The 'physiological sigh' (double inhale, long exhale) is an effective breathing practice for controlling heart rate variability, reducing heart rate, and improving sleep.

“Our lab @StanfordMed have shown that, done deliberately, they are the fastest way to destress, improve mood & lower HR.”

“This outperforms 5 min/day meditation & other breathing protocols.”

“The ideal breathwork to reduce stress is 5 min of cyclic sighing (double nasal inhale, followed by exhale to lungs empty via the mouth; repeat for 5min).”

“For reducing stress/elevating mood Cyclic Sighing outperforms meditation or other practices.”

“What we've been doing in human subjects is having them do either breathing protocols that calm them... the particular breathing protocol that we've been giving human subjects is for them to do the repeated... What we call cyclic sign. So double inhale, exhale, double inhale, exhale, double inhale, exhale repeatedly for five minutes.”

“People report and the data point to the fact that it's very calming. People feel more relaxed afterwards and that relaxation wicks out into other aspects of their life.”

“this thing that I'm talking about a lot on the podcast, these days of this double inhale, long exhale, the so-called, "physiological sigh," was the most effective breathing practice for allowing people to control their heart rate variability, reduce overall heart rate, access better sleep, and these were extremely short protocols.”

“what we found was that the cyclic sighing led to the greatest improvements in mood Around the Clock not just around the the practice or during the practice as well as lowered resting heart rate improvements in sleep Etc”

“showed that a short period of 5 minutes of box breathing of exactly the type that you described or uh cyclic sign so two inhales followed by an extended exhale to lungs empty ideally the inhales are done through the nose the exhales are done uh through the mouth although it could all be done through the nose um or the mouth for that matter but probably nose nose for inhale inhale mouth for exhale or um uh in inhales through the nose and and xhl through the nose cyclic sing as we refer to it done for 5 minutes both of those produce very significant uh decreases in resting heart rate the over time will increase things like heart rate variability and so on and so forth”

“But cyclic sighing performed for five minutes a day had the most robust and pervasive effect in reducing stress, improving mood, and improving sleep.”

“And the people who did that cyclic sighing for five minutes a day, regardless of the time of day that they did it, experienced the greatest reductions in stress not just during the practice but around the 24-hour cycle. And it translated, again, to all sorts of positive subjective changes-- improvements in sleep, lower resting heart rate at all times of day.”

“But if you were going to devote five minutes a day to a stress reduction practice that is now supported by data to translate to reductions in stress around the clock, the data say that you would want to invest that in cyclic sighing, that is, double inhale through the nose, extended exhale through the mouth until your lungs are empty, then repeat for five minutes a day.”

“published a clinical trial and cell reports medicine showing that there's a particular pattern of breathing that people can do for just 5 minutes per day that is effective in significantly improving various metrics related to mood and reducing anxiety and also improving sleep”

“so that's a very simple very minimal time investment zero cost tool that anyone can use that again improves various metrics of physical health but also improves metrics of mental health”

“the outcome of that clinical trial was that that particular pattern of breathing which we called cyclic physiological sighing for five minutes per day again done any time of day had the most positive outcomes in terms of improving mood and mental health and autonomic function those things related to sleep and heart rate variability”

“if you do a pattern of breathing like inhale inhale long exhale inhale inhale long exhale cyclic sighing over time you're going to slow the heart rate down and you're going to calm down”

“prior to trying cyclic sighing at nighttime I was waking up virtually every single night once a night to urinate and in the 18 months 20 months since I've been doing it I think it's been a total four times that I've woken up during the night to urinate”

“Take five minutes. I know it sounds like a lot, but just five minutes and do a physiological sigh of the sort that I described before. Double inhale, long exhale, and just repeat that for about 3 to five minutes.”

“five minutes a day of breath work of cyclic sighing so inhale inhale exhale both through the both inhales through the nose inhale inhale exhale done as a dedicated practice for 5 minutes a day led to some interesting changes positive changes in reductions in resting heart rate reductions in in um uh blood pressure improvements in sleep mood Etc not all significant but several which work uh statistically significant”