There is a simple technique that takes just 5 minutes per day and requires zero equipment that can materially improve your mood, reduce your anxiety and stress, and decrease physiological markers of arousal like your heart rate, heart rate variability and breathing rate.

 

Did I mention it is better than meditation?

 

I don’t blame you for not believing me.  To be honest, I didn’t believe the title of a very recent article printed in one of the top 3 journals in the world “Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal”.  It felt like one of those overdone, hyperbolic titles that are the research equivalent of ‘clickbait’.

 

I reasoned with myself that it was printed in a top journal and I recognized and trusted one of the study authors Dr. Andrew Huberman so I read on.

 

The basis of this study was simple.  It compared 3 different types of breathing techniques with mindfulness meditation over a one month period.  The participants completed their assigned exercise daily for 5 minutes.  The outcome measures they looked at centred around mood changes, anxiety, and physiological measures like heart rate and breathing rate.  Essentially they wanted to see which technique was the most calming and improved your mood the most.

 

I was shocked when I read the results! (this is my version of clickbait)

 

Specifically, one breathing method called “physiological sighing” or “cyclic sighing” proved far superior to the other breathing conditions and even better than mindfulness meditation across the board.

 

So what exactly is cyclic sighing?  Instead of trying to explain it I made a quick youtube video so you can follow along.

 

The researchers wanted to test 3 breathing variables.

• Cyclic sighing (which emphasizes the exhale component of breathing)
• Box breathing (equal duration inhale, hold your breath, then exhale)
• Cyclic hyperventilation with retention (longer inhale and short exhale)

 

The comparison group was a mindfulness meditation exercise.  This one is a bit tricky as there are many varieties of mindfulness meditation but it typically centres around passive observation of your breath for the purpose of increasing awareness of the present moment. This is the definition and exercise that the researchers had the subjects perform.

 

This study was actually completed during COVID.  The participants were mailed WHOOP bands (here is a really old blog we did on the WHOOP TOOL) to measure physiological variables.  They took a number of questionnaires before and after the one month trial as well as 2 quick psychological questionnaires before and after their assigned 5 minute exercise each day.

 

Here were the main results:

• The breathwork groups all completed more days of the intervention (19.61 out of 28 versus 17.71 for the mindfulness meditation group) suggesting better adherence.
• BOTH GROUPS showed significant reductions in state anxiety, as well as negative affect (meaning bad mood).
• Both groups showed significant increases in positive affect (good mood).
• Both groups showed significant decreases in overall anxiety.

 

These findings alone would be enough for an excellent paper.  5 minutes of guided breathing or meditation both produce incredible changes!

 

What was unexpected were the results from the statistical analysis when they parsed out the different breathing groups.

 

The breathwork groups as a whole were more effective than meditation at increasing positive affect but when they delved into the data, the cyclic sighing group produced the majority of that deviation.

 

In fact it was the only breathwork group that had a statistically significant difference from meditation.  And most important, the positive affect increase was larger the more days the subjects had been on the protocol.  In simple terms, this meant compared with the other groups, the more days the subjects did cyclic sighing, the greater the benefit.

 

You can see this in the below chart where the majority of the deviation happens at the end of the month and the blue line representing cyclic sighing has a fairly linear slope upwards for positive affect compared to the other 3 groups.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I was hooked.  But wait, there was more!

 

The breathwork groups overall had a significant reduction in respiratory rate compared with the mindfulness meditation group.  And AGAIN the cyclic sighing group had the highest reduction.  On top of that, there was a direct correlation between the subjects that had the highest reduction in respiration rate and the highest increase in positive affect (mood).

 

They did not notice any changes in heart rate data, heart rate variability or sleep changes as measured by the WHOOP band, but again the study only lasted 28 days.

 

I’m sure you are wondering (as I did) why is cyclic sighing superior?

 

There is a lot of science linking the pattern and depth of breathing with physiological variables like oxygenation level, heart rate, ventilation and blood pressure.

 

Namely, both heart rate and blood pressure decrease with slow breathing compared to higher frequency breathing (this is why you should take 5-6 slow deep breaths prior to taking your blood pressure).

 

We also know that controlled breathing can influence your breathing rate and have immediate physiological and psychological calming effects by increasing something called your vagal tone during slow exhalation (breathing out).  This is why the researchers were looking at the cyclic sighing in particular.

 

Sighing is also associated with longer exhales which are associated with psychological relief, shifts in autonomic states (meaning a decrease in your fight or flight response), and resetting of your respiratory rates.

 

So why did they also look at box breathing and hyperventilation breathing?

 

Box breathing actually has a long history with the military for stress regulation and performance improvements.  Hyperventilation is associated with anxiety and panic but also has some history as being therapeutic when done deliberately.

 

So in short – inhales increase your heart rate and exhales decrease it.  Slower breathing with longer exhales are also associated with calming behaviours.  Cyclic sighing with 2 short inhales and one long exhale is a perfect match.

 

One last note is a person’s sense of agency.  This essentially means that controlled breathing enhances your general sense of control over your internal state which the researchers think may help increase your positive affect.  In mindfulness meditation you do not control your breathing, you just observe it so this could help explain some of the difference.

 

I’ve started to use cyclic sighing daily for 5 minutes.  I’ve been trying to use it just before reading my blood pressure and I have to say there is a very noticeable difference.

 

Now I have to remember to stop telling my kids to quit sighing…..turns out it is good for you!