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Daily cyclic sighing

The same sigh, repeated for five minutes a day. The practice tested in a Stanford study that Andrew Huberman co-authored.

TimeFive minutes a day, at a time you can keep.

Safety first

  • Breathe gently. Never force the air in or out.
  • Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, lightheaded or panicky.
  • If you have anxiety or a habit of fast breathing, even a gentle pattern can make you more aware of your breath. Start with a minute, and consider talking to a health professional.
  • If you have a lung condition such as asthma or COPD, check with a health professional first.
  • This is a wellness practice. It does not diagnose or treat anything.

Never do breath holds or fast breathing in or near water, or while driving. Stop if you feel dizzy.

How to do it

  1. Choose a time you will keep every day, such as after you wake or before bed. Set a five-minute timer.
  2. Sit comfortably. Breathe in through your nose, then sip in a second, shorter breath.
  3. Breathe out slowly through your mouth, longer than the two breaths in.
  4. Keep going with that rhythm, calmly, until the timer ends. A short natural pause between rounds is fine.
  5. New to it? Begin with one or two minutes and build up.

One sigh is a tool. Five minutes a day is a practice.

The physiological sigh is usually taught as a rescue: one to three sighs in a hard moment. This page is about something different. The same pattern, repeated calmly for five minutes every day.

What the study did

In a randomized study from Stanford, people practiced one of four things for five minutes a day over a month: cyclic sighing, box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation with breath holds, or mindfulness meditation. The paper reports that breathwork, “especially the exhale-focused cyclic sighing”, improved mood and lowered breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation did.

Andrew Huberman, one of the authors, goes further when he summarizes it:

“Even just 1-3 cyclic sighs can be effective, and if repeated as a short breathwork practice for five minutes a day, it has been shown in a clinical trial to improve sleep, lower resting heart rate and enhance mood around the clock.” — Andrew Huberman, Daily Blueprint

Read that as his summary of the field. The paper’s own abstract reports the mood and breathing-rate findings above.

What we do not know

  • The study ran for a month. What happens after that is not established.
  • It compared breathing practices with each other and with meditation. It did not compare them with exercise, sleep or therapy, so it does not say that sighing is the strongest tool you have.
  • Five minutes is what was tested. We do not know whether more is better.

That is why the Club asks for one breath a day, not five minutes. A single breath is enough to belong. If you want the longer practice, this is the one with the best evidence we know of.

Sources

More techniques

01The physiological sighTwo breaths in through the nose, one long breath out through the mouth. The quickest tool in Andrew Huberman's toolkit for a stressful moment.03Box breathing, sized to youBreathe in, hold, breathe out, hold, in four equal sides. Huberman's twist is to size each side to your own exhale, not to a number from a poster.04Nasal breathing, and what to know about mouth tapingWhy Huberman favors breathing through the nose, a daytime habit anyone can try, and the cautions you should read before you consider taping your mouth at night.