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How to reduce stress when it is needed the most? Simple breathing techniques.

Author: Ewelina Kurtys

Today, we share with you a recent study from Stanford University, published in Cell Reports Medicine. The study explores the benefits of breathing exercises on mood and anxiety. The research, led by Dr. Andrew Huberman, a prominent advocate of high-quality neuroscience knowledge on social media, describes three short breathing exercises that can be done daily.

Sighing

Deep breaths followed by extended exhales, as described by Dr. Huberman in this video below , have been shown to shift our autonomic system to reduce stress and anxiety.

Box Breathing

An equal series of inhale-hold-exhale-hold is used by military members to reduce stress and improve performance in challenging situations.

Cyclic Hyperventilation with Retention

Longer and more intense inhales than exhales. This controlled hyperventilation, characterized by rapid and deep breathing, has been shown to help in panic situations.

The effects of these breathing exercises were compared to the impact of meditation, which emphasizes passive observation of natural breathing with no active control. The key findings of this comparison are:

  1. Breathing exercises improve mood and anxiety:
    • All breathwork practices, particularly cyclic sighing, led to significant improvements in mood and reductions in anxiety levels compared to meditation.
    • Cyclic sighing, which emphasizes prolonged exhalations, was the most effective, showing greater improvement in mood and a significant reduction in respiratory rate.
  2. Breathing exercises exert many physiological benefits:
    • Breathwork resulted in reduced physiological arousal as measured by lower respiratory rates, heart rates, and increased heart rate variability (HRV).
    • These benefits were more pronounced in participants practicing breathwork than in those practicing mindfulness meditation.
  3. Breathing exercises are recommended to be done daily:
    • The study highlighted the effectiveness of brief, daily breathwork sessions. Just five minutes of daily practice led to measurable benefits in both psychological and physiological health.

What are the practical implications of this study?

The findings suggest that incorporating brief breathwork exercises into daily routines can be a powerful tool for managing stress and enhancing overall well-being. Cyclic sighing, in particular, is a simple yet highly effective method for improving mood and reducing stress.

For those interested in implementing these practices, it is recommended to start with short sessions and gradually integrate them into your daily routine. The study supports the idea that even minimal time investment can yield significant benefits.

If you want to develop habits that are beneficial for your health, we recommend trying the Psync app, which contains science-based breathing exercise tools and habit formation tools to help you remember your daily mood-enhancing routine. You can apply for a beta version of the Psync website here and write a few sentences about yourself and your interest in the app to stand out and get early access to this great mental tool!

Scientific reference:
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00474-8