Anxiety: research showing slow breathing reduces acute anxiety

There is a lot of research concluding that it's possible to lower stress and anxiety using breathwork (4-6 breaths/minute), as a daily practice.

Some of these studies are self-report, others measure cortisol before and after. One study reported daily breathwork, lowering your breaths to a target of 4-6 per minute seems to have a big effect on stress.

Study 1, which includes Andrew Huberman of the Huberman Podcast as one of its authors, has the best practical advice although it had a small sample size of 114.

• Sighing was most effective
• 1 : 0.25 : 2 breathing had the best results of the breathing

For example:

• 4 seconds deep in breath through the nose.
• 1 second to "top up" breath to fill lungs.
• 8 seconds controlled sigh out through the mouth.

Do this 5 minutes per day, 28 days.

Study 1

• Balban, M.Y. et al. (2023) 'Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal', Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), article 100895.
• 114 participants

• Used the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PNAS)

• 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895

Study 2

• Fincham, G.W. et al. (2023) 'Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: a meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials', Scientific Reports, 13, article 432.
• Meta study - 12 randomised-controlled trials (k = 12) with a total of 785 adult participants
• 10.1038/s41598-022-27247-y

Study 3

• Goessl, V.C., Curtiss, J.E. and Hofmann, S.G. (2017) 'The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback training on stress and anxiety: a meta-analysis', Psychological Medicine, 47(15), pp. 2578-2586.
• Meta study - 24 studies totalling 484 participants
• 10.1017/S0033291717001003

Study 4

• Luo, Q. et al. (2025) 'The effect of slow breathing in regulating anxiety', Scientific Reports, 15, article 8417.
• 27 college students, which followed a 2 (respiratory rate: fast breathing, slow breathing) × 2 (certainty: certain, uncertain) within-subjects design
• 10.1038/s41598-025-92017-5

Study 5

• 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, article 353.
• Meta study - 15 articles refined from a search.
• 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00353

Study 6

• Magnon, V., Dutheil, F. and Vallet, G.T. (2021) 'Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults', Scientific Reports, 11, article 19267.
• 71 participants (including 30 older adults and 41 young adults) were enrolled in this study.
• 10.1038/s41598-021-98736-9

Study 7

• Bentley, T.G.K. et al. (2023) 'Breathing practices for stress and anxiety reduction: conceptual framework of implementation guidelines based on a systematic review of the published literature', Brain Sciences, 13(12), article 1612.
• Meta study - 58 studies
• 10.3390/brainsci13121612

Study 8

• Ma, X. et al. (2017) 'The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults', Frontiers in Psychology, 8, article 874.
• 40 participants from China.
• 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874