Breathing Protocols to Reboot Your Health, Fix Your Sleep, and Boost Performance — James Nestor

Tim Ferriss talks with James Nestor years after the release of Breath to revisit what has stuck and what he has learned since. Nestor argues that most people suffer from breathing dysfunction and that simply becoming a normal nasal breather is more important than fancy breath work. He covers the link between sleep-disordered breathing and ADHD in kids, mouth taping, indoor CO2 air quality (especially in hotels and airplanes), and how athletes are retraining their diaphragmatic breathing. The conversation also explores tumo and Wim Hof breathing, the BOLT score test, electromagnetic/PEMF devices, coherent breathing rooted in prayer, and Nestor's long, difficult journey to writing Breath.

• Nestor says the population of kids with sleep-disordered breathing and the population diagnosed with ADHD almost completely intersect, and argues ADHD is mostly a breathing problem rather than a neurological condition, yet kids are never assessed for breathing or sleep before being medicated.
  00:17:42
• He claims 50% of people given a CPAP stop using it within 8 weeks, and many who keep using it actually have worse breathing, so it is not a good solution.
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• Tripling indoor CO2 to around 1,500 parts per million can drop certain cognitive test scores in schools by about 50%, with headaches and migraines appearing around 2,500 ppm.
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• Nestor has never recorded a single flight anywhere on Earth where CO2 stayed under the recommended 1,000 ppm, and says airplanes run around 2,500 ppm, which is why people feel drained after flights.
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• The most expensive green- and LEED-certified hotels he tested had by far the worst air quality, with one reading 2,800 ppm on waking, because they recirculate air to save on heating and cooling costs.
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• Elite trainers say breathing is now the number one thing they focus on for athletes, and most athletes breathe into the chest rather than engaging the diaphragm, making them as dysfunctional as everyone else.
  00:53:42
• Italian research on prayer (the Buddhist om mani padme hum chant, a kundalini chant, and the Catholic rosary) found all required roughly 5-6 second exhales and inhales, producing a state of coherence now known as coherent breathing.
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• Nestor states roughly 90% of people on the planet suffer from some form of breathing dysfunction, and the most helpful thing anyone can do is simply become a normal breather before pursuing hardcore breath work.
  01:34:45

• Maurice Daubard, a French breath-work pioneer who predated Wim Hof, was slated for lung surgery as a sick child but rehabilitated himself with yoga breathing in the 1950s and lived to 93.
  00:02:37
• At 71 Daubard toured the Himalayas by bike at 5,000m elevation, sat in ice water for 55 minutes, and ran 150 miles in the Sahara.
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• The first breath work Nestor tried, which still blew his socks off and soaked him with sweat, was Sudarshan Kriya through the Art of Living.
  00:11:27
• Tim Ferriss recounts a 9-minute breath hold achieved after a 10-day water fast and inside a hyperbaric chamber at 2.4 atmospheres of pressure.
  00:15:06
• Free phone apps called Snorelab and Snore Clock record nighttime breathing audio and produce a sleep score as a cheap first screen for breathing problems.
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• Nestor recommends the Aranet4 as the only accurate consumer CO2 monitor, with a 3-4 month battery life, and is building a database of hotel and restaurant air quality.
  00:33:50
• Nestor's emergency illness supplement pack pairs high-dose vitamin D with vitamins E, A, and extra K2, plus everyday staples like CoQ10 and nattokinase.
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• The BOLT (Body Oxygen Level Test) is measured by taking three normal nasal breaths then holding after an exhale until the first urge to breathe; it can double in a week or two with practice.
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• Email apnea, the habit of holding your breath while focused on screens, was researched by the NIH over about 20 years and can raise blood pressure and cause headaches.
  01:04:42
• Nestor's first draft of Breath was 290,000 words and had to be cut to 85,000, with the through-line becoming a 20-day Stanford experiment where he was a mouth breather for 10 days then a nasal breather for 10.
  01:25:24

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