How long is one cycle of coherent breathing?

One cycle takes 10 seconds: inhale for 5, exhale for 5. The timer marks each change with a tone.

How long is a session on this timer?

The timer opens with a 3-minute session, which is 18 cycles. You can set a different number of cycles, or a length in minutes, in the timer settings before you start.

Who should not do coherent breathing?

If you are pregnant, or live with a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition, talk to a doctor before you start. Never practice while driving, cycling, or in or near water. Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, lightheaded or short of breath, or have pain or pressure in your chest. This is not medical advice.

Does the coherent breathing timer work offline?

Yes. After your first visit the page keeps working without a connection, and you can install it to your home screen like an app. There is no sign-up and no app store.

Coherent breathing

Coherent breathing is a two-part pattern with no holds: breathe in for five seconds, breathe out for five, then start again. Five in plus five out makes a ten-second cycle, which is six cycles a minute. The timer on this page runs it for you, with a tone at every change, so you can close your eyes and just follow the sound.

Before you start

Stop if dizzy. Never in water or while driving. Pregnant or have a health condition? Ask a doctor.

If you are pregnant, or live with a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition, talk to a doctor before you start.
Never practice while driving, cycling, or in or near water.
Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, lightheaded or short of breath, or have pain or pressure in your chest.

Done

Sound & length

Tone volume

Tick volume

GoalAmount

Embed this timer on your site

Coherent breathing: 2 phases, one cycle
#	Phase	Seconds
1	Inhale	5
2	Exhale	5

Want other numbers? Open this pattern in the custom breathing timer.

How to do it

Sit upright somewhere you won’t need to move for a few minutes. Rest your hands and let your shoulders drop.
Tap the speaker in the corner of the timer to turn the sound on — it’s off until you choose it.
Press start. The timer counts down from three.
Breathe in through your nose while the dot travels the first arc.
Breathe out, through your nose or mouth, as the dot travels straight into the second arc — there is no pause between the two.
Let the next inhale begin the moment the exhale ends.

There is no hold anywhere in this pattern: the inhale rolls straight into the exhale and the exhale rolls straight into the next inhale. A few minutes is a normal first session. Choose a session length you can finish without straining; if five seconds feels long, run a shorter even pace in the paced breathing timer.

Where the pattern comes from

Coherent breathing is also called resonant breathing or resonance breathing, and it is sometimes described simply as six breaths a minute. That last name is arithmetic, not a claim: a ten-second cycle fits into a minute six times. It is a counting pattern, not a treatment.

Six breaths a minute

Six cycles a minute means six inhales and six exhales, five seconds each, with nothing in between. That is what sets this pattern apart from one built around a hold: there is no held breath to wait out, and the breathing disc inside the circle never pauses — it grows for five seconds, shrinks for five and grows again, so the whole minute is one even rhythm.

Research

Studies that examined this pattern. Each one describes what was measured in the people who took part, not what the pattern will do for you.

A review of heart rate variability biofeedback, a method in which people breathe at around six breaths a minute — the pace of a five-second inhale and a five-second exhale.
Lehrer and Gevirtz (2014). Heart rate variability biofeedback: how and why does it work?. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00756

Questions

How long is one cycle of coherent breathing?: One cycle takes 10 seconds: inhale for 5, exhale for 5. The timer marks each change with a tone.
How long is a session on this timer?: The timer opens with a 3-minute session, which is 18 cycles. You can set a different number of cycles, or a length in minutes, in the timer settings before you start.
Who should not do coherent breathing?: If you are pregnant, or live with a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition, talk to a doctor before you start. Never practice while driving, cycling, or in or near water. Stop and breathe normally if you feel dizzy, lightheaded or short of breath, or have pain or pressure in your chest. This is not medical advice.
Does the coherent breathing timer work offline?: Yes. After your first visit the page keeps working without a connection, and you can install it to your home screen like an app. There is no sign-up and no app store.