Email Apnea (also known as Screen Apnea)

Email apnoea is described as shallow breathing or holding your breath without realizing it while working or playing in front of a computer screen. It also happens when tweeting and texting, playing video games or watching an exciting movie and it happens to 80% of people according to one estimate.

When we are extremely concentrated on something our brain switches off certain subconscious activities like breathing or feeling hungry or tired.

The weirdest thing can happen while we're working intently on the computer or responding to texts on our phones: We accidentally stop breathing. It can be subtle, and it's not always for long, but it's enough to disrupt our regular flow of oxygen and unwittingly kick our stress response into gear.

As you read incoming messages to your screen you may hold our breath. Once read, you may forget to exhale. You carry on, solving the problem revealed in the message, or jump straight onto the next message. Breathing starts to become shallower. You are so wrapped up in your screen, that you become unaware of your body.

Email apnoea occurs for a variety of reasons. First, our posture slumps the moment we pick up our phone or computer, which compromises our ability to inhale and exhale fully. Second, after hours spent staring at our screens, our eyes get fatigued and strained, which further interrupts relaxed breathing.

It seems people tend to hold their breath in anticipation of what they are about to read, see or do.

Our posture is often compromised, especially when we use laptops and smartphones. Arms forward, shoulders forward and slumping compresses the chest and we sit in a position where it’s impossible to get a healthy and full inhale and exhale. Shallow breathing occurs. Further, anticipation is generally accompanied by an inhale—and email, texting, and viewing television shows generally includes a significant dose of anticipation. Meanwhile, the full exhale rarely follows.

Chances are screen apnoea causes you to use your shoulders instead of your diaphragm to move air in and out of your lungs. You might even stop breathing or hold your breath and not even realize it. Natural abdominal breathing from your abdomen sends additional oxygen to your brain and activates your parasympathetic system (your rest-and-digest response which offsets your stress response).

If we don’t get enough oxygen into our lungs, we don’t get rid of enough carbon dioxide and toxins build up in our cells. Lack of oxygen can make us feel tired and weaken our immune systems. We feel stressed rather than relaxed.

If you are doing this day after day it's going to have both a short and long term effect on our health. Body chemistry is thrown off. A change in the balance of oxygen, CO2, and nitrate oxide. The result is a weakening the immune system, affecting learning, memory, and sleep.

There's a strong relationship between breath-holding and the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is responsible for mediating the autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic ("fight or flight") and the parasympathetic ("rest and digest") nervous systems.

Email apnoea can unintentionally put us in this fight-or-flight state, flipping on our body's stress response switch, and making us feel stressed and anxious. Left unchecked, "this imbalance can contribute to stress-related diseases and serious illnesses or ailments.

If we stay in this state of emergency breathing and hyperarousal for extended periods of time, it can not only impact sleep, memory, and learning, but also exacerbate anxiety and depression.

By breathing irregularly, the body triggers a nervous response, tensing, dumping chemicals into the nervous system, and confusing the body.

According to Johns Hopkins, chronic breath holding can contribute to type 2 diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and even a shortened lifespan.

What can we do?

Awareness is key. Check your posture when in front of a screen. Sit back in your chair. Drop your shoulders. Begin to take notice of your breathing throughout the workday.

When you notice that you are holding your breath, think EXHALE. Breathe out slowly. After you exhale, you will automatically take a breath in. Inhale slowly and deeply, with awareness.

Next time you find yourself holding your breath while responding to emails or doing spreadsheet work, try this breathing exercise to unwind and reverse the stress response.

1. Sit comfortably in an upright position with your back straight.

2. Inhale fully through the nose into your diaphragm for four seconds, filling your lungs with air. Place your hand on your belly to ensure it rises before your chest.

3. Gently, without forcing it in anyway, exhale fully through the mouth for eight seconds.

4. Once you've exhaled, breathe in fully again, without force, and exhale slowly for eight seconds.

5. Repeat this 20 to 30 times in a smooth, continuous rhythm.

6. Then inhale fully through the nose.

7. Exhale by pursing your lips gently to allow air to slowly escape as if you were breathing out through a thin straw. (Check in with your body to ensure you're not tensing any of your muscles during the exhale.)

