362 hours before I have to get out of bed

So to celebrate your (yay!) vacation, you got up this early? [Edit: x-post with your edit, so never mind]

I love getting up early when I'm not in a hurry to anywhere.

So did I, first time round. See where it got me?

Up at insano thirty o'clock?

Kristen, if you never go to sleep, it doesn't count.

I haven't gone to bed yet. I may attempt a nap later but I'm going to try to keep it short. I need to get my sleep schedule back to normal so I'm not sleeping all day and then staying up all night.

So this morning on the train I was wondering if you breathed pure oxygen for a long enough time for all the nitrogen in your bloodstream to be replaced with oxygen, could you hold your breath longer, and if so, how long?

When you hold your breath for a long time, what is it that makes you really really want to breath? The declining % of oxygen in your blood? The increasing levels of CO₂ in your blood? Oxygen and or CO₂ levels in your lungs? Or some body clock?

Happy Birthday, ChiKat! May it be a lovely one.

I'm not sleeping all day and then staying up all night

Maybe your body thinks that it's on a trip to a different timezone?

what is it that makes you really really want to breath?

Isn't it easier to not inhale for a longer time if you exhale a bit while you're at it?

t Waves at juliana

Isn't it easier to not inhale for a longer time if you exhale a bit while you're at it?

I dunno. Maybe there's a FAQ at the Holding-Your-Breath-For-a-Long-Time Institute.

Happy Birthday ChiKat!

It seems totally unfair to me Perkins.

Betsy, thanks for that Science Fair link. Brendon is done for this year, haven't heard about Bobby yet. But yes indeed next year we will do it again. I'm jealous that your kid did actual science. The only way I could even get Brendon to show any enthusiasm was to let him burn up stuff.

That part was rather fun. The first trial the flame was too far away and it took too long for anything to burn. The second trial everything caught almost immediately with flame all over the place and the holders melting and all kinds of fun. We have pictures that we put on the board. The next few times we hit a happy medium.

Happy Birthday ChiKat!

Wow, there are divers who can hold their breath for almost ten minutes! I had no idea people could hold their breath for that long - I thought the max was 2.5 to 3 minutes.

[link]

Another volunteer diver, Tanya Streeter, dove to a record depth of 400 feet in 2003 and returned on a single breath. She descended on a weighted sled to a point about as deep as a 35-story building is high, and resurfaced with the help of a balloon.

Fun.

They do use tricks, like hyperventilating first.

OK, maybe that underwater scene in Alien: Resurrection wasn't so lame....

eta:

Prior to this year, I had probably never swum below 20ft while holding my breath. I would have never thought that I could ever swim down over 100ft on a single breath of air. With adequate training, it is within reach and can be done safely.

An important part of the training is in invoking the mammalian dive reflex, one that every human inherited from their evolutionary ancestors. This reflex allows one to significantly lower their heart rate (bradycardia), shift their blood flow to the core (blood shunt) and even reduce lung compression effects at great depths (thoracic filling). In addition, the training emphasizes significant physical, physiological and psychological tolerance as well as physical conditioning.

More fun.