Podcast Summary: How to Breathe Correctly for Optimal Health, Mood, Learning & Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast
Dr. Andrew Huberman discusses the biology of breathing, the best breathing techniques, the effectiveness of techniques such as Wim Hof Method, how to treat sleep apnea with breathing, and much more.
Link to full podcast summary: How to Breathe Correctly for Optimal Health, Mood, Learning & Performance | Huberman Lab Podcast
Podcast Summary
Breathwork practices are zero-cost and require minimal time yet provide a unique and powerful avenue to improve overall quality of life that is grounded in clear physiology. Dr. Andrew Huberman discusses the biology of breathing (respiration), how it delivers oxygen and carbon dioxide to the cells and tissues of the body and the best breathing techniques, depending on your health and performance needs:
Nasal breathing versus mouth breathing
Fast versus slow breathing
Deliberate versus reflexive breathing
Dr. Huberman also discusses:
The positive benefits of breathing properly for mood
Breathing exercises to reduce stress
How to treat sleep apnea
Using nasal breathing to improve facial aesthetics and immune system function.
The effectiveness of different breathing techniques, including physiological sighs, box breathing and cyclic hyperventilation, “Wim Hof Method,” Prānāyāma yogic breathing and more.
Finally, Dr. Huberman describes how to breath to optimize learning, memory and reaction time. How to breathe properly at high altitudes, why “overbreathing” is bad, and how to breathe to relieve cramps and hiccups.
Key Takeaways
Breathing is a bridge between our conscious and our subconscious behavior
By changing your pattern of breathing, you can very quickly change what your brain is capable of doing
Diaphragmatic breathing is the most efficient and ideal way to breathe
Most people breathe far too much per minute, anywhere from 15 to 20 or even 30 shallow breaths per minute.
The best breathing practice for stress relief is cyclic sighing. Cyclic sighing is when you inhale through the nose as deeply as you can, then you do a second inhale immediately afterwards to try and maximally inflate the lungs.
If you want to increase your heart rate, inhale longer and more vigorously relative to your exhales. if you want to decrease your heart rate, make your exhales longer and more vigorous than your inhales
Techniques like Win Hof breathing are basically a form of self-induced stress inoculation.
From the time you get into cold water, try and control your breathing and make it rhythmic. You'll be able to navigate that what would otherwise be a very stressful circumstance and make it less stressful, or even pleasant. And that skill definitely translates to other aspects of life
When you inhale, your reaction time to anything that happens around you increases significantly