I sleep with my wife and (when she graces us with her presence) our cat. Last night I caught myself syncing my breath to their breaths while sleeping, or half-sleeping considering I was aware of what was happening. Eventually their breathing went out of sync, and my breathing got confused, and after a very brief period of suffocation, I realized that I have no obligation to sync my breath, and took control of my breathing and started breathing normally. It felt strange to me but I googled it and it looks like syncing your breath happens to people. Does it happen to you as well?
PS: I realized while typing, I don’t know if I should be hearing my 3kg cat’s breathing. I should check on that.
Sometimes when my partner is stressed, just being close and me breathing calmly is enough to instill some calm into their breathing and eventually calm them.
I’ve had that happen the other way around and it’s actually nice and soothing.
Until you unsync and need to reboot the breathing software for a sec.