Cyclic sighing

How to do it

1. Sit with your back comfortable, or lie down. Let your shoulders and jaw go soft.
2. Breathe in through your nose for 2 seconds, until your lungs are mostly full.
3. Without letting any air out, breathe in through your nose again for 1 second: a short sip that tops them off.
4. Breathe out through your mouth for 6 seconds, slowly and without blowing, until you're empty.
5. Repeat the cycle for 5 minutes. That's about 33 sighs.
6. To finish, close your mouth, let your breathing settle back to its own rhythm and stay still for a moment before you get up.

What cyclic sighing is

It's a sigh done deliberately and repeated in cycles: two inhales through the nose, the second stacked on top of the first, and one exhale through the mouth that's longer than both together. In this guide that's 2 seconds, 1 second and 6 seconds.

What sets it apart from other calming breaths is the two-part inhale and the exhale through the mouth. 4-6 breathing and 2-to-1 breathing lengthen the exhale through the nose, after a single inhale. Here the gesture is more pronounced, closer to the breath you let out after a heavy day.

Where it comes from

There's no ancient tradition behind it. The gesture comes from the body: you sigh many times a day without noticing. A 2022 review of the physiology of sighing explains that sighs occur every few minutes and help keep the alveoli, the tiny air sacs in the lungs, from collapsing. In 2016, a study published in Nature mapped, in rodents, the brain circuit that triggers them.

The name cyclic sighing comes from recent research. A Stanford University team used it in a trial published in January 2023 in Cell Reports Medicine, which compared this exercise with other brief practices. From there it reached the general public.

What people use it for

As a pause. After a tense meeting, after hanging up on a hard call, before walking in the front door, or to close out the workday. Because it's so close to a sigh of relief, many people find it natural on the first try.

It also works as a way into other practices: a few sighs, then slow breathing through the nose. You don't have to wait until you feel bad to do it.

What studies say

The Stanford trial was randomized and run remotely. It enrolled 108 adults who, for 28 days, spent five minutes a day on one of four practices: cyclic sighing (30 people), box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation with retention, or mindfulness meditation. The instructions gave no seconds: inhale slowly, take a second, shorter inhale to fill the lungs, then exhale slowly and fully, ideally in through the nose and out through the mouth.

In-the-moment anxiety and negative mood dropped in every group, with no differences between them. Positive mood rose more with the breathing exercises than with meditation, and cyclic sighing stood out the most. With it, breathing rate also came down more than with meditation. There were no significant changes in sleep or in heart rate variability.

The authors name the limits themselves: it was an exploratory study, registered retrospectively, with small groups, four weeks long, and with unsupervised practice at home. It's a single trial. It doesn't show that cyclic sighing is a treatment; it shows that, in that group, five minutes a day went along with feeling better.

There's more work on spontaneous sighs. In three experiments in 2009, Elke Vlemincx's team observed that people sighed more in moments of relief than in moments of stress. A 2022 review proposes that a sigh works as a reset for breathing and emotion, and warns that sighing too much can work against you.

What it feels like and what to notice

The second inhale is small: you feel your ribs open a little higher up. The exhale is the part that matters. It comes out warm, with your mouth barely open, and by the end your shoulders tend to drop.

In the first few minutes you may yawn, or your eyes may water. If you feel dizzy or tingly, you're taking in too much air: stop, breathe normally and, if you want to continue, make the inhales smaller.

Variations

• Shorter: three sighs in a row are a perfectly good pause. That's what the After a scare breathing offers, followed by a minute of slow breathing.
• Easier, a 4-second exhale: breathe in for 2 seconds, then 1, and breathe out for 4. Let the time grow over the days until you reach 6.
• All through the nose: the 2023 trial allowed exhaling through the nose if that felt more comfortable. The count stays the same.
• A single sigh: one, slow and complete, in the middle of a task. It isn't a session, and sometimes it's enough.

Common mistakes

• Inhaling hard and hiking your shoulders toward your ears. Both inhales are gentle.
• Making the second inhale as big as the first. It's a sip, not another breath.
• Blowing as you exhale, as if putting something out. The air leaves by itself, with no pressure.
• Speeding up the cycles. Each one lasts nine seconds; any faster and it turns into fast breathing.
• Pushing on once you're dizzy. Stopping in time is part of the practice.

How often and how long

The reference point is the trial: five minutes, once a day. Participants practiced on about twenty of the twenty-eight days on average, and the effect on mood was larger in those who practiced on more days.

You don't need more. Doing many sessions a day of deep sighs hasn't been studied and can leave you lightheaded. For the rest of the day, three slow sighs are plenty as a pause.

Before you start

• If you feel dizzy, tingly or short of breath, stop and breathe normally.
• Don't force the double inhale: filling your lungs to the top many times in a row can make you lightheaded.
• If you have a lung or heart condition, or you're pregnant, check with your care provider first.
• This is a practice for everyday calm. If distress is intense or doesn't ease, reach out to a professional.