Dyspnoea is defined as a symptom conveying an upsetting or distressing experience of breathing awareness, which can vary in quality (e.g. air hunger, increased work/effort of breathing, chest tightness) and intensity, leading to subsequent physiological and behavioural responses [1–3]. It is the cardinal symptom in widespread pulmonary and cardiac diseases, such as asthma [4], COPD [5] and heart failure [6], but is also prevalent in various other common conditions, including neuromuscular diseases, cancer and mental disorders, such as anxiety, panic and functional somatic syndromes [3, 7–10].