Sighing is more than a way to express your irritation or impatience. It's healthy.
Read also: What exactly is a sigh?
American research shows that sighing is a reflex that is vital. Sighing prevents alveoli from collapsing. That happens when you take shallow breaths too much and too often. Alveoli have an important function:they ensure the exchange of oxygen and waste products. A sigh allows the blisters to fill with air.
Research by the University of Leuven shows that sighing is a kind of reset of the respiratory system. This is important because your oxygen needs change every minute due to internal and external factors (think:running to catch the bus).
When stressed, your body produces a cocktail of hormones that prepare you for action:fight or flight. This response is characterized by rapid, shallow breathing. When you're under stress, you sigh more and that's a good thing:this improves your breathing and calms you down.
Sighing can be a way to release your emotions when faced with a frustrating situation. For example, that you have already missed the train twice today through your own fault. By taking a big sigh, the feeling of uneasiness ebbs away and there is space in your head again.
On average we sigh 12 times an hour.
