Idiom: come up for air 1. Lit. to lift one's head out of the water to breathe. After staying under water for almost a minute, Jason had to come up for air. 2. Fig. to stop what one is doing for a different activity or rest. Whenever you get off the phone and come up for air, I have a question for you. I want you to go to the store for me when you come up for air. 3. Fig. to stop kissing for a moment and breathe. Don't those kids ever come up for air? When are you two going to come up for air?

Hi Safaa. Some dictionaries define this as having a rest or taking a break, which is what your sentence means. The significant point to understand is that "come up for air" is a metaphor. When an animal holds its breath underwater it absolutely needs to come to the surface to get air to breathe. It may want to keep on fishing underwater or whatever, but after a certain amount of underwater activity in needs to get oxygen, and the only way to do it is to come to the surface, or it will die. The same applies to a human underwater.