Simply breathing anxiety away? A pilot, just-in-time ecological momentary intervention study of one-minute cyclic sighing versus box breathing as tools for acute anxiety reduction and attention promotion in real life
Elisabeth M. Riedl · Teresa Bracklo · Kathrin Wimmer · Johanna Perzl · Hans-Juergen Gdynia · Joachim Thomas · Janusz Surzykiewicz
Anxiety, Stress, & Coping · 2026
What the research tells us
Both exercises were associated with less state anxiety than passive control at short follow-up. Box breathing reduced inhibition errors, while both exercises slowed responses. The anxiety comparison did not establish superiority of one exercise.
Scope & interpretation
Small, mostly female student sample; self-reported adherence and expectations may influence findings. No physiological outcomes or long-term effects were measured.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- 47 university students, 43 female; mean age 21.09 years. Attention analyses included 44.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Within-person, randomly ordered everyday episodes: approximately one-minute cyclic sighing, box breathing or passive control.
- OUTCOMES
- State anxiety and smartphone attention performance.
- TIME FRAME
- Post-assessment triggered five minutes after the initial anxiety questionnaire.
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Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Editorial note
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- Study funding
- Postdoctoral Research Budget, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.
- Competing interests
- Authors reported no potential conflict of interest.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
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