Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal.

Cell Rep Med

Department of Neurobiology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; BioX, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. Electronic address:

Published: January 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • Controlled breathwork practices are being explored as effective ways to manage stress and enhance well-being.
  • A study compared three different 5-minute breathwork exercises to mindfulness meditation over a month, focusing on their impacts on mood, anxiety, and physiological arousal.
  • Results indicate that cyclic sighing, which emphasizes longer exhalations, significantly improved mood and reduced respiratory rate more effectively than mindfulness meditation.

Article Abstract

Controlled breathwork practices have emerged as potential tools for stress management and well-being. Here, we report a remote, randomized, controlled study (NCT05304000) of three different daily 5-min breathwork exercises compared with an equivalent period of mindfulness meditation over 1 month. The breathing conditions are (1) cyclic sighing, which emphasizes prolonged exhalations; (2) box breathing, which is equal duration of inhalations, breath retentions, and exhalations; and (3) cyclic hyperventilation with retention, with longer inhalations and shorter exhalations. The primary endpoints are improvement in mood and anxiety as well as reduced physiological arousal (respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability). Using a mixed-effects model, we show that breathwork, especially the exhale-focused cyclic sighing, produces greater improvement in mood (p < 0.05) and reduction in respiratory rate (p < 0.05) compared with mindfulness meditation. Daily 5-min cyclic sighing has promise as an effective stress management exercise.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9873947PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895DOI Listing

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