Do you have 🖥️Screen🖥️ Apnea?
How to take a deeper breath
I was playing Scrabble with a friend, gearing up to score big with the word “expressive” on a triple-word, when she asked, “Why are you breathing like that?”
Turns out, I was holding my breath, plotting my next move.
Do you ever catch yourself holding your breath?
Writer and speaker Linda Stone calls this Screen Apnea—a habit where we take shallow breaths (or none at all) while we're glued to our screens:
Responding to emails
Listening to virtual meetings
Scrolling on your phone
Watching TV
Linda noticed she was doing it too—holding her breath whenever she got online. She found that only a small percentage of people, like dancers, musicians, athletes, and test pilots, naturally take deep, regular breaths.
But don’t worry, you don’t need to be a pilot to fix this. The key is to become aware of your breathing, especially during screen time.
What can you do about it? Linda suggests:
Be mindful of your breath online (most of us are on screens 7 hours a day—yike…