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Email apnea is a term coined in 2007 by former Microsoft executive Linda Stone, meaning "a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email." [1]
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Email apnea is a term coined in 2007 by former Microsoft executive Linda Stone, meaning "a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email." [1]
Email apnea refers to the tendency to hold one's breath while engaging in email activities, a term derived from sleep apnea, which involves repeated interruptions in breathing during sleep. The term was coined by writer, speaker, and Microsoft executive Linda Stone. This phenomenon can exacerbate anxiety, as it often occurs during high-stress situations, leading to increased physical tension and mental strain. According to psychologists, high achievers and perfectionists are especially prone to email apnea due to a tendency to seek perfection in every email they send, which increases the stress around it and demands more focus. [2] Email apnea can result in sleep disturbances, decreased energy levels, and heightened feelings of depression and anxiety. [3]
In 2007, Stone observed that she found herself holding her breath while answering emails, inhaling in anticipation but failing to exhale as emails arrived. To explore this, she conducted informal research by having friends and colleagues to respond to emails while monitoring their heart rates. She discovered that 80% of participants exhibited what she termed "email or screen apnea," characterized by shallow or suspended breathing during screen use. The remaining 20%, including trained professionals like a cellist and athletes, showed normal breathing patterns. [4]
To counteract email or screen apnea, some psychologists have suggested sitting comfortably in an upright posture while focusing on breathing without control. Individuals should observe the sensations of inhalation and exhalation, redirecting attention to the breath if distracted. After three breaths, it is beneficial to stand, stretch and move briefly. Regular movement and stretching throughout the day are also recommended to reduce tension and enhance mindfulness. [5]
Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, otherwise defined as a rapid, irregular heartbeat, sweating, chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a sense of impending doom or loss of control. Typically, these symptoms are the worst within ten minutes of onset and can last for roughly 30 minutes, though they can vary anywhere from seconds to hours. While they can be extremely distressing, panic attacks themselves are not physically dangerous.
Apnea is the temporary cessation of breathing. During apnea, there is no movement of the muscles of inhalation, and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Depending on how blocked the airways are, there may or may not be a flow of gas between the lungs and the environment. If there is sufficient flow, gas exchange within the lungs and cellular respiration would not be severely affected. Voluntarily doing this is called holding one's breath. Apnea may first be diagnosed in childhood, and it is recommended to consult an ENT specialist, allergist or sleep physician to discuss symptoms when noticed; malformation and/or malfunctioning of the upper airways may be observed by an orthodontist.
Positive airway pressure (PAP) is a mode of respiratory ventilation used in the treatment of sleep apnea. PAP ventilation is also commonly used for those who are critically ill in hospital with respiratory failure, in newborn infants (neonates), and for the prevention and treatment of atelectasis in patients with difficulty taking deep breaths. In these patients, PAP ventilation can prevent the need for tracheal intubation, or allow earlier extubation. Sometimes patients with neuromuscular diseases use this variety of ventilation as well. CPAP is an acronym for "continuous positive airway pressure", which was developed by Dr. George Gregory and colleagues in the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of California, San Francisco. A variation of the PAP system was developed by Professor Colin Sullivan at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia, in 1981.
A relaxation technique is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of pain, anxiety, stress or anger. Relaxation techniques are often employed as one element of a wider stress management program and can decrease muscle tension, lower blood pressure, and slow heart and breath rates, among other health benefits.
Mouth breathing, medically known as chronic oral ventilation, is long-term breathing through the mouth. It often is caused by an obstruction to breathing through the nose, the innate breathing organ in the human body. However, by the early 20th century, the term "mouth-breather" had developed a pejorative slang meaning connoting a stupid person.
Freediving blackout, breath-hold blackout, or apnea blackout is a class of hypoxic blackout, a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive, when the swimmer does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. It can be provoked by hyperventilating just before a dive, or as a consequence of the pressure reduction on ascent, or a combination of these. Victims are often established practitioners of breath-hold diving, are fit, strong swimmers and have not experienced problems before. Blackout may also be referred to as a syncope or fainting.
