-look, with no jaw bone definition, etc.
Perhaps you’ve seen this illustration floating around on social media:
Ask yourself which of these characters you look more alike... And no, don’t blame genetics for what bad breathing and a bad diet did. (I’m so tired of this dumb excuse. Yes, genetics matter. But we all play the cards we’re dealt – that’s baked into the game. Being dealt a bad hand is not an excuse or reason to play that hand badly.)
Mouth taping
So what do you do to fix mouth breathing?
The one intervention that helped me the most (by far) was taping my mouth shut while sleeping. It effectively retrained my breathing pattern, which quickly spilled over into the day as well.
You obviously want to be very careful about the tape you use, and the chemicals in the adhesive that will be on your skin every night for 7+ hours. I’ve tried a dozen different tapes, and I swear by this particular one – unfortunately, it’s not available worldwide (I’ve been trying to change that but haven’t figured out a good solution yet).
Now, let’s address the mouth-taped elephant in the room: for many people, the thought of taping your mouth while sleeping freaks them out. If you really think about that though, it says more about your need to change your breathing habits than the idea of mouth-taping itself. You shouldn’t be breathing through your mouth at all when you are sleeping, so having a piece of tape there shouldn’t matter.
But alas, being rational will only help so much. If the thought of mouth-taping scares you, I’d recommend starting with a really thin strip of tape, maybe half your index finger in width, placed vertically over your lips.
This will help ease you into the feeling, while still being able to easily breathe through your mouth on either side of the tape (in fact, this approach is all I need now that I’ve already retrained my breathing).
NOTE: if you have such narrow nasal pathways that you’d literally choke if you taped your mouth, you will have to take a less radical approach, perhaps just being mindful and practicing nose breathing during the day, or potentially even having surgery.
Neti pot for the win
Hey, YOU should get a neti pot. I’m just saying. It’s really a no-brainer.
A neti pot is a small kettle designed to be used for irrigating your nasal cavities. You fill it with saline solution (about 1% salt dissolved in water) and use it to pour water through your sinuses via each nostril.
Nose breathing is important, we’ve already covered that. To do it though, your nose needs to be clear. A neti pot is a simple, cheap tool that absolutely will not perform magic – but it will be your trusted ally in keeping your nose clear and fresh.
Most importantly, it simply feels fantastic. I discovered this on my first-ever surf trip when I was brainwashed with seawater every single day. It was a slap in the face at first, but then I got used to it and was pleasantly surprised by how clear my sinuses were all the time. I bought my first neti pot right after that trip.
According to the functional dentist Dr. Steven Lin, there is some evidence that nasal irrigation can help stimulate the growth and health of the mucosal layer in the nose, which helps us keep bugs out of the body. If you have dust or mold problems in your house, it can help mitigate some of the negative effects of that too.
If you do pull the trigger on one of these bad boys, I’d recommend something like this.
Better posture = better breathing
Most people walk around with their necks extended forward like a vulture. This is convenient for staring at a screen all day, but it’s a terrible posture for breathing.
There is something called “tongue position” that actually plays an important role in proper breathing. The tongue is a strong muscle, and it’s supposed to help support the weight of the whole head, and the bottom of the sinus cavities.
I’ve got news: vultures can’t do this (in fact, they’d probably look confused if you asked them to try). So, in order to breathe properly, you must fix your neck posture.
One of the best exercises for me was the McKenzie chin tuck. I did it every day for a few weeks then I only needed to go into maintenance mode and do it every once in a while.
Once you’ve taken care of neck posture, you also kind of have to practice holding the right tongue position. It feels weird to most people at first. But with time and persistence, you’ll get it.
The correct tongue position is flat against the roof of your mouth, with the tip just touching the front teeth. This keeps it out of your throat, and your airways clear.
Locking your tongue “in place” like this has a direct effect on the vagus nerve, which helps you control your nervous system and calm down.
To practice this, you can flatten a piece of gum against the roof of your mouth using the back half of your tongue. This is called “tongue chewing”.
The power of CO2
Another interesting thing that shifted my perspective on breathing was learning that the breathing instinct (which is controlled by the central chemoreceptors of the nervous system) is based not on a lack of oxygen, but on the level of carbon dioxide in the body.
Most people think oxygen is good and carbon dioxide is bad. So it would be logical to assume that modern, chronically stressed people tend to forget to breathe enough, causing a lack of oxygen. But it’s often the other way around – shallow, stressed mouth breathing makes us breathe too much, not too little. The result is too much oxygen and too little carbon dioxide in the system (btw, I always wondered why in the movies, people with panic attacks breathed into paper bags – now I know).
This makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it. When we’re in a parasympathetic nervous state, we tend to breathe long, slow and relaxed breaths. We’re simply not taking in as much oxygen as often (but obviously enough to give us what we need).
Breathe slowly from the belly
In fact, this is an important note. Being stuck in a stressed state has led many of us to become chronic chest breathers.
Your diaphragm is located right under the chest. This is the breathing muscle. Your whole belly should expand with each breath, not your chest.
If you're used to chest breathing, you may have to mindfully practice this.
The ideal breathing tempo is 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5 seconds out. Less is actually more since we often have too much oxygen.
Curious facts about breathing
Here are some other random facts and insights from Nestor’s book that I found interesting (with varying degrees of usefulness).
Nasal cycles
Every 30 mins to 4 hours, our nostrils alternatively fill with blood causing them to open and close. This is the same type of tissue as the penis, and according to the book, this cycling is actually connected to sexual arousal. Big news: nostrils are now sexy.
The right nostril is more like a gas pedal. It activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing blood circulation to speed up. The left nostril functions more like a brake pedal. It’s connected to the parasympathetic NS and slows down breathing, decreases anxiety, etc. It also diverts blood to the right side of the brain, affecting things like creative thinking and mental abstraction. These facts can be harnessed via a breathing practice called Nadi Shodana (see below).
Prana
This means lifeforce. The more prana an organism has, the more alive it is. (I don’t know about you, but I feel like my prana is increasing with every day that goes by).
Lung anatomy
Increasingly smaller tubes lead down to the alveoli which shuttle O2 into red blood cells. The red blood cell travels around the body, dropping O2 off to hemoglobin (a protein transporting O2 in cells) and picking up a CO2 molecule.
Optimal breathing
The optimal pace for breathing is 5.5 seconds in and 5.5 seconds out. You should also stay in aerobic breathing all the time while at rest and most of the time when training.
Yoga
Like many things, the yoga we know today is very different from its origins. Apparently, ancient yoga was actually a seated breath practice.
Remember to breathe
In Part 2 of this post, I will share some guided breathing exercises that I use, which you can try in order to train your breathing muscles, calm your nervous system, change your state, and more.
I genuinely believe breath is one of the main missing pieces of health for the majority of people.
It’s one of those things where, once you see it, you cannot unsee it. It’s like you’re in an apocalypse with mouth-breathing zombies everywhere; people walking around breathing shallow breaths from the chest, not the diaphragm, with tired eyes and all the rest of it. And of course, a huge number of people snore regularly, and our culture tells them it’s normal.
I hope the example of my breathing issues will encourage anyone, regardless of health level, to look deeper into it.
Regardless, I’d like to leave you with a final reminder: remember to breathe… just breathe.