Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal
Balban MY · Neri E · Kogon MM · Weed L · Nouriani B · Jo B · Holl G · Zeitzer JM · Spiegel D · Huberman AD
Cell Reports Medicine · 2023
What the research tells us
Brief daily breathing practice, particularly cyclic sighing, showed relative benefits for positive affect and respiratory rate. Between-group differences in negative affect and state anxiety were not significant, and HRV, resting heart rate and sleep did not change significantly. Mood benefits should be read alongside these null physiological findings.
Scope & interpretation
Small groups, remotely estimated adherence, retrospective registration and no long-term follow-up constrain interpretation. Eight households received the same condition; consequences for statistical independence remain to be checked. Within-group improvement does not replace a between-group comparison.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- Remote exploratory trial of 108 people: mindfulness 24, cyclic sighing 30, box breathing 21 and cyclic hyperventilation with retention 33. Figure 4 physiological analyses included 100.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Approximately five minutes daily of three structured breathing practices versus mindfulness meditation.
- OUTCOMES
- Positive/negative affect, state anxiety, respiratory rate, HRV, resting heart rate and sleep.
- TIME FRAME
- 28 days, without a test of long-term maintenance.
Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Scientific review
Not yet scientifically reviewed
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing. Scientific review is recorded separately on this page.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
Full-text participant flow, affect/physiology/sleep results, statistics and limitations. Household allocation, adherence and all supplementary figures remain to be examined.
- Study funding
- Victor and Winnie Koo, Tianren Culture and Stanford support; WHOOP donated wrist devices.
- Competing interests
- The paper reports no WHOOP role in design or analysis. A. D. Huberman became a WHOOP adviser in June 2022.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
Revision history
- · v1.0
Added the breathing trial, including mood findings, null HRV/sleep results and household-allocation limitations.