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a form of positive airway pressure (PAP) ventilation in which a constant level of pressure greater than atmospheric pressure is continuously applied to the upper respiratory tract of a person. The application of positive pressure may be intended to prevent upper airway collapse, as occurs in obstructive sleep apnea, or to reduce the work of breathing in conditions such as acute decompensated heart failure. CPAP therapy is highly effective for managing obstructive sleep apnea. Compliance and acceptance of use of CPAP therapy can be a limiting factor, with 8% of people stopping use after the first night and 50% within the first year.
Conscious breathing encompasses techniques directing awareness toward the breathing process, serving purposes from improving respiration to building mindfulness. In martial arts like tai chi and qigong, breathing exercises are said to strengthen diaphragm muscles and protect organs, with reverse breathing being a common method. Meditation traditions, including yoga and Buddhist meditation, emphasize breath control. Yoga's pranayama is believed by practitioners to elevate life energies, while Buddhist vipassanā uses anapanasati for mindfulness of breathing.
Catathrenia or nocturnal groaning is a sleep-related breathing disorder, consisting of end-inspiratory apnea and expiratory groaning during sleep. It describes a rare condition characterized by monotonous, irregular groans while sleeping. Catathrenia begins with a deep inspiration. The person with catathrenia holds his or her breath against a closed glottis, similar to the Valsalva maneuver. Expiration can be slow and accompanied by sound caused by vibration of the vocal cords or a simple rapid exhalation. Despite a slower breathing rate, no oxygen desaturation usually occurs. The moaning sound is usually not noticed by the person producing the sound, but it can be extremely disturbing to sleep partners. It appears more often during expiration REM sleep than in NREM sleep.
Linda Stone is a writer and consultant who coined the phrase "continuous partial attention" in 1998. Stone also coined "email apnea" in 2008 which means "a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email."
The respiratory center is located in the medulla oblongata and pons, in the brainstem. The respiratory center is made up of three major respiratory groups of neurons, two in the medulla and one in the pons. In the medulla they are the dorsal respiratory group, and the ventral respiratory group. In the pons, the pontine respiratory group includes two areas known as the pneumotaxic center and the apneustic center.
Paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea or paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea (PND) is an attack of severe shortness of breath and coughing that generally occurs at night. It usually awakens the person from sleep, and may be quite frightening. PND, as well as simple orthopnea, may be relieved by sitting upright at the side of the bed with legs dangling, as symptoms typically occur when the person is recumbent, or lying down.
Vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) is a condition affecting the vocal cords. It is characterized by abnormal closure of the vocal folds, which can result in significant difficulties and distress during breathing, particularly during inhalation.
Breathing is the rhythmical process of moving air into (inhalation) and out of (exhalation) the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen.
In psychology, relaxation is the emotional state of low tension, in which there is an absence of arousal, particularly from negative sources such as anger, anxiety, or fear.
Central sleep apnea (CSA) or central sleep apnea syndrome (CSAS) is a sleep-related disorder in which the effort to breathe is diminished or absent, typically for 10 to 30 seconds either intermittently or in cycles, and is usually associated with a reduction in blood oxygen saturation. CSA is usually due to an instability in the body's feedback mechanisms that control respiration. Central sleep apnea can also be an indicator of Arnold–Chiari malformation.
Periodic breathing is clusters of breaths separated by intervals of apnea or near-apnea. As opposed to normal breathing which is usually regular, periodic breathing is defined as three or more episodes of central apnea lasting at least 4 seconds, separated by no more than 30 seconds of normal breathing.
Computer-induced health problems can be an umbrella term for the various problems a computer user can develop from extended and incorrect computer use. A computer user may experience many physical health problems from using computers extensively over a prolonged period in an inefficient manner. The computer user may have poor etiquette when using peripherals, for example incorrect posture. Reportedly, excessive use of electronic screen media can have ill effects on mental health related to mood, cognition, and behavior, even to the point of hallucination.
Respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP) is a method of evaluating pulmonary ventilation by measuring the movement of the chest and abdominal wall.
Shiva Swarodaya is an ancient Sanskrit tantric text. A comment and translation termed as swara yoga has been made by Satyananda Saraswati in 1983. It is also termed "Phonetical astrology": the "sound of one's own breath" and is written as a conversation between Shiva and Parvati. This ancient scripture has 395 sutras.