According to reports, Kate Winslet held her breath for seven minutes and fifteen seconds while filming Avatar: The Way of Water. A few of the film’s sequences were shot underwater.
Everyone (including skilled freedivers) would agree that holding one’s breath for over seven minutes is exceedingly tough. The majority of professional freedivers must train for years before achieving this number, and many never do. Winslet seemed to have trained for barely a few weeks.
Winslet currently holds the record for the longest breath hold on a movie set, but let’s put that into perspective. The current world record for breath holding is 24 minutes and 37 seconds, utilizing a technique that is presumably identical to the actor’s. Budimir obat, a professional breath-hold diver with whom I have worked closely, has this position.
I and other researchers have conducted comprehensive physiologic tests on these professional divers to determine how they are able to hold their breath for such an extended period of time. Without question, oxygen is essential. Prior to holding his breath for over 25 minutes, obat inhaled 100% oxygen. Keep in mind that the usual ratio of oxygen in the air we breathe is 21 percent.
After holding her breath for more than seven minutes, Kate Winslet reacted.
Stéphane Mifsud holds the record for the longest non-oxygen-assisted breath hold at 11:35 minutes*. The women’s record is held by Natalia Molchanova at 9:02 minutes. These are the top professional apneists who have trained for a number of years and are considered the most qualified (apnea means temporarily stopped breathing).
How did Winslet accomplish this? And if you were to do this, why would you (likely) be unable to approach seven minutes even after a few weeks of training? You would need to pre-breathe with 100 percent oxygen before holding your breath, as Winslet undoubtedly did. On the 100% oxygen, Winslet most certainly hyperventilated (breathed quicker and deeper than normal).
To comprehend how this can enhance the breath-hold time, a basic summary of breathing regulation is necessary.
Chemoreceptors, which are clusters of specialized cells in the brain and neck, send the most crucial signal to breathe. These chemoreceptors respond to carbon dioxide (CO2) and, to a lesser extent, oxygen (O2) levels in the blood (yes, CO2 is more important in this case).
Additionally, there are signals from the brain stem itself (central controller) and the lungs (pulmonary stretch receptors), but they are normally of less relevance to the subject at issue. Consequently, the pace and depth of breathing are governed mostly by these chemoreceptors, which maintain the ideal levels of O2 and CO2 in the blood.
During a breath hold, the blood CO2 level increases while the O2 level decreases. The initial increase in the need to breathe, say 30 seconds into the breath hold, is caused mostly by the growing CO2. At a certain threshold, the chemoreceptors also respond to the decreasing O2, causing a substantial rise in the urge to breathe.
Eventually, the urge to breathe becomes so intense that the diaphragm (the major respiratory muscle) contracts spontaneously, a phenomenon known as an involuntary breathing movement. This is the point at which an untrained breath-holder will often release his or her hold and resume breathing (around three minutes if motivated and oxygen-unassisted).
However, preceding O2 inhalation significantly delays the initiation of involuntary breathing movements. No longer is there any signal from O2 sensors. With around 15 minutes of prior 100% O2 intake, a breath hold can be extended to over 20 minutes with appropriate blood oxygen levels.
Nevertheless, even with 100% O2, CO2 (the principal stimulant for breathing) rises during the breath hold. Nevertheless, higher blood O2 dampens the chemoreceptor response to CO2, which is advantageous for oxygen-assisted breath-holders. The combination of an absent O2 response and a reduced CO2 response allows a person to hold their breath for a significantly longer period of time.
A man in a red wetsuit is seen holding his breath near the surface while being assisted by a man in blue leggings.
The training of a freediver in shallow water. Another approach is hyperventilating prior to breath holding (Shutterstock). This will reduce the initial CO2 levels in the blood. This increases the time until CO2 levels exceed normal levels.
In freediving, hyperventilation prior to breath holding without preceding 100 percent O2 is harmful since it raises the likelihood of shallow water blackout.
It is probable that Winslet profited from her trainers’ knowledge of respiratory physiology. Although Winslet’s amazing breath hold is a record on film sets, it is not a record-breaking feat outside of film sets, even for untrained individuals.
Even as far back as 1959, seven untrained participants proved that breathing 100% O2 prior to a breath hold led to maximal breath hold durations of six to fourteen minutes. Therefore, Winslet’s seven-minute breath hold is attainable with only a few weeks of training.
*The International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA) is the acknowledged regulatory body for the apnea disciplines; however, it does not accept apnea with 100% oxygen-assisted breathing. Branko Petrovic’s oxygen-free breath hold record of 11:54 minutes is recognized by Guinness World Records but not by AIDA.
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