# How slowly can you breathe?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-slowly-can-you-breathe/803148>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 30, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-slowly-can-you-breathe/803148 "2017-11-30T14:52:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2017, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-slowly-can-you-breathe/803148/1 "2017-11-30T14:52:40Z")

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A few years ago I tried breathing very slowly. I don’t remember why, maybe after reading some article on meditation. Eventually I tried breathing as slowly as possible (i.e. as slowly as could be sustained indefinitely without developing air hunger), and found that I could sustain one breath per minute for as long as I wanted.

The best technique I found was to inhale steadily for thirty seconds, then exhale steadily for thirty seconds (as opposed to inhaling relatively quickly and then holding your breath for ~1 minute). I needed to watch a clock to make this work.

So…how slowly can you breathe?