8. During the exhale, visualize a wave of relaxation cascading down the front of your body, from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes.

9. Repeat this breathing and visualizing for 5 to 10 minutes every day. The longer you continue, the more your blood pressure and heart rate will drop and the deeper you'll go into a state of relaxation.

Another crucial tip? Take breaks regularly—and don't skip them! It can be helpful to set a timer each time you sit down at your computer.

The next time you’re responding to email or texting, pause for a moment and notice what’s happening in your body. How are you sitting? Are you slumped over your phone or laptop? Is your breathing shallow? Are you tense? Are you aware of your whole body? Or are you mostly aware of the keyboard, your fingers (and your typos!)? Are you holding yourself stiffly or does your body feel relaxed?

Notice your breathing right now. Do your breaths come from high in your chest or deep in your abdomen? Are they fast or slow? If you’re aware of shallow breathing higher up in your chest, practice abdominal breathing. Take several deep breaths so that your diaphragm flattens downward, pushing the muscles in the abdominal cavity upward, creating more space in the chest so your lungs can fill up.

Research suggests that an intentionally longer exhalation can be beneficial in reducing stress. My favourite example of this is the 4-7-8 practice : breathe in for the count of four, pause and hold the breath for the count of 7, and then exhale audibly for the count of 8. Do this practice for four breaths.

Some other techniques to try include standing up, stretching, purposely taking deep breaths and going for frequent walks throughout the day. Singing or dancing every once in a while won't hurt either!

When you get moving, physical tension and mental stress melt away, and the solution to a mulled-over problem becomes crystal clear. Experts say being on your feet at your desk instead of sitting can help. Simply not sitting gives you the benefits of exercise.

We spend an average of ten hours a day in a car, at a desk or in front of a screen. The other sad truth is that your body wasn’t designed to sit for long periods of time, and doing so can lower your life expectancy and put you at an 80% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Prolonged sitting in front of your screen has been described as “the new smoking.” Some studies have found that it is equal or worse than smoking cigarettes.

Stand up, breathe deeply, shake, twist, and stretch out the built-up tension. Take a few seconds to reach high. Let yourself feel the stretch as you elongate your body and notice where you hold tension then release it. Shake the part of your body where you sense tension. As you continue to stretch, bring your attention to each part of your body that has remained tight. Bend over and touch your toes and feel that stretch letting the tension in your body evaporate.

As you read the rest of this article, direct a small portion of your attention-- say 10 percent -- to feeling your abdomen expand on the inhale and contract on the exhale.

Remind yourself to check your posture and breathing before you start typing or reading.

Relax your eyes: To begin, it can be helpful to look away from the screen every once in a while. Look out a window and let your eyes relax into a soft gaze. To further interrupt this pattern, you can even experiment with closing your eyes while texting or emailing.

The 20-20-20 Rule

Using the 20-20-20 rule can help you prevent screen apnoea. The rule says that for every 20 minutes spent looking at a screen, you take a 20 second break, move around and look at something 20 feet away, which relaxes the eye muscles for 20 seconds and gives your brain a much-needed respite. Here’s how the rule works: Set an alarm or time popup for every 20 minutes when you’re working in front of a screen as a reminder to get up from your workstation, deep breathe and stretch. It takes 20 seconds for your eyes to fully relax. Every 20 minutes for 20 seconds walk around the room, hydrate yourself, close your eyes or look out a window—perhaps at a tree, squirrel or some aspect of nature. Take off your shoes and dig your toes into the carpet for 20 seconds. And you’re ready to get back to your screen for another 20 minutes.

1. Posture

Most of us think of ergonomics in relation to back pain or repetitive-stress injuries. But ergonomics also affects our breathing.

For example, when we work on computers, we lean forward, extend our necks and round our shoulders, while compressing the rib cage. Strategies:

• Upgrade your chair: If you spend lots of time in front of a computer, invest in a chair that supports your lower back to help you maintain good posture.

• Take more breaks: Try to get up and move around every 30 minutes or so.

• Stretch it out: Take mini-breaks to roll your shoulders back and down, and check your neck posture.

