Why Do We Sigh?

A sigh is often taken to be a sign of sadness, but it can indicate a lot more than that—or a lot less.

Hosted by: Brit Garner
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سلطان الخليفي, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Bella Nash, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, Tim Curwick, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Philippe von Bergen, Chris Peters, Fatima Iqbal
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Sources:

[Sayurichyan]

People always tell me to stop sighing, stop being negative and stop ruining the mood

me: just trying to breathe

[chillermiller]

1:28
and that's where the *sighcology* comes in

[SaintParallax]

People always ask me what’s wrong whenever I sigh, I’M JUST SIGHING! STOP READING INTO IT! *sigh*

[MicansCreations]

Shouldn't have watched this before class. I'm sitting here now hyper aware of my breathing.

[Master_Therion]

I went on a date last week and was soooo nervous the whole time. When it was over I let out a huge sigh.
It was an expiration date.

[kinekine]

great now you've made me aware of my breathing thanks

[Purplynerd]

It's been pointed out to me that I sigh pretty often, but I hardly ever notice it. I'm glad this video explains it!

[CarBENbased]

Amazing how something seemingly so simple can be so complex when you really look at it.

[Rithene]

I wonder what people would think if instead of reading a story, they watched a video with someone sighing, perhaps without seeing the character's face. I think the negative association has to do more with the word "sigh" than the actual action; generally when writers just say "she sighed", it's negative, and they add a modifier if it's positive ("they sighed in relief", "he let out a contented sigh", etc). Could explain why imagining the scenario yielded different results. I'd be curious to see if there would be a difference between reading and seeing, or one between subjects imagining themselves and imagining someone else.

[nice]

I NEED TO SIGH EVERY FIVE MINUTES OR MY LUNG WILL COLLAPSE?
*STRESS CAN CHANGE MY SIGH PATTERN?!*

[SirCaseyoftheLea]

So I've seen this video before, and in my family, we tend to ask each other about why they're sighing. (It sounds so weird when written down.) I started responding with, and now the other members of my family do too, "just filling up the old alveoli."
Thanks Sci-show, for inspiring a new family meme.

[jerrie]

I sigh because I realized that life has no point, and everything I ever did will be forgotten

[nannyalberte]

I love all the SciShows, but Psych is by far my favorite :) Thank you for all of these!

[emmahacker]

I wasn't expecting there to be so much to it, this one was really interesting.
I also love that people do actual studies on sighing

[UtauReni]

I took so many deep breaths during this video xD it's like how talking about yawning makes me yawn - talking about sighing made me sigh!

[msjkramey]

I sigh a lot and people comment on it a lot. I sigh when I'm problem solving and my gears are turning really fast. I'm happy, but I also have some positive stress. I sigh when I'm stumped and I need a tiny mental break and I sigh when I figure the solution out

It really takes me out of it when someone notices and comments on my sighing. I don't even notice I'm doing it, and I always find it just a little upsetting that people assume that I'm upset or experiencing negative stress

Then they try to comfort me and not amount of explaining helps them understand that my sighs are out of my own kind of contentment

[ValeSakuras]

So sigh is the human equivalent of a cats purr?

[MadJunkFiler]

My cat sighs when he's about to go to sleep. It's adorable. I would have thought that sighing is a human thing to express emotion, like crying or smiling. But I guess not.

[davidwrightme]

Neat!
Your explanation of how the sigh evolved into a social cue makes so much sense. My wife and I communicate via sighs with our dog (boxer). It helps everyone relax, and he'll give us a sigh back. "Don't stress, we're safe." is what we're saying.

[scienceisanart]

"Eupneic" sounds like reversed talking