Yoga and Breathing Exercises Aid Children with ADHD to Focus

I wonder if the increase in ADHD diagnoses can be tied to school becoming more focused on sitting still in a room for a long period of time. At least for me, I was doing really well in school when classes were ~50 minutes, and some included phsical activity like shop class and home economics. In my junior year of high school, they switched classes to 90 minutes, you took different classes on different days, and none of my classes included physical activities. My grades plummeted after the switch, and I ended up getting diagnosed with ADD when I was struggling with college in my mid-20s.

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Learning the Wim Hof breathing method changed my life for the better. And this is not meant as an advertisement for his business; you can find the same technique (with or without branding) for free everywhere online. I highly, highly recommend trying it out.

Whenever I feel scatter-brained, lack focus or creativity, when I'm feeling down, (or just feel like it) ... this is my go-to method. ~20 minutes of controlled, intermittent hypoxia. Not to mention it's an excellent "tool" to have in psychologically and/or physically stressful times, such as after an accident and being in a hospital (speaking from experience).

For those - I was one - doubting that breathing can have any effect in brain activity, you would be surprised to know that voluntary hyperventilation is a common tool to diagnose epilepsy[1].

My kid went through a battery of tests that included light - no reaction - and hyperventilation - that triggered some jerky movements in his legs and a clear alteration of the EEG readings.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6546426/

Quite interesting that. Thanks for the post.

On an aside, I have struggled with reading focus these past few years I have found that when I read I get a jittery panicky feeling like I need to stop and do something else. What seems to help is, when that feeling occurs is to use diaphragmatic breathing and continue to read, my focus is better and the feeling subsides. I am hoping I can retrain myself to focusing like I used to as I loved to read.

Growing up, adults used to say... "Remeber your breathing!" Perhaps they were right :-)

Sample size: 16 children between the ages of 6 and 7.

Not worth reporting.

Totally worth doing a few bigger studies before shouting to the world that we're just not breathing right.

I got way into eastern spirituality in my 20's, taoism especially. Not a religion, more like a way of life.

Taoists believe that the spirit and the body connect through breathing because it is both a involuntary and voluntary action at the same time.

Now that you're thinking about it, you're probably personally controlling your breath, where before you clicked into this comment section it was just happening naturally.

I read several books, starting with one written by a Westerner and the later ones that were over a millenia old. All focused on all sorts breathing exercises.

Even during love making, controlled measured breathing. Centering yourself, focusing your attention/sensory tools inwards rather than the outside world.

From my limited experience, I'd say if you're having issues with focus it is a great tool to have.

If you want some book recommendations I can give them, just ask. I don't want people to think I'm here to market anything.

The power of breathing over mind/body regulation seems highly underrated, in the West at least.

I certainly knew nothing about it until I read this feature article [0][1] and the resources it pointed to.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jul/26/every-b...

[1] HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23962638

As someone who used to 'self-medicate'[1] my (then-undiagnosed) ADHD with breathing techniques and Yoga – mostly Hatha and Kundalini Yoga – for 15 years I am - personally - very skeptic of these claims.

Don't get me wrong, I still love breathing techniques and Yoga and practice both on a daily basis.

But I DON'T see how stimulating your nervous system this way will do what ADHD medication actually does: Inhibit dopamine/norephedrine reuptake / increase dopamine/norephedrine secretion.

In other words, in my n-equals-one world, the difference the right medication has made in managing ADHD has been an order of magnitude greater compared to regular, intense and consistent breathing, Yoga and meditation.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=interleave

While I absolutely believe that breathing techniques can be beneficial for ADHD (I’ve got it, and our almost-7 y/o daughter does, too), the mechanism posited here seems… questionable.

One region of the brain getting more oxygen? If that were the explanation, surely other regions of the brain would be performing poorly due to insufficient oxygen as well. And further, taking oxygen might be expected to yield improvements. Is any of that the case?

> “For children with ADHD, as a rule, the part of the brain that is responsible for the regulation of brain activity – the reticular formation – is deficient,” said Sergey Kiselev, head of the Laboratory of Brain and Neurocognitive Development at UrFU, head of the study.

This is news to me, and I'm having trouble finding any good sources that talk about it. Anyone have any suggestions?

You're trying to calm the central nervous system.

Magnesium deficiency should be part of this discussion.

The link to the original research is not working, presumably that's because it's "closed access" according to the reference: https://www.clinicalkey.com/content/playBy/pii/?v=S000632232...

I wonder what criteria they used to measure the improvement in focus. Was it the children themselves saying "yes, I feel more focused now", or was it a test of the children's ability of focus, or something else?

Not so sure about the Yoga (easily subbed with cardio) but I can see breathing exercises helping. That said, I would like to see these kids just having less screen time and more outdoor activity and compare the results to this study.

"clear your mind" practiced for milennias clears your mind, who would have thiught?