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The physiological sigh

Two breaths in through the nose, one long breath out through the mouth. The quickest tool in Andrew Huberman's toolkit for a stressful moment.

TimeAbout 10 seconds a round. One to three rounds.

Safety first

  • Breathe gently. Never force the air in or out.
  • Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy or lightheaded.
  • If you have a lung condition such as asthma or COPD, the long breath out may be hard or upsetting. Go gently, and 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. Breathe in slowly through your nose until your lungs feel nearly full.
  2. Without breathing out, sip in a second, shorter breath through your nose to top up the lungs.
  3. Breathe out through your mouth, long and slow, until your lungs feel empty. Make it about twice as long as the two breaths in.
  4. Do it one to three times. Then breathe normally.

What it is

Your body already does this on its own. Roughly every five minutes, without thinking about it, you take a double breath in. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford, calls the deliberate version the physiological sigh.

His explanation is about the lungs. They hold tiny air sacs, the alveoli, and some of them collapse a little during ordinary breathing. The second, shorter sip tops the lungs up and opens them again. The long breath out matters just as much: the heart slows a little on every exhale, so a long exhale gently slows it.

When people use it

Huberman describes it as a way to change state without having to win an argument with your own mind. It works on the body, not on the story you are telling yourself. People use it before a hard conversation, after bad news, between sets at the gym, and at bedtime to let the day go.

“Even just 1–3 physiological sighs can allow us to stay in or return to a calmer state.” — Andrew Huberman

What the research says

The physiological sigh is the idea behind cyclic sighing, which a Stanford team tested in a randomized study. People did one of three breathing practices, or mindfulness meditation, for five minutes a day over a month. Cyclic sighing, the exhale-focused practice, produced a greater improvement in mood and a larger drop in breathing rate than mindfulness meditation. The authors conclude that it “has promise as an effective stress management exercise”. Promise is the right word: it was one study, over one month. See the page on daily cyclic sighing.

Good to know

This is a tool for a moment, not a fix for a life. If stress is with you every day, a few sighs can ease the moment while the cause stays where it is. If it weighs on you, talk to someone qualified.

Sources

More techniques

02Daily cyclic sighingThe same sigh, repeated for five minutes a day. The practice tested in a Stanford study that Andrew Huberman co-authored.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.