What is shallow breathing?

Breathing that uses the top of the lungs only: short breaths, high in the chest, driven by the neck and shoulder muscles instead of the diaphragm, usually faster than the twelve to sixteen breaths a minute of rest. It is the breathing of a body that thinks it is under threat, and it becomes a habit under chronic stress, long hours at a screen, and slouched posture. Most people who breathe this way do not know it until they put a hand on their chest and notice it moves first.

What causes shallow breathing?

Most often stress, posture and habit. Stress moves breathing up into the chest as part of the fight-or-flight response; sitting hunched over a screen compresses the belly so the diaphragm cannot drop; holding the stomach in does the same; and after enough months the high breath becomes the default. Pain, a blocked nose, tight clothing and being out of shape add to it. Less often it is a medical cause: asthma, lung or heart disease, anaemia, an infection, or a panic disorder, which is why new or worsening shallow breathing deserves a doctor.

What are the symptoms of shallow breathing?

Frequent sighing or yawning to catch up on air, a tight chest, tired neck and shoulders, a feeling of not getting a full breath, fatigue, poor concentration and a background anxiety that has no obvious cause. Over-breathing lowers carbon dioxide, which adds tingling fingers and lightheadedness. Because the symptoms feel alarming they tend to make the breathing worse, which is the loop the drill on this page breaks.

How do you fix shallow breathing?

Retrain the low breath the way physiotherapists do it: lying on your back with a hand on the stomach, five to ten minutes, several times a day for two weeks, until the belly moves first without thinking. The 4-2-6 timer on this page paces it. Then bring it to sitting and standing, fix the posture that crushes the diaphragm, and set a few reminders a day to take three slow low breaths at the desk. Nasal breathing helps, because the nose slows the breath on its own.

Is shallow breathing dangerous?

The habitual kind is not dangerous, but it keeps the stress response half on all day, which costs sleep, focus and calm, and it makes anxiety and panic more likely. Shallow breathing that is new, that comes with chest pain, fever, blue lips, breathlessness at rest or when lying flat, or that follows an injury, is a different thing and needs medical attention promptly.

What is the difference between shallow and deep breathing?

Where the breath goes and how fast. Shallow breathing is high, quick and driven by the chest and neck; deep breathing is low, slow and driven by the diaphragm, with the belly moving more than the chest. Deep does not mean big: a slow, modest breath into the belly is deep, a large gulp into the chest is not.

Is there an app that helps with shallow breathing?

Braele, for iPhone, paces the 4-2-6 low breath with a voice and haptics so the drill works lying down with the eyes closed, and its reminders can ask for a few slow breaths several times a day, which is how the habit is rebuilt. Box breathing and the physiological sigh are free forever; no account, no ads, works offline.

Shallow breathing

You have been holding your breath at your desk

Put one hand on your chest and one on your stomach and breathe the way you were breathing before you started reading. If the top hand moved first, that is shallow breathing: short, high, quick, the breath of a body that thinks something is wrong. It is a habit more than a condition, it costs more than it seems, and two weeks of a simple drill undoes it. The timer below paces the drill.

Tap a pattern and breathe along right here. Free, no download needed.

What it is

At rest a healthy adult breathes twelve to sixteen times a minute, low and slow, the diaphragm doing the work and the belly moving. Shallow breathing is the alternative: short breaths at the top of the lungs, driven by the neck and shoulders, usually faster, often with a sigh every minute or two to catch up. It is the breathing of the stress response, useful for a sprint and useless for a spreadsheet, and after enough months of it the body forgets the other way. The diaphragmatic breathing page describes the breath it replaces.

What causes it

Stress first: the fight-or-flight response moves breathing up and speeds it, and chronic stress keeps it there. Posture second: hunched over a screen, the belly is compressed and the diaphragm has nowhere to drop, so the breath goes up by default; holding the stomach in does the same on purpose. Then habit, which is stress and posture repeated until the high breath is the resting one. A blocked nose, pain, tight waistbands and poor fitness add to it. Medical causes exist too, asthma, heart or lung disease, anaemia, infection, panic disorder, which is why breathing that has changed recently belongs with a doctor before it belongs with a breathing exercise.

What it does to you

The chest and neck muscles were not built to breathe all day, so they ache. Frequent sighing and yawning are the body catching up on air it did not quite get. Fast high breathing also blows off more carbon dioxide than it should, and low carbon dioxide brings tingling fingers, a light head, a tight chest and a sense of unease with no cause, which feels like anxiety and often becomes it. Sleep suffers, focus suffers, and the stress response never fully switches off because the breath keeps telling it not to. None of that is dangerous. All of it is expensive.

