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ZenBodyLove

Cyclic sighing

Cyclic sighing is a modern breathwork exercise built on the natural sigh: two inhales through the nose, the second topping up the lungs, followed by a long, slow exhale, repeated for a few minutes. It is not drawn from a named tradition, though deliberate breathing patterns are central to yoga and meditative practice. One remote randomised trial in adults found that five minutes a day for a month raised positive mood and lowered resting breathing rate more than mindfulness meditation, and small pilot trials report less momentary anxiety in students, less pain while waiting in an orthopaedic clinic, and faster parasympathetic recovery after hard exercise. No claim reaches moderate or high certainty because the evidence is a handful of small, single trials with risk of bias and no systematic review of cyclic sighing yet exists.

  • Mind
  • Recovery

Evidence retrieved up to

What the research shows

Five minutes of cyclic sighing a day for a month raised positive mood and lowered resting breathing rate more than the same time spent in mindfulness meditation, with both practices lowering momentary anxiety to a similar degree.

Low certaintyFurther research is likely to change this.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

healthy adults

Practical note

Graded low: one remote randomised trial with 30 people assigned to cyclic sighing, downgraded for risk of bias (unblinded, self-reported mood, attrition, not pre-registered as a clinical trial) and imprecision; no replication yet. The trial used two inhales through the nose followed by a long exhale, repeated for 5 minutes a day over 28 days.

Vegan note

Not diet-related; applies equally to people following a vegan diet.

Safety note

Cyclic sighing is slow and exhale-focused; fast or forceful breathing and long breath-holds are different practices. People who are pregnant or living with heart, lung or mental-health conditions are generally advised to check with a health professional before taking up breathwork.

Sources

A single short session of cyclic sighing is followed by a fall in momentary (state) anxiety, with one small real-life study finding a larger fall than with no exercise.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

university students and healthy adults

Practical note

Graded very low: a pilot study of 47 students that does not report randomised assignment, plus before-and-after changes within one trial; small samples and self-report. The pilot used a one-minute exercise during an acute threat situation in daily life.

Vegan note

Not diet-related; applies equally to people following a vegan diet.

Safety note

In the real-life study, reaction times on an attention test were slower after the breathing exercises than after no exercise.

Sources

People waiting for an x-ray at a walk-in orthopaedic clinic who did a 4-minute cyclic sighing exercise rated their pain as less intense and less unpleasant than people given matched injury-management information, with no difference in anxiety or low-mood ratings.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

adults attending a walk-in orthopaedic clinic

Practical note

Graded very low: a single-site pilot randomised trial with self-reported outcomes measured during the wait only; serious imprecision and no replication.

Vegan note

Not diet-related; applies equally to people following a vegan diet.

Safety note

Studied as a brief extra while waiting for usual care, not instead of it.

Sources

Cyclic sighing or box breathing straight after maximal exercise was followed by a faster rise in high-frequency heart rate variability, a marker of parasympathetic reactivation, than ordinary breathing.

Low certaintyFurther research is likely to change this.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

young adult military cadets

Practical note

Graded low: a single randomised trial of 62 cadets measuring a short-term physiological marker within six minutes of exercise; downgraded for imprecision and indirectness (a surrogate marker in a fit, young population).

Vegan note

Not diet-related; applies equally to people following a vegan diet.

Sources

Randomised trials of breathwork that reported on harms found no adverse events or lasting bad effects attributed to the breathing practice, but few trials reported on harms and the evidence is not specific to cyclic sighing.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsNo clear effect

Who this is about

adults taking part in breathwork trials

Practical note

Graded very low: only four to six trials actively reported harms (imprecision, likely selective reporting), and the evidence is indirect for cyclic sighing.

Vegan note

Not diet-related; applies equally to people following a vegan diet.

Safety note

The meta-analysis authors call for more safety research on fast-paced breathwork in particular. Fast or forceful breathing and long breath-holds are a different practice from slow, exhale-focused breathing; people who are pregnant or living with heart, lung or mental-health conditions are generally advised to check with a health professional before taking up breathwork.

Sources