What is the Purpose of a Sigh?

A sigh is a long, deep breath, which is slowly inhaled and exhaled. A sigh often occurs during times of stress, sadness, relief or exhaustion.

You may consciously decide to sigh as a form of emotional expression, but your body also sighs spontaneously as a way to reinflate your alveoli, which are the tiny sacs in your lungs that help oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange to and from your bloodstream.

You probably don't even notice your spontaneous sighs, but if you pay close enough attention you can easily pick them out. They will normally occur about once every five minutes or so.

Scientists Pinpoint How & Why Your Brain Controls Sighs:

The extra inhalation that a spontaneous sigh provides serves an important purpose. It brings in twice the volume of air, which serves to pop open your alveoli. Your lungs contain 500 million of these balloon-like sacs.

When your alveoli collapse, a sigh is the only way to reinflate them. This likely explains why the average adult sighs involuntarily about 12 times every hour, according to Jack Feldman, Ph.D. a professor of neurobiology at UCLA.

After years of research, Feldman and colleagues have highlighted the brain region where sighs originate and unraveled some of the mystery of how and why this reflex occurs.

The latest study was conducted in rodents, which sigh up to 40 times an hour. Researchers revealed a "peptidergic sigh control circuit" in rodent brains. They hope the discovery may one day be used to help those who sigh too little or too much.

Frequent Sighing Is a Sign of Dysfunctional Breathing:

Frequent sighing is a classic sign of hyperventilation syndrome. Chronic hyperventilation syndrome was initially documented during the American Civil War, at which time it was termed "irritable heart."

The term "hyperventilation syndrome" was coined in 1937, and shortly after it was discovered that you could reproduce the symptoms of this syndrome simply by taking 20 or 30 big breaths through your mouth within a span of one or two minutes.

As noted by Patrick McKeown, the author of "The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You", once the habit of over-breathing is set in place, it tends to become and remain chronic.

To recover you typically need to use some sort of relearning technique, such as the one devised by Russian doctor Konstantin Buteyko. In 1957, Dr. Buteyko came up with the term "disease of deep breathing," having researched the health effects of excessive breathing for over a decade.

While still in medical training, one of his assignments included monitoring patients' breathing volume. He noticed something of interest, the sicker the patient got, the heavier they breathed.

Common Signs of Inefficient Breathing:

Latest research has revealed that normal breathing volume is approximately four to six liters of air per minute during rest, equating to 10 to 12 breaths per minute.

The breathing volume for people with asthma tends to be around 13 to 15 liters per minute and those with sleep apnea breathe on average 10 to 15 liters per minute.

Asthmatics and those with sleep apnea breathe far too much, not too little. This dysfunctional breathing pattern is part of their disease profile.

According to Patrick, one of the leading teachers of the Buteyko Breathing Method, hyperventilation is defined as "breathing in excess of metabolic requirements of the body at that time."

These signs and symptoms indicate that you're not breathing as efficiently as you could:

1. Mouth breathing

2. Frequent sighing

3. Taking large breaths prior to talking

4. Regular sniffing

5. Chronic nasal congestion & a runny nose

6. Upper chest breathing

7. Noticeable or audible breathing during rest

8. Erratic breathing

9. Yawning with big breaths

10. Sleep apnea

Over-breathing Can Be Associated With These Health Problems:

1. Heart palpitations, tachycardia or an irregular pulse

2. A sharp chest pain or angina

3. Cold hands and feet or Raynaud's

4. A Headache

5. Capillary vasoconstriction

6. Dizziness, feeling faint, shortness of breath or tightness in the chest

7. Numbness, tingling or pins and needles

8. Muscle cramps, pain or stiffness

9. Allergies or an irritable cough

10. Anxiety, panic or phobias

11. Difficulty swallowing, acid reflux or heartburn

12. Gas, belching, bloating, or abdominal discomfort

13. Weakness or exhaustion

14. Impaired concentration or memory

15. Sleep disturbances, or nightmares

Should You Take Deep Breaths to Relieve Stress?

Taking deep breaths is a widely circulated tool for stress relief. It is also what happens when you sigh, which tends to occur more often during stressful periods, but it may be much more beneficial to actually slow down your breathing. Stress makes you breathe faster and promotes sighing, so to counteract or release stress, you need to do the opposite, to breathe slower, softer, and make your breathing more regular.

It is also important to breathe through your nose, not your mouth. According to the late Dr. Maurice Cottle, who founded the American Rhinologic Society in 1954, your nose performs at least 30 functions, all of which are important supplements to the roles played by the lungs, heart, and other organs.

Part of the benefits of nose breathing is related to the fact that there is nitric oxide in your nose, and when you breathe gently and slowly through your nose you carry a small amount of this beneficial gas into your lungs.

Nitric oxide not only helps maintain balance within your body, it also helps to open your airways (bronchodilation), open your blood vessels (vasodilation) and has antibacterial properties that helps neutralize bacteria.

Nose breathing also helps normalize your breathing volume. This is important because when you chronically over-breathe, the heavier breathing volume that's coming into your lungs can cause a disturbance of blood gasses, including the loss of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Why Should You Avoid the Loss of Too Much Carbon Dioxide?

As carbon dioxide levels lower, the pH of your blood shifts more alkaline. If your breathing exceeds what your body requires over a period of time, even as short as 24 hours, your body becomes conditioned to increase its breathing volume. This is one of the ways stress ends up having a chronic impact on your body. Your blood pH should be between 7.35 and 7.45, which is slightly alkaline. This is a very narrow range.

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