Reduce Anxiety & Stress with the Physiological Sigh | Huberman Lab Quantal Clip
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | Billions of people suffer from stress
00:00:08.440 | and there are tools to combat stress
00:00:10.240 | that involve things like meditation, breath work,
00:00:14.600 | good nutrition, good social connections
00:00:16.920 | and avoiding all bad things in life.
00:00:18.960 | And while those are powerful,
00:00:20.680 | the problem is they require that people step away
00:00:23.200 | from the stress inducing activity.
00:00:25.520 | By contrast, my lab and other laboratories
00:00:27.640 | have been very interested in developing tools
00:00:29.420 | that allow us to push back on stress.
00:00:31.660 | In other words, feel more calm in real time,
00:00:34.640 | meaning without having to disengage
00:00:36.600 | from the stress inducing activity.
00:00:38.900 | The best way that I am aware to do that
00:00:41.520 | is called the physiological sigh.
00:00:43.800 | A physiological sigh is a pattern of breathing
00:00:46.060 | that involves two inhales followed by an extended exhale.
00:00:49.600 | Physiological sighs were discovered in the 1930s
00:00:52.680 | as a pattern of breathing that people go into spontaneously
00:00:55.880 | when they're in claustrophobic environments
00:00:58.040 | or in deep sleep when there's a buildup
00:01:01.160 | of a gas called carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.
00:01:04.180 | Carbon dioxide triggers the impulse to breathe.
00:01:07.040 | There are neurons in the brain
00:01:08.200 | that know when carbon dioxide levels have gotten too high
00:01:11.120 | and when the levels get too high,
00:01:12.560 | they trigger inhale and exhale or double inhale and exhale.
00:01:17.160 | Now you can do physiological sighs voluntarily
00:01:20.440 | anytime you're feeling too stressed
00:01:21.980 | and you want to feel more calm.
00:01:23.840 | You do it like this.
00:01:24.960 | [inhales and exhales]
00:01:29.040 | So it's a double inhale
00:01:30.320 | and typically the first inhale is longer than the second,
00:01:32.940 | but the second one is still important to do
00:01:34.800 | and then a very long extended exhale.
00:01:37.100 | Typically both inhales are through the nose
00:01:39.120 | and the exhale is through the mouth.
00:01:40.700 | That's the most effective way to do the physiological sigh.
00:01:43.600 | However, you can't breathe through your nose or your mouth
00:01:45.880 | for whatever reason, do it all through your mouth
00:01:47.840 | or all through your nose.
00:01:49.320 | The second inhale is really important
00:01:51.160 | because your lungs are not just two big bags of air,
00:01:54.600 | they're two big bags of air with lots of little sacks,
00:01:57.240 | millions of sacks and if you were to lay out those sacks,
00:02:00.260 | their volume is as big as a tennis court
00:02:02.280 | and that allows both the intake of more oxygen,
00:02:05.120 | but also the offload of carbon dioxide.
00:02:08.240 | So when you do the double inhale,
00:02:10.260 | it reinflates any of these little sacks that have collapsed
00:02:13.460 | and in doing so it allows you to offload more carbon dioxide.
00:02:16.960 | So if you're feeling stressed in any circumstance,
00:02:19.960 | inhale twice through the nose
00:02:21.760 | and then exhale long through the mouth.
00:02:24.040 | If you want, you can repeat it a second
00:02:25.760 | or even a third time, but typically just one or two,
00:02:29.400 | maybe three physiological sighs are sufficient
00:02:31.920 | to bring your level of stress and alertness down very fast
00:02:35.560 | and allow you to feel more calm.
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