Breathing exercises for overstimulation

A noisy restaurant, a crowded store, flickering lights, three people talking at once, notifications pinging. Sometimes the world is simply too much. You might feel tense, irritable, panicky, tearful or desperate to escape.

That’s overstimulation, sometimes called sensory overload. Breathing can help bring you back down, especially alongside turning down the input.

What overstimulation feels like

• feeling overwhelmed, on edge or irritable
• finding noise, light, smells or touch suddenly unbearable
• struggling to think, focus or talk
• a racing heart, tense muscles or fast breathing
• an urge to leave, cover your ears or close your eyes
• shutting down, or having a meltdown

Anyone can become overstimulated, especially when tired or stressed. It’s particularly common for autistic people, people with ADHD, people with anxiety or PTSD, and highly sensitive people.

Why breathing helps

Overstimulation sets off your body’s stress response: faster breathing, a racing heart, tense muscles. Slow breathing, especially breathing out slowly, switches on the calming side of your nervous system. It also gives your attention one simple thing to focus on, instead of everything at once.

4 breathing exercises for overstimulation

1. Eyes closed, long out-breath

Close your eyes, or rest them on one spot. Breathe in gently through your nose for 4, and out slowly through your mouth for 6. Closing your eyes cuts out a huge amount of input straight away.

2. Humming breath

Breathe in through your nose, then breathe out slowly while humming softly, like a gentle “mmm”. The low vibration can feel soothing, and it naturally lengthens your out-breath. If you’re in public, a very quiet hum works.

3. Hand on chest

Place a hand flat on your chest or belly, pressing gently. Feel it rise and fall as you breathe slowly. The steady pressure can be grounding when everything else feels chaotic.

4. Counting out-breaths

Silently count each out-breath, from 1 to 5, then start again. It gives your busy mind a single, simple job.

Turn down the input too

Breathing works best when you also reduce what’s overwhelming you:

• Step away, to a quieter room, a bathroom, outside or your car.
• Block noise with headphones, earplugs or noise-cancelling earbuds.
• Dim the lights, or wear sunglasses or a cap.
• Cut digital noise: silence notifications, put your phone face down.
• Tell someone, if you can: “I need a few minutes of quiet.”
• Plan ahead: know where the quiet spots are at events, and take breaks before you hit your limit.

How Breatheasy can help

Breatheasy can be your quiet corner in your pocket. Its guided breathing exercises pulse your phone as you breathe in, so you can close your eyes and follow along without needing to look or listen, which is ideal when sound and light are too much. Calming sleep sounds, played through headphones, can help drown out a noisy room. If overload tips into panic, the panic button walks you through it, step by step. Breatheasy is coming soon to iPhone and Android.

When to get help

If overstimulation happens often, causes meltdowns or shutdowns, or makes it hard to work, study or go out, talk to a doctor. It can be a sign of autism, ADHD, anxiety or sensory processing differences, and support and adjustments can make a real difference.

Sources

• Russo, Santarelli and O’Rourke (2017). The physiological effects of slow breathing in the healthy human. Breathe.
• Zaccaro et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: a systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
• Breathing exercises for stress, NHS