Institute For The Future

E-mail apnea

Every now and then, I find something oddly health-related on BoingBoing, a blog that bills itself as a "directory of wonderful things" (many of which are . . . odd). See my previous posts about marijuana vending machines and archival public health photos for a sense of some of the knowledge one can glean from BoingBoing.

 

Today's gem is entitled, "Email apnea: holding your breath while you answer mail." A woman named Linda Stone "has noticed that people hold their breath and breathe shallowly when answering email" and hyperventilate while talking on their cell phones. Stone coined the term "e-mail apnea" to describe this phenomenon.^* She contacted a National Institute of Health scientist whose research "'demonstrated that breath-holding contributes significantly to stress-related diseases.'" So for all of us who spend a lot of time dealing with e-mail while sitting at our desks (which also can restrict breathing), be warned: our health is at risk!

 

^* For more on e-mail apnea, see Stone's post here.