Coherent breathing 5-5

How to do it

1. Sit tall with your feet on the floor, or lie on your back. Close your mouth and let your shoulders drop.
2. Breathe in through your nose for 5 seconds, gently, letting your belly and ribs open.
3. Without stopping at the top, breathe out through your nose for 5 seconds, just as gently.
4. Without stopping at the bottom, breathe in again. The breath draws one continuous wave: 5 up, 5 down.
5. Keep going for 5 minutes, or 30 breaths. If your mind wanders, come back to the count on the next inhale.
6. To finish, let the count go and breathe at your own pace for a moment before you get up.

What coherent breathing is

It's slow, even breathing: the inhale and the exhale last the same time, and there's no pause between them. At 5 seconds a phase, each breath takes 10 seconds, so six fit in a minute.

That sets it apart from its neighbors. 4-6 breathing runs at the same pace but stretches the exhale. Box breathing adds holds. Resonant breathing 5.5-5.5 is just a touch slower. Here everything is symmetrical, which makes it easy to keep up for several minutes.

Where it comes from

The name is recent. According to its author's website, Stephen Elliott introduced the method in 2005, alongside his book The New Science of Breath. He defines it there as breathing at a nominal rate of five breaths a minute, and notes that the name is a registered trademark of his company, COHERENCE LLC.

The idea underneath comes from the lab. Physiologist Evgeny Vaschillo, working in St. Petersburg, studied how heart rate responds to different breathing rates. He found the swings in heart rate are largest when you breathe at around 0.1 Hz, about six times a minute. With Paul Lehrer he turned that into a biofeedback training method, published as a manual in 2000.

The 5-5 on this page isn't Elliott's definition to the letter. It's the most widely used version of the even rhythm: exactly six breaths a minute.

What people use it for

Many people treat it as a baseline practice: a few minutes to start the day, before a meeting, or when they close the laptop. With no holds and no forced exhales, you can do it in an office chair and nobody will notice.

It also works as a warm-up before meditating or studying, because counting to five holds your attention without wearing it out. People who practice tend to describe it as a way to downshift, not as a fix for a problem.

What the studies say

The best-described part is what happens while you breathe this way. Your heart rate rises a little as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. Near six breaths a minute, that back-and-forth gets wider. Lehrer and Gevirtz explain it through the baroreflex, the mechanism that adjusts heart rate when blood pressure changes, and they present it as the best-supported hypothesis, not as settled fact.

A 2018 review pulled together 15 studies of slow breathing in healthy people. It found higher heart rate variability and, in what people reported, more relaxation and better mood.

The largest trial of coherent breathing itself is a reason for caution. In 2023, Fincham and colleagues randomly assigned 400 people to breathe for about 10 minutes a day over four weeks: one group at roughly 5.5 breaths a minute, the other at 12 as a placebo. Both groups reported less stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and there was no difference between them. For long-term effects on mood, the evidence is limited so far.

What it feels like and what to notice

The first few times, 5 seconds can feel like a lot, and it's common to run out of room before the count ends. Take in less air and spread it out. Around the second or third minute the pace usually gets comfortable, and a pleasant heaviness in the shoulders or a little drowsiness is normal.

If you get dizzy, feel tingling in your hands, or feel short of breath, you're moving too much air. Stop, breathe at your own pace, and if you want to continue, make the breaths smaller.

Variations

• Easier (variation): equal breathing 4-4. Once that's comfortable, move up to 5-5.
• Slower (variation): 6 seconds in and 6 seconds out, five breaths a minute, the nominal rate in Elliott's method. Resonant breathing 5.5-5.5 sits in between.
• With a rest (variation): 5-5-2 breathing adds a 2-second pause on empty after the exhale.
• With sound: let your phone keep the pace and close your eyes. That way you don't have to count.

Common mistakes

• Breathing too deeply. The air comes in slowly, not in bulk.
• Breaking the wave. There are no pauses at the top or the bottom. If you catch yourself holding, smooth out the turn from one phase to the next.
• Filling up in the first second. Spread the air across all 5 seconds, like pouring water slowly.
• Lifting your shoulders. The movement starts in the belly and lower ribs.
• Checking for results. If you're asking yourself every ten seconds whether you're calm yet, go back to the count.

How often and how long

Five minutes once a day is a realistic start. Some people practice for 10 or 20 minutes, and the 2023 trial asked for about 10 minutes a day, but there's no proven dose that fits everyone.

Regularity helps more than length: same place, same time, and a few days in a row before you decide whether it's for you.

Before you start

• If you feel dizzy, tingly or short of breath, stop and breathe normally.
• Don't practice while driving or in water.
• If you're pregnant or have a heart, lung or blood pressure condition, check with your care provider first.
• This is a practice, not a treatment, and it doesn't replace care from a health professional.