The connection between your breath, anxiety and sleep during menopause.

The connection between your breath, anxiety and sleep during menopause?

We often hear that most of us breathe around 20,000 times a day.

In my functional breath training I always say that optimal breathing is between 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 breaths a minute. That works out as between 6,480 and 9,360 breaths a day, rather than the commonly quoted 20,000!

So what does this tell us? That most of us are over breathing! More air, more oxygen, what's the problem?

The problem is that more air actually means less oxygen delivered to your cells, and it keeps the body in a subtle state of alert. Every now and again that's not a problem, but chronic over breathing can quietly feed the anxiety, restlessness and disturbed sleep that so many women notice in perimenopause and beyond.

How menopause changes the way we breathe

What most of us don't realise is that our hormones and our breath are intimately connected.

Progesterone is a natural respiratory stimulant. It supports the drive to breathe and helps keep the airway muscles toned during sleep. As progesterone falls through perimenopause and menopause, many women notice their breathing becoming shallower and more chest-based, and snoring or sleep-disordered breathing becoming more common. Research shows sleep-related breathing problems rise significantly after menopause, which is one reason sleep can feel so much lighter and more broken at this stage of life.

At the same time, falling oestrogen, which has a natural buffering effect on the stress response, makes the nervous system more sensitive to stress. So just when our breathing patterns may be shifting, our threshold for anxiety is lower too. For some, particularly those of us who may have already been a bit anxious, it's the perfect storm. Thankfully, by working gently with the breath we can support our bodies to calm things down.

So what is dysfunctional breathing?

Most of us are born breathing perfectly and then somewhere along the line it starts to shift. To become shallower, to be from the chest rather than deep using the diaphragm, to become faster, to hold our breath unintentionally, or to breathe through our mouth. All of these are signs of dysfunctional breathing.

Tech apnoea is actually a thing. We hold our breath while using technology, and also when we're stressed. Sitting all day at a computer can contribute as we start to round our shoulders and close the chest cavity. The traumas we experience through life can also lock in shallow breathing patterns. Then the hormonal changes of menopause arrive and amplify patterns that may have been building for years.

What does dysfunctional breathing do to anxiety?

Shallow, fast breathing reduces oxygen delivery to our cells, that's every part of our body, including the brain.

While we often think of carbon dioxide as the waste gas, it's actually critical for delivering oxygen to the cells. You need that build up of carbon dioxide to properly use the oxygen, and over breathing doesn't allow it to build up. Think of the oxygen in the blood like people on a bus, they can only get off at the stop if there is some carbon dioxide waiting for them.

When we over breathe, carbon dioxide drops too low and the body reads this as danger creating that fight or flight physiological response. Racing heart, light-headedness, a sense of dread. Many women in perimenopause describe sudden waves of anxiety or even night-time panic, and dysfunctional breathing can often be part of the problem.

Your breath and your nervous system

If we're chest breathing or over breathing we keep the sympathetic nervous system, our fight or flight response, activated. This keeps us in a stress cycle that's hard to undo, and in menopause, when the nervous system is already more reactive, that cycle can feel relentless.

The good news is that we can retrain the breath and undo these patterns, or even calm anxiety in the moment with exercises that extend the exhale, building up that carbon dioxide and stimulating the parasympathetic rest and digest branch of the nervous system.

Chronic dysfunctional breathing keeps the body in a low-level stress state. Not only does this feed anxiety, it can slowly deplete the body’s energy, disrupting sleep, digestion, immune function, heart health, metabolism and hormones.

As a Nutritional Therapist, the link between dysfunctional breathing and gut health fascinates me. We can have the best diet in the world, but if we're fuelling a stressed state through our breathing pattern, the chances are we won't be properly digesting or absorbing our food.

A study in 2022 found that slow deep breathing helped Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms. Just breathing slowly! It never ceases to amaze me that something so simple can help reduce anxiety, improve sleep, support blood pressure, digestion and more.

Retraining the breath

Breathing is automatic, so any dysfunctional patterns will switch back once we stop thinking about them. There are two approaches I work with to help us return to the slow, deep breathing that keeps us calm, sleeping well and steady through the hormonal shifts of menopause.

The first is breath re-training: working slowly and consistently with daily exercises. This takes commitment, but over time it can build your carbon dioxide tolerance, helping to reduce anxiety and improve sleep. You can learn the exercises with an expert and take them forward yourself.

The second is to go deeper, into the subconscious, to undo those learned shallow patterns. Transformational Breath®, is a conscious connected breathing modality that can do just that, opening up the full capacity of the respiratory system and calming the nervous system. For this it's best to work with a qualified practitioner, or attend a breath workshop, so you're fully supported.

A simple exercise to get you started

If you’d like to give it a try, here's a simple technique to get you started. It can help calm anxiety, get you back to sleep at 3am, or get your body into rest and digest before a meal.

Breathe in for 4, hold for 7 and out for 8... repeat!! If that is too stressful just reduce the numbers until you feel comfortable and build from there. About 20 rounds should have you relaxed, back to sleep or ready to digest a meal.