Jul 182015
We have seen examples where the respiration rates for experienced meditators are lower than those for novices. What about patterns of inhalations and exhalations? Plotting the average respiration waveform for a novice (<200 hrs) and an expert meditator (>5,000 hrs), we see that the exhalation time is 50% longer than the inhalation time for novice and 70% longer for the expert.
Ratio of exhalation to inhalation time for novice is 1.5 while for expert is 1.7.
Furthermore, the expert breathes much more deeply than the novice, as indicated by the difference in pressure from the bottom of the exhalation to the top of the inhalation.