2. Stress

Relying more on email and texts robs us of vital information we’d normally get at the workplace: facial expressions, body language and tone of voice. That makes it easier for misunderstandings, frustration and anger to flare, which leads to more stress and poor breathing — a vicious cycle.

• If you’re using Zoom, turn off the camera and show up in voice only (when possible). This eases tension by removing you from the spotlight and allowing you to focus, instead of feeling “focused on.” Going off video also enables you to move around and relax the muscles that help you breathe.

• Head outdoors for some fresh air and a little sun to boost your mood and lower anxiety. Sometimes we feel like we can’t leave the keyboard as the work pours in. The reality: a short reboot can make us more productive.

• Be kind to yourself: “Over the years, my patients have taught me that the centerpiece of healing and staying well is kindness, especially toward ourselves,” Greenfield said. “That’s not the same as being selfish. We are talking about sustaining and caring for ourselves.”

3. Breathing

Breathing is one of the few critical body functions we can control. That’s good news — it means we can retrain ourselves to breathe in a healthier manner.

Our breath is intimately connected to multiple aspects of our well-being.

The foundation of almost every meditation practice, including mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), breathing slowly and deeply enables us to be fully present, and to offer our complete attention to whatever we’re engaged in.” To breathe better:

• Try yoga: Breath work is an integral part of yoga therapy. You don’t need to be a yoga master to benefit.

• Simple breathing exercises exercises can improve your breathing, reduce stress and help you feel less sluggish. Deep, slow breathing also helps move your body out of ‘fight or flight’ mode.

• Sing it out: Singing can help train you to breathe more deeply and slowly, while increasing your lung capacity. It also helps strengthen the muscles that support good posture, and can even boost your mood.

Bottom line: Paying just a little more attention to your body, your screen habits and your breathing can improve your life, safeguard your health and keep your resilience strong.

Here are a few ways to remind yourself to keep breathing:

1. Notice when you aren’t breathing. Check in every so often and take some long vagus-nerve (our primary parasympathetic nerve) stimulating exhalations that last longer than your inhalations. Try humming your breath out, count a long exhale, or use ujjayi breath to extend your exhalation.

2. Look beyond the screen from time to time, even if you’re glued to it for work. I’ve put a bird feeder outside my office window, which helps. Try not to distract yourself with another screen when you do this, like your television. You’ll probably find yourself taking easier breaths.

3. Get up and move/express yourself. Dance, vocalize, do simple stretches, take a walk. These are natural easers for the breath.

4. Explore breathing practices that don’t involve breath retention and keep conditioning your breath to maintain a smooth, even, continuous flow; try brahmari (humming breath). Place more emphasis on how your breath feels in the moment than how you think you “should” make it behave. Focus only on breathing a few times during the day.

5. Put your phone on airplane mode every now and then, or turn off work notifications after work hours.

Remember that we can unlearn habits we have acquired and that awareness of those dysfunctional breathing patterns is a tool in and of itself. It’s how neuroplasticity works: As we gradually change patterns, the brain changes.

Better sleep hygiene, like getting to bed at a regular time, warm baths, attention to calming the breath with a sandbag on the abdomen to encourage diaphragmatic breathing, crocodile breath, or inhaling thinking so and exhaling with a long silent ham (hum) can help for a more easeful, unforced breath while awake or asleep.

BREATHE.... Take a moment to relax your body, lengthen your spine, roll your shoulders back, and take one, long, deep breath. Make sure this breath is taken horizontally (using your diaphragm), rather than vertically, (using the muscles in your back, shoulders, neck, and face to help pull the air into your body.)

That’s it.

Enjoy one deep breath. Take a moment to pause, with eyes open or closed (but not focusing on the screen). Gently lengthen the spine, letting yourself feel some spaciousness in your backbone. Try lifting your lower back upward. Enjoy a nice deep inhale. And then, most importantly, let yourself exhale fully, making a noise if you like.

Take just a few seconds to Stop, Drop, & Breathe when you’re using any sort of screens (even if it’s only once a day) and it will go a long way toward improving your overall health and happiness.

Conscious Computing: Use technology to break bad habits. I acknowledge the paradox that of all things a mobile app such as GPS for the Soul will go some way towards reducing Screen Apnoea.