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眞鍋かをりのBUSINESS FRONTIERS【2026年2月9日】　ゲスト：「すごい睡眠呼吸」の著者・トラタニ株式会社代表取締役　虎谷生央さん

February 9, 2026·28 min·2 clips

The 4-7-8 breathing method and US military sleep technique both failed — Toratani explains why.

The episode is the second of two featuring Toratani Ikuo, whose company develops sleep and breathing products. The conversation opens with a discussion of the autonomic nervous system, with Toratani explaining that chronic sympathetic dominance — the body's 'accelerator always pressed' state — disrupts hormones and generates reactive oxygen species that damage DNA. He states that virtually all modern people, from children to the elderly, live in this state. The ideal daytime balance is described as sympathetic 6 to parasympathetic 4, shifting to roughly 2 to 8 during sleep. Toratani argues that breathing is the primary lever for restoring this balance, since it directly controls autonomic tone. Host Manabe shares her own experience of stomach pain with no physical cause, attributing it to autonomic dysfunction, and her failed attempts to sustain conscious breathing exercises. Toratani acknowledges that deliberate breathing practice is itself stressful and therefore self-defeating; the goal is to make slightly deeper breathing automatic. He notes that women and children are especially prone to chest breathing, which immobilizes the diaphragm and worsens autonomic balance. The conversation shifts to nighttime breathing, where unconscious processes take over. Toratani notes that even people without diagnosed sleep apnea experience brief breathing pauses, and that sleep apnea patients can stop breathing for up to 90 seconds. Manabe references the anime 'Demon Slayer' and its 'total concentration breathing' technique as a cultural touchpoint for the challenge of maintaining conscious breath control during sleep. Toratani describes his product development process, starting with the observation that the buttocks bear the greatest body pressure during sleep, causing restlessness. His mattress relieves pressure on the sacrum — a bone that moves approximately 2mm with each breath — by contouring the surface and elevating the pelvic wings. He then addresses pillows, explaining that raising the head above the back level kinks the cervical airway and compresses four neck respiratory muscles, leading to both impaired breathing and shoulder stiffness. His pillow design supports only the neck arch, leaving the head level with the back. For listeners without his products, he describes a three-towel method: one towel rolled and placed under the neck, and two standard towels folded with a 10cm gap at the center placed under the lower back to relieve sacral pressure. Toratani mentions that the sacrum fuses with age, reducing mobility and causing the stiff, disjointed movement seen in older people. He credits his own improved posture and elimination of shoulder pain to these practices. The episode closes with information on a Ginza showroom where listeners can experience the bedding, and a reference to his book 'Amazing Sleep and Breathing' for further detail.

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