Breathwork · Meditation

Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal

Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, et al. · Cell Reports Medicine, 2023

Researchers at Stanford ran a remote randomized controlled trial comparing three daily five-minute breathing exercises with five minutes of mindfulness meditation, practiced every day for one month. The breathing styles were cyclic sighing, which stretches out the exhale; box breathing, with equal inhale, hold and exhale; and cyclic hyperventilation with breath retention. The team tracked mood, anxiety and physiological arousal, including breathing rate, heart rate and heart rate variability. Breathwork overall, and especially exhale-focused cyclic sighing, produced a greater improvement in mood and a larger drop in resting breathing rate than mindfulness meditation. The authors describe daily cyclic sighing as a promising stress management exercise. One honest limitation: the abstract reports the comparison against meditation rather than against a no-practice group, and the study ran for a single month, so longer-term effects remain open.

Our summaries describe what each study found. They are not medical advice, and the practices at Halcyon are not a treatment for any condition.