What is the longest time a person can stay underwater without breathing aids.?

Question

Whenever I see a movie where someone is trapped underwater I think of myself in that situation and I am sure I would drown! How do you survive five minutes of not breathing!

Answer 1

I would say three to four minutes but it's varys from person to person

Answer 2

For a normal person, with normal lungs, its about 4 minutes, anything after that can cause brain damage or even death.

Answer 3

Five minutes would cause brain damage to start occuring. Most people should be able to survive without breathing or damaging their brain for about 3-4 minutes.

Answer 4

its all about lung capacity. people set world records at this.

Answer 5

It actually varies by person and with training you can actually increase the length of time you can hold your breath. the current world record was recently broken by David Blaine who was clocked at 17 mins. I believe he trained so that his heart would beat slower and he would use less oxygen. However there is training one can do to increase lung capacity. Some people can start to drown with in seconds. If you are scared of drowning, learn to swim.

Answer 6

I have no clue, but search David Blane ( or Blaine?). He just broke the world record for that a couple of days ago.

Answer 7

Free-diving is a sport where people compete to see how deep they can swim without breathing apparatus. World record dives require divers to hold their breath from 3-4 minutes. It apparently takes quite a bit of training to be able to hold your breath for that long...so try not to get trapped underwater ;)...