Sun breath (surya bhedana)

How to do it

1. Sit tall, away from the backrest if you can, with your feet or legs well grounded. This one is done sitting up, not in bed.
2. Bring your right hand to your face: ring finger beside the left nostril, thumb beside the right.
3. Close the left nostril with your ring finger and breathe in through the right for 4 seconds, slowly.
4. Close the right nostril with your thumb, release the ring finger and breathe out through the left for 6 seconds.
5. Close the left side again and open the right for the next inhale. The route never changes: in on the right, out on the left.
6. Repeat for 3 minutes, which is 18 cycles of 10 seconds.
7. End on an exhale, lower your hand and take two or three normal breaths through both nostrils before you get up.

What it is

It's a one-direction breath. Every inhale passes through the right nostril and every exhale through the left, at six breaths a minute. It has no pauses and no fast breathing.

That sets it apart from the other energizing breaths on this site, such as bellows breath or kapalabhati, which work with speed and force. The sun breath is slow. What tradition credits it with comes from the side the air enters on, not from intensity. Its mirror image is the moon breath, which comes in on the left, and its balanced relative is alternate nostril breathing.

Where it comes from

It has a clear classical source. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, composed in the 15th century and attributed to Svatmarama, lists eight forms of pranayama, and the first is surya bhedana. Surya is the sun, the text's name for the right nostril.

The description takes up three verses of the second chapter. In a comfortable posture, the practitioner draws the air in slowly through the right nostril, holds it until it fills the body "from the nails to the tips of the hair," and lets it out slowly through the left. The text adds that it cleanses the forehead and does away with disorders of vata, one of the principles of Ayurveda. Those are the claims of a manual more than five hundred years old, not tested results.

The gap between that and this page is wide: the classical practice revolves around the hold, and here there isn't one. What remains is the route, right to come in and left to go out, at a pace any adult can try.

What people use it for

People who practice it tend to do it in the morning or early afternoon, when they want to feel more alert without reaching for a forceful breath.

It's also used as a warm-up: a few minutes before studying, a meeting or a yoga session. The traditional part says the right side is the solar one, the side that activates. The practical part is more modest. Three minutes sitting tall with your attention on one precise task is already a break that clears the head for a lot of people.

What studies say

Research on right nostril breathing goes back three decades, but it's made up of small studies, nearly all done in India, and the results don't quite line up.

The most cited one is from 1994. It enrolled 48 men split into three groups, who practiced 27 cycles four times a day for a month. Resting oxygen consumption rose 37% in the right nostril group. But it also rose 24% in the left nostril group and 18% in the alternate nostril group, so the change wasn't unique to one side.

In 2008, in 21 men with yoga experience, 30 minutes of right nostril breathing was followed by a rise in systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure. In 2014, in 20 trained people, nine rounds of surya bhedana raised heart rate and blood pressure and shortened reaction time.

Pointing the other way, a 2022 study of 20 practitioners with many years of experience measured heart rate variability during breathing through each nostril and found almost no difference between the two. In short: there are hints of a small activating effect, in small samples made up mostly of men or of people already trained. We don't know whether it holds for three minutes at these counts.

What it feels like and what to notice

Don't expect a jolt like coffee or a fast breathing round. What people describe is subtler: the back straightens, the eyes clear, you feel like starting something.

If your right nostril is the tighter one that day, the inhale will feel narrow. Keep to the 4 seconds and don't sniff hard. Stop if you feel palpitations, uncomfortable heat in your face, a headache, dizziness or restlessness. Breathe normally through both nostrils and try another day, or switch to alternate nostril breathing.

Variations

• Easier: count 3 seconds in and 5 out on your own if 4 and 6 feel long.
• Longer: up to 5 minutes at the same counts. More time isn't better: notice how you feel afterward.
• Right side only (surya nadi): breathe in and out through the right nostril, keeping the left closed. That's the form several studies call right nostril breathing.
• Classical, with a hold: the Hatha Yoga Pradipika asks for the breath to be held between the inhale and the exhale. That's an advanced practice, learned with a teacher, and it isn't part of this guide.

Common mistakes

• Doing it at night and then wondering why you're still wide awake. If sleep is the goal, the moon breath or a long-exhale breath is a better fit.
• Breathing in fast or hard to feel more of an effect. The classical text says slowly, and so does this guide.
• Mixing up the order. If the air comes in on the left, you're doing the moon breath.
• Pressing your nose out of shape or turning your head toward your hand.

How often and how long

Three minutes, once a day, in the morning or before a task that needs your attention. It's short on purpose: in the studies, the blood pressure changes showed up with much longer sessions, and there's no reason to go looking for them.

Try it for a week at the same time of day and jot down how you feel before and after. And leave several hours between this practice and bedtime, in case it does wake you up.

Before you start

• If you have high blood pressure or a heart condition, check with your care provider first: one small study measured a rise in blood pressure after right nostril breathing.
• Stop if you feel palpitations, dizziness, a headache or shortness of breath, and breathe normally.
• If your nose is badly blocked, don't force the air. Save it for another day.
• If you're pregnant, or have epilepsy or a history of panic attacks, ask a health professional first.
• Don't do it while driving.