[HN Gopher] What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
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What happens to our breath when we type, tap, scroll
Author : nequo
Score : 87 points
Date : 2024-06-17 23:23 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| cableshaft wrote:
| I've noticed myself doing this myself. I thought it was just
| because I also have sleep apnea, so what's causing me to stop
| breathing when I sleep is also happening when I'm waking and
| engaged on the computer.
|
| Didn't consider that it might be as widespread as the article is
| suggesting.
| kevindamm wrote:
| I remember reading about this effect of holding your breath
| during email about a decade or so ago, I started noticing
| whenever others around me sighed heavily as they closed their
| laptop or turned to talk to someone. My anecdata agrees that it
| is an extremely widespread phenomenon and probably takes
| deliberate training to avoid.
| 3523582908 wrote:
| When I started meditating, one of the first things I noticed was
| how I would stop breathing the moment I got on a computer. Kind
| of mindblowing that this issue is effecting many people!
| zeroxfe wrote:
| One of the things you quickly discover when you start meditating
| is how deeply your breath is connected to your mind and body. You
| can literally detect a thought forming before it does simply by
| sensing subtle changes in your breathing. You'll also notice how
| the most trivial thoughts also have a physical manifestation in
| your body, e.g., mild tension in your eyelids, or a tingling in
| your abdomen, etc.
| eleveriven wrote:
| A lot of people in my life who love to meditate teel me that
| meditation indeed offers a unique perspective on the connection
| between the mind, body and breath.
| skilled wrote:
| So learn it. It is one of life's greatest secrets.
|
| What the original commenter said is correct, meditation helps
| you see how thoughts arise _in the moment_ , and with
| practice you can get to a point where there is very little
| noise and instead you have a broader view of ideas and your
| life in general.
|
| It is also calming, for your entire system. Learning to
| monitor and control your breathing consciously is a serious
| mental workout. If you have never sat down to practice it,
| you might surprise yourself as to how much is going on in
| your own mind and how the wheels and cogs just keep turning.
| boredemployee wrote:
| Do you feel like your professional life is also
| impacted/improved by it? I know the question is broad but I
| mean things like level of anxiety, success, financial, etc.
| Or does it improve your "personal life only"?
| Tao3300 wrote:
| Not the prior commentator, but personally it distanced me
| somewhat from the bullshit of the rat race. For better or
| worse, I'm less of likely to chase targets that don't
| matter or that I don't actually give a shit about.
|
| A caveat: my previous employer (a rent-seeking publishing
| company) used this sort of thing as a trap. Here, have
| Headspace for free. Here, take this training on how
| psychological safety and mental health are important in
| the workplace. Oh, your manager is psychologically
| abusing his team? That's against our core values - report
| that to HR right away. Surprise, HR cares but they are
| impotent; here's the shadow _ER_ rep to hand you your
| walking papers.
| baxtr wrote:
| Part of me is resisting because people like you push others
| to do it. I'm somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism.
|
| Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week or wake up
| daily at 4:30am. How would you react?
|
| It's a shame since I might even enjoy mediating. Maybe I
| try it one day.
| matrisking wrote:
| That's a very different suggestion than "try paying
| attention to your breath for 5-10 mins whenever it's
| convenient for you"
| ketzo wrote:
| I totally get it, I have that same contrarian instinct.
|
| I have to reframe someone telling me "you should do X
| healthy thing" as "you should look into X healthy thing
| and see if it interests you/if there's really a good
| reason to do it", and then if I do my own
| research/reasoning, _sometimes_ I can get my brain on
| board.
|
| Basically, I have to trick myself into thinking it's my
| own idea. Very silly, but hey, it's how I started eating
| more vegetables and drinking more water, at least.
| guntars wrote:
| Under no circumstances should you try meditation! DO NO
| DO IT! That's an order.
| betenoire wrote:
| > somewhat allergic to that kind of evangelism
|
| Meditation, or some sort of reflection, may reveal to you
| that wrapped up in "allergic to evangelism" is an
| illusion that you received the intended message in the
| intended way. Or rather, that your reaction isn't
| necessarily in line with the reality of the intent of
| what was said. And that your reactions may be limiting
| you in your growth. You may even figure out ways to
| gamify your own improvement.
|
| That said, realization is the easy part!! lol, who am I
| to talk, let alone preach
| baw-bag wrote:
| I feel like you need to sign up to pretend it has meaning
| kind of like religion. "Have an open mind baxtr". My best
| friend has been going to Yoga and then Meditating for 9
| years and the bile, misery and garbage that comes out him
| like a waterfall after a few ales is incredible.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| > Imagine I told you to go to the gym 3x a week
|
| I'd say "screw that, I'm not cutting back!"
| coldtea wrote:
| It's absolutely true - that people who meditate love to
| inform everybody within ear-sight about such things, that is.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| It definitely helped me fix my road rage. E.g. getting cut off
| in traffic would usually cause me to inhale and brace my core,
| it's not hard to get angry from there, but by recognizing it as
| primarily a physical reaction, I was able to short circuit the
| secondary emotional reaction.
