Five Minutes of a Simple Breathing Practice to Ease a Stressful Day

It's 3 p.m. The meetings ran over, your inbox is full, and you still want to have energy left tonight for the thing you're working on. Your shoulders are up near your ears. You don't have time for a long break.

You may have time for five minutes of breathing.

What the study found

In 2023, Balban, David Spiegel, Andrew Huberman and colleagues at Stanford published a study in Cell Reports Medicine. In a remote trial of 108 healthy adults, mostly Stanford students, they randomly assigned each person to one of four daily five-minute practices for about a month: three breathing exercises and mindfulness meditation.

All four groups improved in daily mood and anxiety. But the breathing exercises, and especially one called cyclic sighing, led to greater improvement in positive mood than mindfulness meditation. Cyclic sighing also produced the largest drop in resting breathing rate, a sign of a calmer body. The authors concluded that daily cyclic sighing shows promise as a stress-management practice.

It's one study with a modest number of people, mostly young and healthy, and mood was self-reported. It doesn't mean meditation doesn't work: everyone improved. But it suggests a short, simple breathing practice can be a useful tool.

Five slow minutes can change the shape of an afternoon.

How to do cyclic sighing

The technique, as described in coverage of the study:

• Inhale through your nose.
• Take a second, shorter inhale through your nose to fill your lungs a little more.
• Exhale slowly and fully through your mouth, longer than the two inhales together.
• Repeat for about five minutes, at a comfortable pace.

If you feel lightheaded or uncomfortable, stop and breathe normally. If you have a heart or lung condition, or anxiety that feels unmanageable, talk to a health professional about what's right for you.

When to use it

Many people find it easiest to attach a new practice to something they already do every day, like the first coffee or the walk back from lunch.

• Before something stressful, like a presentation or a difficult conversation.
• In the afternoon slump, to reset before the evening.
• Before your own project time, to arrive calmer and more focused.
• At the end of the day, to help you wind down.

Where an accountability partner helps

New habits are easier with someone in your corner. An accountability partner can help you pick a moment in your day for the practice, listen when stress is getting in the way of your goals, and care that you have energy left for what matters to you.

This week

Try five minutes of cyclic sighing once a day for seven days, at the same time if you can. Before and after each session, rate your stress from 1 to 10. Notice the moments you feel calmer and more like yourself.