Often sigh when stressed and tired? this is the medical reason

Have you ever noticed that when your mind is tired or stressed out, whether it's because of work at the office or home problems, you suddenly take a deep breath? Sighing is actually a normal response or reflex that is driven by the subconscious mind when we are stressed. However, what triggered it?

Taking a deep breath is a sign of stress

Exhaling is a way for the body to quickly vent and relieve emotions. Karl Halvor Teigen, lecturer in psychology at the University of Oslo, said in Prevention, since ancient times sighing has been interpreted as a sign of disappointment, defeat, frustration, boredom, frustration, and longing.

Frequent deep breaths have also been linked to depression. According to Normal Breathing, excessive exhaling indicates that a person is under severe stress, cardiovascular disease, nervous disorders, and respiratory problems.

The same thing was also conveyed by research from the University of Leuven. This study states that sighing is a form of expression of frustration and frustration when you are stressed or tired. They studied the breathing patterns of participants who were under stress for 20 minutes, and found that these people tended to have very slow or even very fast breathing reflexes.

Changes in breathing patterns during stress can trigger us to feel short and difficult to breathe freely. When faced with stressful situations, your brain will stimulate the production of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline to increase heart rate and blood flow to important organs. Your breathing rate will also increase dramatically to meet the oxygen needs of the whole body quickly.

But at the same time, stress hormones will constrict the respiratory tract muscles and pulmonary blood vessels. As a result, your breathing pattern becomes ineffective because you tend to take short, rapid breaths instead of slow and deep as is normal. These changes end up making you short of breath.

Breathing in is a great way to calm yourself down when you are stressed

When humans feel stressed, their lungs will become stiff so that gas exchange that enters and leaves the body is less than optimal. Well, launching from The Guardian, sighing is a reflex to maintain optimal lung function and sustain human survival.

According to Psychology Today, naturally the brain will send signals throughout the body indicating fatigue. This "tired" signal then triggers your lungs to take a deep breath so that the oxygen supply is maintained.

Jack Feldman, Professor of Neurobiology at UCLA explains through Prevention that every breath is normal. The reason is that the human lungs are filled with hundreds of millions of alveoli which Feldman described as a tiny balloon inflating with each breath.

These alveoli are in charge of delivering oxygen to the blood, which is then pumped by the heart throughout the body. The balloons or bubbles can sometimes burst when you don't take a breath.

When the body exhales again, these bubbles will rise again like an inflated balloon. Taking deep breaths when you are stressed and tired helps your lungs open up these bubbles to open again.

The entry of new oxygen to replace the carbon dioxide that is released when we inhale can slow down the heart rate and lower or stabilize blood pressure. Then when we exhale, the alveoli or air sacs of the lungs stretch and create a sense of relief.

In the end, you can breathe easier when you are stressed out after taking a deep breath. This has been linked to lower stress levels.