There exists several techniques for monitoring respiration (spirometers, nasal thermocouples, transthoracic inductance, impedance plethysmography, strain gauge etc.), but each of these techniques requires a special device. The method proposed in this paper calculates the intervals of respiration rates extracted from ordinary electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The result obtained shows clearly that each respiration cycle can be represented by a maxima. The simple algorithm proposed in this study is used to count the respiration times. The method has been tested on 26 voluntary subjects in three different conditions (normal, controlled breath to simulate apnea, and during sleep). Moreover, the respiration times obtained have been compared with the respiration rate acquired by Philips Physiological Monitor (MP60). The method proposed in this paper for normal subjects have an accuracy that can reach over 96%. However, for apnea subject, the proposed methods can reach over 93% accuracy. In conclusion, this technique is applicable to any type of automated ECG analysis, in real time and without the need of additional hardware.