# Poll: How long can you hold your breath? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965 "2006-08-23T23:33:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malienation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Malienation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malienation)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/1 "2006-08-23T23:33:12Z")
Pant, pant… 3:00 minutes on the dot! Lemme tell you, those last 15 seconds were a bitch! Still panting… How about everyone else? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/2 "2006-08-24T00:00:01Z")
I used to be able to pull 2:30 but that is when I had sleep apnea and trained for that type of thing all night, every night. I don’t I could go past 1:30 now. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/3 "2006-08-24T00:33:58Z")
1:05 was a significant struggle. When I was little, I used to practice holding my breath for ages at night; I think I managed to get past two minutes. It helps a lot if you have good technique; hyperventilate for a bit beforehand to saturate your blood with oxygen a little, then take a deep breath and let a chunk of it escape. This way your muscles struggle less holding in a lot of air. I tried again and managed 1:20. Not bad, but certainly not all that respectable either. We find the most pointless ways to amuse ourselves, don’t we? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/4 "2006-08-24T00:42:43Z")
When I was in my early teens, I managed to hold my breath for 3:05. That included exhalation time, which I still figure was reasonable - my logic was, if I’m underwater I can’t inhale, but I can exhale just fine. I’d hyperventilate for about a minute before I took that last big breath when I was timing myself. Later in my teens, I could swim 60 meters underwater on occasion, though I generally stopped at 50, since that was 2 lengths of the pool. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/5 "2006-08-24T00:45:38Z")
A little over a minute when I am underwater, and roughly 90 seconds on land. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/6 "2006-08-24T00:48:14Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot] It helps a lot if you have good technique; hyperventilate for a bit beforehand to saturate your blood with oxygen a little, [/QUOTE] This is why we need to do research… Hyperventilation lowers CO[sub]2[/sub] content, so it takes longer before you want to breathe, but oxygen levels are not increased. ---
**Author:** ![Ender\_Will](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ender\_Will](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ender_Will)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-long-can-you-hold-your-breath/369965/7 "2006-08-24T02:23:04Z")
Just did 2:05. The first minute and a half was cake, the last 15 seconds were a bit tough.