Coherent breathing: about 5.5 breaths a minute, with a free guided timer

What is coherent breathing?

Coherent breathing has no counting steps beyond one number: breathe in for about 5.5 seconds, then breathe out for about 5.5 seconds, with no pause or hold at either end. That works out to roughly 5.5 breaths a minute, far slower than the 12 to 20 breaths a minute of typical resting breathing.

It is also called resonance breathing, a name that points to why this particular pace was chosen rather than any other slow rate.

Coherent, resonance, heart coherence: one pace, several names

The same slow, even rhythm turns up under several names. Resonance breathing and resonant frequency breathing come from the heart-rate-variability research described below. Coherent breathing is the more popular name for the same practice. Heart coherence and cardiac coherence breathing are names used in some wellness programmes for breathing at about 6 breaths a minute while paying attention to the area of the heart.

Whatever the label, the shared core is a pace of roughly 5 to 6 breaths a minute, even inhales and exhales, and no holds. The research on this page is about that pace; it does not test any one brand's programme or its additional claims.

What is a resonance frequency, and why does it matter?

The research that established this technique found that each person has a personal breathing rate, close to 6 breaths a minute for most adults, at which breathing produces the largest swings in heart rate. This happens because that pace lines up with the timing of the body's own blood-pressure control reflex, called the baroreflex, so the two reinforce each other instead of working against each other.

That original research, published in 2000, is the foundation for a large body of later work on heart-rate-variability biofeedback, in which people train themselves to breathe at their own resonance frequency, usually with the help of a sensor showing their heart rate in real time. This page's fixed 5.5-second pace is a practical, equipment-free approximation of that personal resonance frequency, since it sits close to where most adults' actual resonance frequency falls.

How to do coherent breathing, step by step

There is only one ratio to hold in mind here: equal parts in and out, with nothing else added.

• Sit upright or lie down, and let your breathing settle for a moment before starting.
• Breathe in slowly through the nose for about 5.5 seconds.
• Breathe out slowly, through the nose or mouth, for about 5.5 seconds, with no pause at the top or bottom of the breath.
• Repeat steadily for 5 to 20 minutes.

Unlike box breathing or 4-7-8 breathing, there is no hold to get used to here; the whole technique is simply pacing the inhale and exhale evenly and slowly.

Keep each breath soft and of ordinary size. Slow does not mean big: pulling in large volumes of air at this pace is the most common reason people feel light-headed.

How to find your own resonance frequency

In a biofeedback clinic, the resonance frequency is found with a heart-rate sensor. A 2020 practical guide for clinicians explains the logic: the adult heart and lungs have a fairly fixed resonance frequency, breathing near it produces large blood-pressure oscillations that can strengthen the baroreflex over time, and the right rate is found by comparing the body's response across several breathing rates and then fine-tuning, not by measuring one rate alone.

Without a sensor you can do a simpler version by feel. The sliders on the pacer above move in whole seconds, so exactly 5.5 seconds cannot be set, but the settings below cover the same range. Try each for 5 minutes on different days and keep the one that feels easiest to sustain without strain.

A slightly longer exhale, such as 5 seconds in and 6 seconds out, is fine: a 2019 study found that both even breathing and breathing with a longer exhale raised heart rate variability compared with watching a neutral film.

Does breathing at your exact resonance rate matter?

A 2017 study tested this directly. One group breathed for 15 minutes at their own measured resonance frequency, a second group breathed 1 breath a minute faster than that, and a third sat quietly. All three then did a demanding mental arithmetic task and a 10-minute rest.

After the breathing exercise, the resonance group reported more positive mood than both other groups and showed a higher ratio in a heart-rate-variability measure that biofeedback training aims to raise, compared with the quiet-sitting group. During the stressful task and the recovery afterwards, the resonance group also had lower systolic blood pressure than the control group, while the group breathing one breath faster did not differ significantly from either.

This suggests the personal rate does add something, but it was a single short session, and the extra benefit over a near-resonance pace was small. For practice at home, a pace close to 5 or 6 breaths a minute that you can keep up comfortably every day matters more than finding the perfect decimal.

Six breaths a minute in prayer and mantra

The same pace appears in old practices without any sensor. A study in Florence and Pavia, Italy, published in the BMJ, recorded 23 healthy adults while they recited the Ave Maria in Latin or a yoga mantra. Both naturally slowed breathing to about 6 breaths a minute, and both produced strong, synchronised swings in heart rhythm and other cardiovascular rhythms.

Baroreflex sensitivity, the strength of the body's automatic blood-pressure control, rose significantly during recitation, from 9.5 to 11.5 milliseconds per millimetre of mercury on average. The authors concluded that rhythmic formulas that involve breathing at six breaths a minute induce favourable psychological and possibly physiological effects.

It is a small study, and it does not show that prayer or mantra work because of breathing alone. It does show that a pace close to coherent breathing was reached long before anyone measured heart rate variability.

What did heart-rate-variability research find?

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 24 studies on heart-rate-variability biofeedback, most of it built on slow resonance breathing near 6 breaths a minute, found that the practice was associated with reduced anxiety and depression symptoms and reduced stress, with medium average effect sizes across the studies reviewed.

In a separate study, people with asthma who trained with heart-rate-variability biofeedback at their personal resonance frequency showed improved baroreflex gain, a measure of how well the body's automatic blood-pressure control responds, and better peak expiratory airflow, a lung-function measure, after training.

A broader 2017 review of slow breathing in healthy adults, covering the same 4-to-6-breaths-a-minute range this technique uses, found it associated with higher heart rate variability, better baroreflex sensitivity and more parasympathetic (calming) nervous system activity, and some studies in people with high blood pressure found a measurable drop in blood pressure.