| zero0529 wrote:
| How do I get started meditating? Any sources or books?
| _neil wrote:
| Are there any reliable breathing monitors? Apple Watch/Oura ring
| have some respiratory metrics but only while sleeping (afaict). A
| quick google search showed me Oxa [0] but I have no clue if it's
| reliable, much less while sitting/working.
|
| [0] https://www.oxalife.com/
|
| Edit: maybe a pulse ox ear clip would work. Bonus points if it
| could shock me into breathing again when it detects low values.
| profsummergig wrote:
| This kind of Biofeedback is also useful in monitoring one's
| meditation practice.
|
| Definitely would want recommendations on something like this.
| RheingoldRiver wrote:
| I used to have a really big problem with holding my breath when I
| played League of Legends. I'd routinely get dizzy after long
| teamfights and I was completely unable to communicate with my
| teammates over voice chat during fights/skirmishes because I
| couldn't make myself expel air (which is worse may depend on your
| point of view).
| eleveriven wrote:
| For me it is intense focus or stress and they could cause me to
| hold my breath.
| asynchronous wrote:
| In the anime Demon Slayer, breath control (and specifically
| breathing while moving) is the primary method of performing
| spectacular feats in battle which is cool
| janci wrote:
| Is it specific to screens tho? How does it compare to reading a
| book, writing a letter by hand, sewing, cutting vegetables for
| lunch, curiously disassenbling an alarm clock or any other
| activity that requires focus and concentration?
| Sym3tri wrote:
| Focus and awareness of the breath is exactly why I created my iOS
| Breathwork App.
|
| www.breathwork-timer.com
| jiveturkey wrote:
| > "Poor breathing is what you see when you look at 90% of the
| population," science journalist James Nestor told Zomorodi. "It
| includes breathing through the mouth,
|
| hmm
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Computers are like these magic devices to get us into potentially
| a fight or flight response with zero physical danger. People's
| heart rates rise when they get an email from work. I can't
| imagine its good for the health, mating these mental responses
| that are designed to go along with a physical response with just
| sedentary behavior instead. And doing it every day all your
| working life no less. What does this mean in terms of the
| underlying chemistry, are there neuortransmitters or hormones
| perhaps that aren't getting processed or turned over by the
| physical response when they ought to? Maybe we should experiment
| running to the hills when we get an email from the boss and see
| if that changes things.
| LordGrey wrote:
| If I try to concentrate on my breathing I always feel like I'm
| not getting enough air. If I persist, I honestly start panicking
| a little bit.
|
| Related: I can't snorkel for the same reason, except I panic A
| LOT.
| gavmor wrote:
| I've never been more conscious of my breath while computing than
| when I was playing Subnautica[0], which proffers a (notoriously
| tense) game loop significantly involving running out of air and
| coming up for breath. Additionally, I would take swigs of water
| when my character was getting thirsty. A surprisingly embodied
| video game.
|
| 0. https://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/
| junto wrote:
| Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming?
|
| Anecdotally and non-scientifically I've noticed that my health
| (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from
| being a staff engineer to engineering management.
|
| It's not that I'm less stressed but the stress is a different
| pattern.
|
| Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes
| of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off once I
| solved a problem.
|
| Essentially a dopamine - serotonin feedback loop all day every
| day.
|
| My stress now is generally a more flat and smooth line.
|
| I often thought it would have been interesting to actually track
| it using a medical device but was unsure if anything like that
| even exists.
| jaypeejay wrote:
| Interesting. Anecdotally agree.
|
| I've been trying to improve my mindset when coding. I find
| myself worrying about solving the problem correctly, and I'm
| trying to change that so my focus is more on slow, correct
| practice. Easier said than done, but the idea is that it will
| be less stressful and reduce the frustration peaks you
| mentioned
| njovin wrote:
| I had the opposite experience. Frustrations whilst coding could
| be severe but were mostly things within my control. Sure, we
| had major failures and outages which spiked stress, but these
| were rare and we learned and grew from them.
|
| As a manager, I was constantly dealing with things way outside
| my control with much more severe consequences: other people's
| emotions, people quitting, budget cuts, layoffs, political
| posturing. At one point I was told to layoff an entire team of
| very talented, very productive Ukrainian engineers because
| Russia had decided to invade their country and my company
| didn't want to deal with the _possibility_ that they'd become
| unproductive.
|
| I know it's entirely dependent on the type of work and the
| organization, but from a stress-reduction standpoint I'll take
| staff engineer over people manager every time.
| giraffe333 wrote:
| Also don't forget to blink while you are at it.
|
| https://uihc.org/health-topics/computer-vision-syndrome
| HumblyTossed wrote:
| I hold my breath when I code. Just always thought it was some
| quirk of mine.
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