I sleep with my wife and (when she graces us with her presence) our cat. Last night I caught myself syncing my breath to their breaths while sleeping, or half-sleeping considering I was aware of what was happening. Eventually their breathing went out of sync, and my breathing got confused, and after a very brief period of suffocation, I realized that I have no obligation to sync my breath, and took control of my breathing and started breathing normally. It felt strange to me but I googled it and it looks like syncing your breath happens to people. Does it happen to you as well?

PS: I realized while typing, I don’t know if I should be hearing my 3kg cat’s breathing. I should check on that.

  • @namelivia
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    111 year ago

    You unblocked me an ancient memory, That’s something I used to do all the time when I was a toddler and my parents let me be in their bed.

  • @[email protected]
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    91 year ago

    I don’t, but it’s fine to hear your cat breathing. It doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with the cat, though, I’m not stopping you from a vets checkup if you think their breathing is too loud.

    What surprised me was that you were trying to sync to a cat, that’s not easy. Even when sleeping, cats breathe much faster.

  • Bebo
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    61 year ago

    This is the first time I am reading about something like this. Very interesting.

  • LegionEris [she/her]
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    11 year ago

    I can’t hear well enough to do this. Even if I turned off the fan that drowns out the tinnitus, I wouldn’t be able to hear my wife breathing like that o_o

  • [email protected]
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    110 months ago

    Sometimes when my partner is stressed, just being close and me breathing calmly is enough to instill some calm into their breathing and eventually calm them.
    I’ve had that happen the other way around and it’s actually nice and soothing.
    Until you unsync and need to reboot the breathing software for a sec.

  • @AA5B
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    11 year ago

    Doesn’t a cat breathe really fast? I can’t imagine trying to keep up with that. Similarly, I caught myself synching to 1/2 my ex’s breathing, because our rates were naturally too far apart