The largest summary so far, a 2022 meta-analysis, screened 1 842 abstracts and included 223 studies of voluntary slow breathing. Heart-rate-variability measures linked to the calming branch of the nervous system rose during slow breathing, immediately after a single session and after multi-session programmes. The authors describe slow breathing as a low-tech, low-cost technique for prevention and as an add-on to treatment, with few adverse effects expected.

A 2018 systematic review of 15 studies looked at slow breathing in both body and brain. It found higher heart rate variability, more alpha and less theta activity in brain recordings, and, in what people reported, more comfort, relaxation and alertness and fewer symptoms of arousal, anxiety, depression and anger.

Coherent breathing for anxiety and stress

A 2017 meta-analysis pooled 24 studies with 484 participants who trained with heart-rate-variability biofeedback for stress and anxiety. Self-reported stress and anxiety fell by a large amount from before to after training, and compared with control conditions the effect was also large. The result held regardless of the year of the study, its risk of bias or whether participants had an anxiety disorder; the authors still called for more well-controlled studies.

A wider 2023 meta-analysis of breathwork of all kinds, 12 randomised trials with 785 adults, found a smaller, small-to-medium reduction in stress, and similar effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms, with most trials at moderate risk of bias.

The difference between the two is a useful reminder. Biofeedback training is usually structured, repeated and guided by a sensor; a free pacer is a lighter version of the same idea. Expect a modest, steady benefit from regular practice rather than a dramatic one from a single session. For a fast reset in the middle of a stressful moment, the physiological sigh on its own page is quicker to use.

Coherent breathing for sleep

Slow, even breathing has a randomised sleep study behind it. In one study, 64 healthy young adults were randomly assigned either to slow-paced breathing for 15 minutes every evening for 30 days, guided by a smartphone app, or to spending the same 15 minutes on social media.

Compared with the social-media group, the breathing group reported better sleep quality on a standard questionnaire and showed higher overnight cardiac vagal activity, a heart-rhythm measure of the calming branch of the nervous system. Morning measures showed only a tendency in the same direction.

The participants were young and healthy, so this is not evidence for treating insomnia. It does make an evening routine reasonable: 15 minutes of coherent breathing in place of scrolling, with the session timer above set so you do not need to watch the clock.

Can coherent breathing lower blood pressure?

Slow breathing is often promoted for blood pressure, and the evidence is mixed. The 2017 review of slow breathing found a measurable drop in some studies of people with high blood pressure, and the resonance study above found lower systolic pressure during and after a stressful task in a single session.

The most careful test comes from devices that guide breathing down to a slow pace. A 2012 meta-analysis of 8 trials with 494 adults found an average drop of 3.67 mmHg systolic and 2.51 mmHg diastolic. But five of those eight trials were sponsored by or involved the device's manufacturer, and when they were left out there was no overall effect on blood pressure. The longest trial lasted 9 weeks.

So slow breathing is a reasonable, low-risk habit for someone with high blood pressure, but it is not a proven way to lower it and it is no reason to change prescribed treatment. Any change in medication belongs with a doctor.

Why does coherent breathing work best as a daily habit?

The heart-rate-variability biofeedback research this technique is based on used repeated training sessions over time, not a single sitting, which is different from the physiological sigh's quick, one-off use. A sensible way to practise is a fixed 5 to 20 minutes at roughly the same time each day, treating it the way you would treat any other daily habit rather than an emergency tool reached for only when already stressed.

A four-week coherent breathing plan

The sleep study ran for 30 days and the biofeedback programmes in the meta-analyses used repeated sessions, so a month is a fair trial period. This plan uses the pacer and session timer above.

• Week 1: 5 minutes a day at 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out, at the same time each day.
• Week 2: 10 minutes a day; try 5 seconds in and 6 seconds out and keep it if it feels easy.
• Week 3: 10 to 15 minutes a day, adding one evening session in place of screen time before bed.
• Week 4: 15 to 20 minutes a day at the setting that felt best, then decide whether to keep it as a permanent habit.
• Each week, note sleep quality and how tense you felt during the day, on a simple 1 to 10 scale, so the decision at the end rests on more than a feeling.

Coherent breathing vs box breathing and 4-7-8 breathing

Box breathing, on its own page, adds two equal holds to the same general slow pace, which makes it more structured but harder to sustain for long stretches. 4-7-8 breathing, on its own page, is asymmetric and slower still, built around a long exhale rather than an even in-out rhythm. Coherent breathing is the simplest of the three: no holds, no asymmetry, just a steady, even pace held for longer periods.

Common mistakes with coherent breathing

The technique is simple, which makes the few mistakes easy to fix.

• Breathing too deeply: slow, large breaths can blow off too much carbon dioxide and cause dizziness or tingling; keep the volume ordinary.
• Adding small pauses at the top or bottom of the breath, which turns it into a different technique.
• Forcing a rate that feels like air hunger: choose a slightly faster setting instead.
• Practising only when already stressed: the research behind it used regular sessions.
• Watching the clock: set the session timer and let the pacer keep time for you.

Is coherent breathing safe?

Coherent breathing is generally safe for healthy adults practised as described here. Because it involves no holds and no forced breathing, it is one of the gentler techniques on these pages.

Anyone with a diagnosed respiratory or cardiac condition should mention this kind of breathing practice at a routine check, even though it involves no breath-holding.

If you feel dizzy, light-headed or short of air, return to normal breathing for a few breaths; this usually means the breaths were too big or the pace too slow for you, not that something is wrong.