Slow and calming

Extended exhale: breathing out longer than in

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 20269 sources

Family

Slow and calming

Breaths

6 a minute

Carbon dioxide

Steady

How well tested

Weak

Risk

Low

Timer

Run it on this page

Extended exhale means breathing out for longer than you breathe in, usually twice as long or more. Our timer runs 3 seconds in and 7 out, six breaths a minute. People feel more relaxed with the long out-breath in lab tests. But in the longest trial, it did no better than even breaths at the same slow pace.

“Make the out-breath longer” has become close to a rule. Mind-body teachers say it, and calming tips everywhere repeat it. The physiology behind it is real, which makes the rule sound airtight. The studies are messier. When researchers kept the pace the same and changed only the split between in and out, some found the long out-breath helped and others found no difference at all.

What it is and where it comes from

The idea is common in mind-body teaching. A 2023 Vanderbilt trial built its program on the Viniyoga line of yoga that comes from the teacher Krishnamacharya. The trial’s authors note that mind-body teachers believe a longer exhale relaxes you more, and that this “has not been demonstrated”.

Researchers had a go at it in 1984, with electric shocks. Cappo and Holmes had volunteers breathe at six breaths a minute in one of three ways, quick in and slow out, slow in and quick out, or even. Then they told the volunteers to expect shocks. During ordinary practice, none of the patterns made a difference. Once the threat came, the quick in and slow out group was calmer, both on a skin sensor and in what they reported thinking.

In 2014, Ilse Van Diest’s team at KU Leuven in Belgium ran the test our timer copies. Thirty people breathed at 6 or 12 breaths a minute, with the out-breath either about two and a third times the in-breath or the other way round. At six a minute, that long version is 3 seconds in and 7 out.

How to do it

1. Sit or lie down. Let your shoulders drop.
2. Breathe in through your nose for 3 seconds. Keep it a normal-sized breath.
3. Breathe out slowly for 7 seconds. Through your nose, or through your mouth like you’re cooling a spoonful of soup.
4. Go straight into the next breath. No pause, six breaths a minute.
5. Keep going for five minutes. If 7 feels long, use 4 in and 6 out, which is still a longer out-breath at the same pace.

The shape below puts it next to six a minute. Both take ten seconds a breath, and only the split changes.

A simple way to picture it

Picture a traffic light with a 3-second green and a 7-second red. The cars still get through, but they spend most of each minute stopped. Breathing in is the green, when your heart speeds up a little. Breathing out is the red, when it slows. Lengthen the red and more of every minute goes to slowing down.

What happens in your body

Your heart speeds up a little on every breath in and slows on every breath out, because the nerve that brakes your heart eases off and then comes back on. A longer out-breath gives the brake more time each breath. That’s the theory, and a 2020 guide for clinicians recommends a longer exhale for that reason.

The measurements are split. In a 2021 Toronto study, 28 adults kept their own natural pace and stretched the out-breath. The calming side of their heart rhythm rose, and it stayed up for four minutes afterward. But in a 2024 study that held everyone at exactly six a minute, the split made no difference to the heart at all. Why does slow breathing calm your heart? has the long version.

What the evidence shows

The 2024 team counted the earlier lab studies too. Four favored a longer out-breath, three found no difference, one favored even breaths and one favored a longer in-breath. In one sitting, the long out-breath often feels nicer. Over 12 weeks, in the one long trial, it made little difference to how anxious people felt. We couldn’t find a trial that tested it against cyclic sighing, which also stretches the out-breath.

Who should skip it

Nobody needs to. If you end up gasping on the next breath in, switch to 4 in and 6 out. If you feel lightheaded or tingly, you’re breathing more than you need, and smaller, smoother breaths fix it. If you have COPD or another lung disease, pursed-lip breathing is the long out-breath MedlinePlus teaches for shortness of breath, 2 counts in and 4 or more out.

Breathing fast without meaning to is something else. MedlinePlus says rapid breathing for the first time may need the emergency room, and fast breathing that keeps going despite home care needs a doctor.