Holding Your Breath (Hear Me Out)

My tinnitus has quieted quite a bit since I discovered a little trick. Before you say "this is irresponsible, why would anyone hold their breath". First things first, it helps with the tinnitus and second, it is only for 10 or 15 seconds at a time.

The scenario: loud, annoying tinnitus. The tinnitus will never completely stop but it will eventually subside (for me) to manageable levels.

How to do it correctly: start by holding your breath. Don't worry about taking a deep breath beforehand. Put slight (slight!) pressure like you are breathing out with your airways closed. Then, lay your tongue flat on the roof of your mouth and push slightly up. Do this only for 10-15 seconds. Then breathe normally.

Eventually, you won't have to breathe out/put pressure on airways as you'll get the same effect.

Mechanism of action: it seems to calm the neurons a bit. Either it slows the activity, heart rate or both. The effects won't be immediately obvious but a little while later you'll notice a difference.

I don't know why or how this works but you can do this so long as you don't deprive your body of oxygen. So don't overdo it. Be responsible.

It may even be placebo, but as long as it helps that's all I care about. If it can help any of you it's served its purpose.

PM me for any questions.

 

Does this still work for you? I honestly see no reason this should do anything. I tried it a couple times(dunno if I did it right) but didn't notice anything change.

 

Sounds to me like something is going on with your eustachian tubes, what you're doing reminds me of the Toynbee maneuver.

 

Hi @Spiral,

Thanks for sharing this. I know fairly little about breath holding, but it makes sense to me that it could calm tinnitus (see article snippet below). Have you continued to do this? Do you still find it helpful? -- Thanks!

From THIS ARTICLE:

What can you gain from breath holds?

As described above, the benefits of performing breath holds are numerous and can deeply affect your life. We have experienced from courses and VIP cruises that performing breath holds and breathing exercises provides our participants with more energy, calmness, resilience to stress, mental stability, a greater focus on priorities and goals, a closer connection to the body and more attention to the moment.

On the long run meditation and breath holds seem to develop your nervous system and brain. Scientific studies have revealed that people who practice meditation and/or freediving show marked changes in their brain and nervous system. One area in the nervous system that undergo changes lies in the brain stem and is connected to the vagus nerve. This is part of the calming parasympathetic pathway which counteracts stress.​

 

In hindsight I believe it plays into calming the nervous system much like mediation would. I've been taking meditation classes and a very similar technique is used to recover from anxiety via slowing down the heart rate through breathing.

You definitely won't see much of an improvement unless you do it semi-often.

 

Yes, this is very close to what I've been doing. There is a type of awareness that has to be applied. It's called mindfulness. This will bring down stress and anxiety through noticing the present. The future and the past should not bother you in the moment. Notice a few things in the environment - the sound of the A/C or the touch of a cushion or the color of the object in front of you. It brings the stress level down and allows you to feel less threatened. This, along with controlled breathing has brought down the T a little bit. I have a feeling if I continue to peruse this, it will train the brain to have a normal state with less T.