E-mail apnea?

Apnea is more frequently used for sleep apnea - a condition where your breathing stops intermittently while you sleep - leading to poor sleep quality, snoring, and general fatigue. The solutions advised are decreasing body weight, stacking a pillow to increase the height of the head or a CPAP device.

 I came across an article describing e-mail/tech apnea. Technology and especially social media has become a dopamine slot machine nowadays :

• While scrolling or writing emails, you don't know what to expect - so, the brain gets excited.
• While posting on Instagram, you are unaware of the reactions and feedback from followers, again you unconsciously start holding your breath.
• Even while casually scrolling the newsfeed, you cannot anticipate which celebrity posts will be next displayed - you end up with shallow breathing.

All these effects are temporary and harmless, however, in this Internet age, more screen time is correlated to chronic shallow breathing, that in turn switches on the fight or flight mode in the brain. No wonder, stress levels have increased even though life is far more comfortable now. Research indicates that almost 80 per cent of people have email apnea.

Solution?

• Breathe consciously, focusing more on longer exhales - that relaxes the brain. Practise diaphragmatic breathing a few seconds before getting glued to the screen
• Take short breaks from screen and keep changing postures.