What’s happening when awareness drops and memories go blank during breathwork?
Conscious Connected Breathing (CCB) opens the door to a wide range of experiences—activated emotional releases, the processing of old trauma, deep connection with inner wisdom, somatic journeys filled with sensation, and even colorful, psychedelic visions. It can also lead people into subtle, still states, and these quieter experiences are often the most misunderstood. Sometimes someone “goes away,” stops responding to cues, and returns with little or no memory of what happened. These less common states can reflect four very different possibilities—two deeply beneficial, one linked to a trauma-related freeze response, and one that’s simply falling asleep.
Because of this range, they can leave the breather (and the facilitator) unsure of what’s actually taking place. As both a facilitator and the teacher of an international breathwork training, I’m asked about this often—breathers wonder why they can’t remember, and students worry when their participants seem unresponsive. Below, I’ll shed light on what’s happening in these quieter, more inward, and less responsive states, what they reflect in the body and nervous system, and how to distinguish them based on their qualities and after-effects.
When Someone ‘Goes Offline’ in Breathwork: The Four States and What They Mean
State 1: Deep Parasympathetic Override: The Deep Restorative State
A deep parasympathetic override is a state where the body drops so fully into safety and repair that conscious awareness temporarily goes offline. This is not sleep, and it’s not trauma-based dissociation. It is a deeply restorative, non-ordinary state where the system turns down all non-essential activity to heal and integrate.
During this shift, the heart rate slows, muscles soften, stress hormones decrease, and the brain often moves into theta or delta waves. Sensory processing dims, meaning the brain stops orienting to external cues. The breather continues the breathing pattern (though it may appear softer), and awareness turns inward.
From the inside, this can feel like floating, drifting, or being “somewhere else.” Time can dissolve completely. Many people recall nothing from this window yet wake feeling calm, clear, or quietly opened. It resembles deep meditation or hypnagogia.
Physiologically, connected breathwork can spark this through changes in CO₂ and O₂ levels, altered blood flow, endogenous opioid release, increased interoceptive awareness, and reduced activity in the Default Mode Network.
On returning, tingling, heaviness, or temporary disorientation are common—essentially a nervous system reboot. These states are often linked to increased neuroplasticity, lower inflammation, and deep autonomic reset.
State 2: Yogic Trance
A yogic trance is another possibility and often overlaps with parasympathetic override. In this state, the individual drops into deep absorption and inner stillness. The mind quiets, external awareness fades, and a sense of spaciousness or unity emerges. Many describe profound peace, openness, and connection. Afterward, there’s usually a strong feeling of clarity, regulation, and calm.
State 3: Falling Asleep During Breathwork
Sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one: the person was exhausted and fell asleep. Conscious Connected Breathing primarily activates the sympathetic nervous system, which doesn’t support sleep, but if someone isn’t fully engaging—breathing softer or slower than directed—the body can slip into parasympathetic “rest and digest.” From there, a depleted system may drop straight into sleep.
Sleep in breathwork feels like waking from a nap—groggy, heavy, and slow to re-engage. Facilitators can spot it quickly: the connected mouth breath shifts to nasal breathing, the body slackens, and sometimes there’s even snoring. If it happens once, it’s usually nothing more than a body grabbing rest. If it happens repeatedly in someone who isn’t fatigued, this may indicate dissociation rather than tiredness.
State 4: Trauma-Based Dissociation in Breathwork
Dissociation is the nervous system’s protective freeze response—an automatic way of disconnecting from awareness when something begins to feel overwhelming or too much to process at once. During breathwork, it can occur if strong emotional material begins to surface and the system responds by disconnecting.
Dissociation feels numb, unreal, distant, or foggy. The body may feel far away, surroundings may seem muted, and memory can become patchy. There may unconscious breath holds and time distortion or gaps. Unlike parasympathetic override—which feels soft and safe—dissociation carries a subtle undertone of withdrawal, avoidance, or overwhelm.
Handling Dissociation as a Breather
If you tend to lose the breath, “check out,” or lose time during sessions, the key is to gently widen your window of tolerance over time. Slow the practice down: breathe a little softer, keep attention on physical sensation, and open your eyes if you feel yourself drifting. Grounding tools—pressing your feet into the floor, placing a hand on your chest or belly, or anchoring attention to sound—can help keep you present as material arises. Working with a skilled facilitator, communicating openly, and pacing the intensity of your breath all help your system stay online so you can actually process what’s coming up instead of disconnecting from it.
Handling Dissociation as the Facilitator
This state is not uncommon for people with trauma histories, and when it appears, it’s simply the nervous system signaling that the experience has moved outside the person’s window of tolerance. The goal isn’t to push them back into the breath but to re-establish safety. Slow your cues, soften your tone, and invite orientation—looking around the room, feeling the floor, or placing a hand on their body with consent. Gentle sensory input, like grounding touch, can help bring them back online. You may also offer them a stone or crystal or other object to keep in their hand to help them ground.
Once they’re present again, you can guide them back into the breath slowly, keeping the intensity within a range they can process without overwhelm or shutting down. If this is a recurring pattern, private sessions can help—shorter climbs, shorter peaks, more grounding touch, and mindful movement can all help titrate their experience and build resilience.
Understanding the Differences in these Still Breathwork States
These states can look similar externally—stillness, minimal responsiveness, or silence—yet internally they arise for different reasons.
A parasympathetic override or yogic trance is deeply restorative, regulated, and safe. Sleep is often fatigue-driven and marked by grogginess on return. Dissociation is protective and often carries sensations of numbness, distance, or missing time linked to emotional overwhelm. Recognizing these distinctions supports breathers in understanding their experience and helps facilitators respond with sensitivity and attunement.
Ready to Go Deeper? Explore Sessions, Training, and Retreats
If you’re curious to explore these states more deeply, I offer online breathwork sessions and transformative breathwork retreats in Mexico that support your own healing, integration, and connection with your inner wisdom.
If you feel called to guide others and hold a deep reverence for this work, I offer an internationally accredited, GPBA-certified, trauma-informed breathwork facilitator training. It’s offers one of the most comprehensive curriculums available and is designed to give you the skills, confidence, and embodied understanding to hold this modality with depth and integrity.
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