Glossary
Resonant breathing
Slow breathing at roughly five to six breaths a minute, the pace at which breath-linked swings in heart rate grow largest. The Ave Maria in Latin sets almost exactly that pace. It sits alongside care for asthma, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression and never in place of it. Hyperventilation and breath-holds are a separate practice, for dry land only and never in or near water.
Published Updated
Where this comes from
In the reference topic that owns this term
Reference topic 10, The Breath You Forgot How to Take, states the mismatch as a card: what the system evolved to expect, what it gets instead, and what happens in the gap.
Mismatch card
- What it expects
An open nose at rest and in sleep, with the mouth joining in for hard effort.
- What it gets
Noses often blocked by allergy, which pushes breathing to the mouth, and breathing hacks that outpace their trials.
- What happens in the gap
When the mouth takes over in sleep, the throat collapses more easily: snoring, apneas and oxygen dips.
What that chapter recommends
3 of the 5 graded recommendations in Reference topic 10, strongest evidence first. How the grades work.
Let your nose do the default work
ProbableEvidence grade: Probable. Good observational evidence with a plausible mechanism, or small or few trials.Breathe through it at rest, walking and asleep. Mouth breathing in hard exercise is normal, and nose-only breathing lowers peak output. If your nose is usually blocked, have the cause treated.
Slow, exhale-weighted breathing
ProbableEvidence grade: Probable. Good observational evidence with a plausible mechanism, or small or few trials.About five or six breaths a minute (say, four seconds in and six out) for 5-10 minutes, on most days; the blood-pressure trials ran for at least four weeks.
Cyclic sighing for a quick reset
EmergingEvidence grade: Emerging. Early, small, animal-only, or actively contested.Inhale slowly through the nose, top up with a second short inhale, then exhale slowly and fully through the mouth, for up to five minutes.
The argument behind this term, its studies and its notes are in Reference topic 10 of the reference library. The book gives the practical version. Get the book.