Should You Breathe Through Your Nose or Mouth When Meditating?
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Almost all babies naturally breathe from their nose, and in some ancient tribes, if babies were breathing through their mouths, they were gently shut to encourage nasal breathing
I finally got around to reading Breath by James Nestor and was surprised to discover how little I knew about breathing and how powerful breathing exercises and techniques can be.
Today, I’d like to share one of the core insights from the book, which is just how vital it is to breathe from your nose rather than your mouth.
Regular mouth breathing isn’t a good idea
Before reading the book, I thought it makes little difference whether we breathe from our nose or mouth. It’s estimated about 50% of people often breathe from their mouths. I knew that the nose filtered the air a bit, so breathe from your nose if you can, but apart from that I thought it didn’t matter.
I was very wrong.
In the book, James blocks his nose for 10 days so he is forced to breathe from his mouth day and night. By doing this, his energy gets very low, his moods yo yo wildly, he has a lower capacity to exercise, he struggles to sleep and breathe at night (he starts snoring and gets some sleep apnea) and it even negatively impacts his blood pressure and other vitals. These tests were done in a top lab at Stanford University.
Here’s three reasons to breathe through your nose in meditation and beyond:
Nose breathing releases Nitric Oxide. Breathing from your nose releases a chemical called nitric oxide into your body, via your nasal cavity. Especially when you breathe lightly and gently. This is really good for your overall health. Nitric oxide opens up the airways in your lungs. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator. This means it widens your blood vessels, enabling the lovely oxygen to travel around your body and be absorbed by your cells. It plays a role in the way your brain works and the way brain cells communicate. It plays a role in the cardiovascular system. It even helps reduce cholesterol and build-up of plaque in arteries.
Listen to the benefits of Nitric Oxide here:
2 . Nose breathing filters out of particles you breathe in - Breathing through the nose filters the air and prevents particles getting into your lungs and beyond. We breathe in about 100 billion particles a day. Your nose filters out about 80% of them. Your mouth can’t do that. And in the age of the virus, by breathing though your nose, you will exhale less viral load when you breath out. So in an enclosed space, if you have a virus, you’re less likely to spread it to others through nasal breathing.
Wondering if you should breathe out of your nose too? Find out why it’s generally a good idea to breathe both in and out of the nose here:
3. Nasal breathing conditions the air. Breathing through your nose conditions the air and gets the air to the right temperature for your lungs. Air that’s too cold is harder for your lungs to warm up. It cools air that’s too warm too. Nasal breathing also humidifies the air for your lungs. Your nose is designed to do this. By breathing from your mouth, it goes straight into your lungs with no treatment. This process protects your upper airways. Also, by breathing through your nose, you lose less water and so will be less dehydrated too.
Because of all this, by breathing through your nose, you end up getting 20% more oxygen into your bloodstream, without any extra breathing. That’s amazing! You can spend 20% less energy breathing and yet get the same benefits. Or breathe the same amount of times and yet enjoy 20% boost in oxygen.
How to Clear Your Nose
So, you may agree it’s a good idea to breathe through your nose in meditation as well as your everyday life. But what if your nose is blocked?
Well, there are exercises you can do to unblock your nose. The one I tried is this.
You simply breathe in and out normally, and then close your mouth and hold your nose closed.
Whilst holding your breath you sway from side to side or walk around. Keep holding your breath until you feel a medium to high sense of air hunger.
Then breathe through your nose when you can’t go on, and get back into a normal breathing pattern as soon as you can. Don’t breathe with your mouth if possible.
Did it help? If not, repeat a few times, having a break of a minute or so in between. If you do this several times, you may find, like me, that your nose opens up! It’s amazing how it works.
Warning - Don’t do this exercise if you’re pregnant, have high blood pressure or other serious health issues. But generally, holding your breath for a minute or two is safe.
Here’s a video explaining how to do the nose unblocking:
Summary
Nose breathing has far more benefits than most people realise. Meditation is a great place to create the habit of nasal breathing, especially if you are part of half the population that habitually breathes through the mouth.
As nasal breathing becomes a new habit in meditation, you can extend to nasal breathing throughout the day, including when you go for walks too.
This simple way of breathing can have a huge positive impact on your physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments please. I’ve love to hear your thoughts on this topic about nose breathing. Have you tried any of this? Have you read the book?
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