How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?

Robert, a risk-taker with a trucker's energy, agrees to stop his dangerous stunts and learns to hold his breath underwater for six minutes. Surprised by this feat, the narrator discovers that the longest anyone has held their breath underwater is eight minutes and 24 seconds with pre-breathing oxygen. Without pre-breathing, the record is 11 minutes and 54 seconds. Holding one's breath for that long is impressive and requires mental exercises or distractions. Maybe even do your taxes!