Breathe slowly for 5 minutes
Breathing exercises are linked to small to moderate drops in stress.
When someone tells you to take a deep breath, you probably gulp in air and lift your shoulders. In studies, the calming part tends to come from the other half: a slow, long breath out. This habit is a few minutes a day of breathing slowly, with each out-breath a little longer than the in-breath.
What it helps with
Everyday stress
Breathing exercises are linked to small to moderate drops in stress.
Low mood
Five minutes of daily breathing exercises improved mood, and breathing with long sighing exhales raised it more than meditation.
Feeling anxious
Daily breathing exercises are linked to modestly lower anxiety within a month.
Key facts
- 1In a month-long trial, adults who did 5 minutes of breathing exercises daily reported better mood and less anxiety.
- 2In that trial, cyclic sighing, which uses a long, slow out-breath, raised positive mood more than mindfulness meditation did.
- 3A meta-analysis of randomised trials linked breathwork to small to moderate reductions in self-reported stress compared with control groups.
- 4Reviews of slow breathing studies found it tends to increase heart rate variability, the small natural changes in time between heartbeats.
Why your breath is worth a few minutes
When you are stressed, your breathing tends to speed up and move higher into your chest. You can't simply decide to stop feeling stressed, but you can decide how fast you breathe. That makes your breath one of the easiest handles you have on a tense moment. The whole habit fits in one plain idea: breathe out longer than you breathe in.
How a longer out-breath works
At rest, adults usually breathe about 12 to 20 times a minute. Slow breathing in studies often means around six breaths a minute. If you breathe in for 4 counts and out for 6, each breath takes about 10 seconds, so five minutes is roughly 30 slow breaths. Your heart naturally speeds up a little as you breathe in and slows as you breathe out. Slow breathing tends to make these swings larger, which researchers measure as heart rate variability, the small changes in time between heartbeats.
There is more than one way to breathe slowly, and researchers have compared a few of them.
| Pattern | How to do it | What studies found |
|---|---|---|
| Cyclic sighing | Two short breaths in through the nose, one long breath out through the mouth | Largest rise in positive mood in a month-long trial |
| Box breathing | In for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4 | Mood and anxiety improved in the same trial |
| Six breaths a minute | In for about 4 counts, out for about 6 | Linked to larger heart rate swings in reviews |
What the research found
In a 2023 Stanford trial, more than 100 adults did five minutes of a breathing exercise or mindfulness meditation at home every day for a month. Every group reported less anxiety and better mood by the end. The cyclic sighing group showed the biggest daily gain in positive mood, more than the meditation group, and their resting breathing rate slowed too.
A 2023 meta-analysis of randomised trials found breathwork was linked to small to moderate reductions in stress, anxiety and low mood compared with control groups. The effects were real but modest, and they built up over days and weeks of practice. Five minutes a day was enough in the Stanford trial, and there is no clear sign that much longer sessions work better. Many trials were small and mostly studied healthy adults, so it isn't known yet which pattern suits whom.
Making it stick
The easiest time is a moment that already marks a change in your day, like walking in the door after work. Sit on the sofa, the edge of the bed, or stay in the parked car for a few minutes before you go inside. Use a phone timer so you aren't checking the clock, and keep your eyes closed or resting on one spot. Doing it daily is fine; the practice is gentle, and daily is how the trials were run.
On a bad day, three slow sighs still count, as long as you breathe out longer than you breathe in. Expect to feel a little silly at first, and to hear yourself say you'll do it after dinner instead. After a few weeks, you become someone who pauses and breathes before the evening starts. If anxiety or low mood is getting in the way of daily life, or you have a heart or lung condition, talk to a doctor; breathing exercises can sit alongside treatment, never replace it. Where in your home could you sit undisturbed for a few minutes right after you walk in?
Action steps
- 1Set a timer for 5 minutes. When you get home, sit somewhere comfortable and start the timer before you take off your coat or check your phone.
- 2Breathe out longer than you breathe in. Breathe in through your nose for about four counts and out through your mouth for about six, or try two short in-breaths followed by one long sigh out.
- 3Keep it gentle and notice the change. If you feel light-headed, go back to normal breathing for a moment, and when the 5 minutes are up, note in one word how you feel.
Suggested routines
- Anxiety
Meditate for 10 minutes every morning
Trials show mindfulness meditation programs reduce anxiety.
- Constant worrying
Rewrite one worrying thought a day in balanced words
Rethinking a situation in fairer terms is linked to less anxiety, while dwelling on it is linked to more.
- Stress from a cluttered home
Tidy up your space for 10 minutes a day
People who describe their homes as cluttered and stressful tend to have higher evening cortisol, which is linked to harder winding down.
References
- Balban, M. Y., et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895. doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895
- Fincham, G. W., et al. (2023). Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 432. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-27247-y
- Zaccaro, A., et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353. doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353
- Laborde, S., et al. (2022). Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability: A systematic review and a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 138, 104711. doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104711