Scientists have found that everyone has a special way of breathing that is like a “breathing fingerprint.” This means that by looking at how someone breathes through their nose, we can tell who they are. This breathing pattern can also show if a person is healthy or if they might be feeling anxious or sad.
The idea came from studying how animals smell things. When we breathe in, our brain helps us recognize different smells. Since every brain is different, researchers thought maybe everyone’s breathing is different too.
To check this, scientists made a small device that people wear. It has soft tubes under the nose that measure air going in and out from each nostril. This device can watch breathing all day long. Usually, breathing tests only last a few minutes and don’t catch small details.
Noam Sobel, one of the scientists said, “We thought breathing was already studied a lot, but we found a new way to look at it. We can learn about the brain by observing how we breathe.”
They asked 100 young people to wear the device while doing their normal daily activities. The scientists were able to identify each person with high accuracy just by using their breathing data. They checked the same people again over two years and the breathing patterns stayed the same. This is as good as some voice recognition systems.
Timna Soroka, another researcher, said she was surprised. “”I assumed it would be difficult to distinguish between people since they’re engaged in different activities, like running or resting.” But their breathing patterns were very different.”
The study also found that breathing patterns relate to health things like body weight, sleep habits, anxiety and depression. For example, people who felt more anxious had shorter breaths and uneven pauses between breaths while sleeping. None of the participants had diagnosed mental health problems, so this shows breathing might give early signs of how people feel inside.
According to Sobel, while it’s common to believe that emotions like sadness or anxiety affect our breathing, it might actually be that our breathing patterns can influence the way we feel. If that is true, changing breathing might help improve mood.
The device has some problems. Wearing tubes under the nose can be uncomfortable or make people feel sick. It also does not measure mouth breathing and can move during sleep. The scientists aim to create a device that is smaller and more comfortable for everyday use.
The researchers’ next goal is to find out whether people can improve their well-being by mimicking healthy breathing. Sobel said, “We want to go beyond just finding problems to helping people feel better by changing how they breathe.”
This study shows that breathing is very special and can help us understand health in new ways.