The fix

Two weeks to a low breath

1
Days one to five: lying down, three times a day
On your back, knees bent, a hand on the stomach or a paperback resting on it. In through the nose for four so the hand rises, a short pause, out through pursed lips for six, five minutes. Lying down takes posture out of the equation, which is why the breath drops on its own here and fights you in a chair.
2
Days six to ten: sitting, then standing
Same drill, upright, back supported, shoulders down, one hand on the stomach as the check. Then standing, then walking slowly. Each position is harder than the last; go back a step for a day if the breath climbs into the chest again.
3
All fortnight: three low breaths, six times a day
Set reminders. At each one, straighten up, drop the shoulders, and take three slow breaths into the lower hand. Thirty seconds. This is the part that changes the default, because the default is made at the desk, not on the mat. The Braele app's reminders can carry it.
4
Fix the desk, and the nose
Screen at eye height, hips higher than knees, so the belly has room. Breathe through the nose all day; it slows and warms the breath on its own and makes shallow mouth-breathing impossible. If the nose is blocked, that is the first thing to sort out, and a doctor or pharmacist can.
5
After: five minutes a day keeps it
Once the belly moves first without thinking, coherent breathing at five in and five out, five minutes a day, keeps the new default and lowers the stress that made the old one. A sigh whenever you catch yourself high in the chest re-opens the lungs in ten seconds.

Questions

What people ask

What is shallow breathing?: Breathing that uses the top of the lungs only: short breaths, high in the chest, driven by the neck and shoulder muscles instead of the diaphragm, usually faster than the twelve to sixteen breaths a minute of rest. It is the breathing of a body that thinks it is under threat, and it becomes a habit under chronic stress, long hours at a screen, and slouched posture. Most people who breathe this way do not know it until they put a hand on their chest and notice it moves first.
What causes shallow breathing?: Most often stress, posture and habit. Stress moves breathing up into the chest as part of the fight-or-flight response; sitting hunched over a screen compresses the belly so the diaphragm cannot drop; holding the stomach in does the same; and after enough months the high breath becomes the default. Pain, a blocked nose, tight clothing and being out of shape add to it. Less often it is a medical cause: asthma, lung or heart disease, anaemia, an infection, or a panic disorder, which is why new or worsening shallow breathing deserves a doctor.
What are the symptoms of shallow breathing?: Frequent sighing or yawning to catch up on air, a tight chest, tired neck and shoulders, a feeling of not getting a full breath, fatigue, poor concentration and a background anxiety that has no obvious cause. Over-breathing lowers carbon dioxide, which adds tingling fingers and lightheadedness. Because the symptoms feel alarming they tend to make the breathing worse, which is the loop the drill on this page breaks.
How do you fix shallow breathing?: Retrain the low breath the way physiotherapists do it: lying on your back with a hand on the stomach, five to ten minutes, several times a day for two weeks, until the belly moves first without thinking. The 4-2-6 timer on this page paces it. Then bring it to sitting and standing, fix the posture that crushes the diaphragm, and set a few reminders a day to take three slow low breaths at the desk. Nasal breathing helps, because the nose slows the breath on its own.
Is shallow breathing dangerous?: The habitual kind is not dangerous, but it keeps the stress response half on all day, which costs sleep, focus and calm, and it makes anxiety and panic more likely. Shallow breathing that is new, that comes with chest pain, fever, blue lips, breathlessness at rest or when lying flat, or that follows an injury, is a different thing and needs medical attention promptly.
What is the difference between shallow and deep breathing?: Where the breath goes and how fast. Shallow breathing is high, quick and driven by the chest and neck; deep breathing is low, slow and driven by the diaphragm, with the belly moving more than the chest. Deep does not mean big: a slow, modest breath into the belly is deep, a large gulp into the chest is not.
Is there an app that helps with shallow breathing?: Braele, for iPhone, paces the 4-2-6 low breath with a voice and haptics so the drill works lying down with the eyes closed, and its reminders can ask for a few slow breaths several times a day, which is how the habit is rebuilt. Box breathing and the physiological sigh are free forever; no account, no ads, works offline.

Three low breaths, six times a day

Braele's reminders can carry the fortnight, and its voice and haptics pace the drill with the eyes closed. A streak with a rest day built in keeps it going. Box breathing and the physiological sigh are free forever on the App Store.

Downloadon the App Store