Breaking Free from Screen Apnea: How Breath-Holding at Work Fuels Anxiety and Stress
Dysfunctional breathing can significantly increase anxiety levels. Here's how it happens and how you can manage it.
It's 10:14 a.m., and you've been holding your breath for 37 seconds without knowing it.
You're midway through a tense email, shoulders hovering near your ears, coffee cooling beside the keyboard. A big sigh reminds you that you've been running on vapor. That unconscious breath‑hold has a name, screen (or "email") apnea, and when it turns up, it's completely unconscious. As you freeze your breathing, your body picks up that something is wrong and moves you into a stress state, ready to help you fight the threat you've just identified via your breathing. The more you repeat this pattern of breathing, the more your stress state increases.
The hidden anatomy of your desk breath makes your body think a lion is chasing you.
Slouch → shallow
Forward‑head "Zoom posture" collapses the lower rib cage, reducing the diaphragm's range of motion. The reduction of diaphragm movement means more neck and chest breathing, which is faster, shallower, and a driver of a fight-or-flight state. Studies show that head-forward volunteers showed significantly reduced diaphragmatic excursion and poorer lung function compared with neutral posture. Sitting in our chairs, we so often pitch our head forward in stress as if it will give us some extra brain energy and, in the process, crush our diaphragm and send stress signals all through our body.
CO₂ gets too low, alarms get too loud
When we start breathing in this dysfunctional pattern, we can "blow off" or reduce the amount of CO2 in our blood. While many of us may view CO2 as a waste gas, it plays essential roles in the body. When we reduce that, we cause several impacts: we reduce the delivery of oxygen at the issues, which causes vasoconstriction in our brains (the blood vessels decrease in diameter), which can make us feel dizzy and lightheaded, among other things, then the brainstem which is monitoring the CO2 can start to misread this as suffocation and begin to flood the body with alarm signals telling you to breathe more.
The self‑feeding loop
Stress shortens or stops the breath → low CO₂ intensifies the stress response → tighter muscles, tenser posture, and even worse breathing. Unless you interrupt the cycle, email after email winds the spring a little tighter.
Breath: the only conscious dial on your autonomic dashboard
Unlike the rest of the autonomic system, such as heart rate or digestion, breathing is automatic and controllable. Ancient yogic prāṇāyāma recognized the power of the breath, and modern science is only now catching up. A 2023 Nature meta-analysis that pooled 20 controlled trials found that breathwork reduced subjective anxiety by an average of one-third. Nature's Slow‑paced breathing sessions routinely increase heart rate variability (HRV), a biomarker of greater stress resilience. PMC
The 5‑minute reset
(Medical note: skip or modify breath‑holds if you're pregnant, have uncontrolled high blood pressure, severe COPD, or recent heart issues. When in doubt, clear it with your doctor first.)
Sit up in a straight and comfortable position.
Breathe in and out through the nose.
Begin to engage the diaphragm. This is the muscle that sits near the bottom of your ribs; if you are engaging the diaphragm, you will see gentle movements of your stomach.
Place one hand on your stomach and one on your chest. You're aiming to keep the chest still and gently feel the stomach moving.
Now that you are comfortable doing this use a timer. Breathe in and out normally for 10 seconds, then exhale and pinch your nose, holding your breath for 5 seconds.
Repeat for up to 10 minutes.
This exercise is called "many small breath holds," and it is a gentle way to increase our CO2 levels when needed. It is a great rescue exercise for anxiety or asthma. It can be performed for 10 minutes every hour until symptoms reduce.
A visual description of the exercise
Check your baseline in 60 seconds.
Sit up; breathe in and out normally through the nose.
After the next gentle exhale, pinch your nose and start the timer.
Stop when the first definite urge to breathe appears (not when you're gasping).
< 20 s – your body's on edge (red zone)
20–35 s – okay, but trainable
> 35-40s s – resilient
The test is called the Control Pause (or BOLT score) and correlates with everyday CO₂ tolerance.
Medical note: skip or modify breath holds if you're pregnant, have uncontrolled high blood pressure, severe COPD, or recent heart issues. When in doubt, consult your doctor first.
A visual description of the control pause exercise.
This all seems airy-fairy — what will I feel, and how will this make me less anxious?
There are a large number of breathwork practices, and many are designed to target different goals. For the exercise above, many small breath holds, for example, is designed to help you increase your CO2 levels in a calm and balanced way.
Evidence shows the mood lifts quickly in exercises where the exhale is longer than the inhale. The motto of Breatheology's Stig Severinsen, "The key to relaxation is exhalation," is supported by a study showing that a 5-minute exercise of extended exhales improved mood more than mindfulness.
Increasing Co2 back to normal helps with vasodilation in our brain, which allows for better blood flow. Co2 helps with oxygen delivery via the Bohr effect and can reduce excitatory neurons.
Ready to break the loop?
Start your journey to peace and focus! Schedule your free 15-minute consultation to explore effective anxiety management and uplifting breathing techniques. Already decided? Book now to begin your adventure toward a calmer, empowered you! Your brighter, serene future awaits!
