▲ ▼ Make me breathe properly
80% of the population has some form of disfunction in breathing, 50% of modern population chronically breathe through their mouth, says James Nestor.
It seems that the correct way to breathe is 5 - 6 breaths/minute and breathing correctly has huge therapeutic benefits such helping with reducing symptoms of allergies, asthma, autoimmune disease, anxiety, depression and in some cases even curing them.
What can help me develop this correct way of breathing as a habit, without investing too much time or money?
Hey Michelle, I have developed something that might help you with your goal of pacing your breathing. https://breather.school/ is a small web app which plays an animation to which you can sync your breath. The default settings are 5 seconds in, 0 seconds hold, 5 seconds out, which - as you pointed out already - seems to be the sweet spot. But there are other rhythms as well which can be great for meditating etc.
I open the app and put it on a second monitor while I'm working to remind me to breathe properly. But you can also simply put it into the corner of a single screen or use it for dedicated "training sessions." I also know of people who open it on their iPad and put that on their desk.
Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas for how it could be improved!
Hi Jonas, thank you for making this and for letting me know! This is a cool, neat utility to help us breathe better. It functions like Apple breathe app which I got with Apple Watch after recommendations here but https://breather.school/ reminds me about breathing all the time as it's in the front, on the computer screen all the time.
Now I just wish it could measure my actual breathing rate and correct the visuals accordingly to aid in better breathing.
Have you checked the Apple Watch? It has an breathe app - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206999 .
Thank you, I don't wear a watch. But I guess now I have to, Apple watch seems to be doing what I want, does it really measure my breathing rate?
It does't currently measure breathing rate, but it may soon with iOS 14 - https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/9/21171483/apple-watch-ios-14-code-blood-oxygen-features-update . Next Apple Watch will supposedly have Pulse Oximeter to detect blood oxygen levels, it already has electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG) using these it will be able to measure the respiratory rate. Interestingly, Apple had filed a patent for this in 2017 - https://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2017/06/apple-invents-an-apple-watch-feature-to-measure-respiration-rate-with-multi-band-plethysmography.html .
So even when Apple brings respiratory rate detection with the new watch, I think there will be need gap for non-contact based respiratory rate detection at consumer level.
Thank you, those were very informative.
It is scary to know heart rate monitors can hurt some people and that it is not been acknowledged by the manufacturers.
Will the oximeters available on the market be able to measure my breathing rate?
Off the shelf oximeters, especially those available on the ecommerce sites are poor at recording even blood oxygen if at all breathing rate - https://twitter.com/heavyinfo/status/1305707320635133952 .
Btw, Apple has released the new Apple Watch series 6 with Pulse Oximeter but doesn't seem to have breathing rate measurement as I previously suggested - https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-6/ , likely because the breathing rate measurement is not accurate yet.