Does slow breathing help if you practise it before things get stressful? A new study of 98 Australian paramedicine students, published in Stress and Health in 2026, points cautiously in that direction. Students who were asked to breathe slowly every day for twelve weeks became less stressed during their exams than students who didn’t. Below you’ll find what was measured, what wasn’t, and what you can take from it.
You know this already, and you still forget
Slow your breathing down when things get tense. You’ve heard it before. You probably also know the moment you realise your breath has been high and shallow for ages, and you hadn’t noticed. After the difficult conversation, after the deadline, after the drive home in rush hour.
It isn’t that you don’t know better. Under pressure your attention goes outward, to whatever needs doing, and your breathing quietly follows. So the more useful question is this: does breathing help if you practise it before things get tense?
What the researchers did
Paramedicine students carry a lot. Even during their training they face accidents, illness and death, and they still have exams like everyone else. At the start of this study, 63 percent reported at least mild anxiety, and over 40 percent had raised stress or low mood.
The study
Examining the Effectiveness of Breathwork to Improve Resilience and Psychological Wellbeing, by Abbie Little and colleagues, published in Stress and Health in 2026. The researchers describe it as a randomised trial: participants were assigned to one of two groups from a list drawn up in advance.
Who took part
98 paramedicine students from two Australian universities, 49 in each group. The breathing group breathed slowly for ten minutes twice a day over twelve weeks: five seconds in through the nose, five seconds out, a two-second pause. They had an instruction video and a guided audio track. The control group did nothing extra but kept their usual access to university student support. The final measurement fell during exams.
What they found
- Stress: dipped slightly in the breathing group · rose slightly in the control group. Small on each side, a clear difference together. This is the strongest finding.
- Anxiety and low mood: lower in the breathing group at the end, but the difference in how the groups changed was too small to be sure of. For low mood, most of the gap was already there at the start.
- Resilience, sleep and overall wellbeing: no demonstrable effect of the breathing.
- Counted at the end: 24 of 49 in the breathing group · 42 of 49 in the control group.
Worth knowing: participants knew which group they were in, every outcome came from questionnaires they filled in themselves, and they logged their own practice too. The breathing group wasn’t compared with another activity, such as a different breathing style.
What happened during exam weeks
A quick summary would say: breathing lowers stress. What actually happened is a little different.
The final measurement landed right in exam weeks. In the control group, stress went up, just enough to be sure of. In the breathing group it went down by about the same amount, though not enough to be sure of. Together that made a clear difference. The researchers read it as a buffer: the breathing group didn’t slide along with the other group.
I like that reading better than ‘breathing lowers stress’. A buffer promises less, and gives you more: you get pulled under less when life is full. Some of the students put it that way themselves. It steadied them to know they always had this technique with them.
Why only half were counted
Of the 49 students in the breathing group, 24 made it into the final analysis. Eighteen didn’t complete the final questionnaire or dropped out, and seven were left out because they said they hadn’t practised at all. In the control group, 42 of 49 were counted.
That’s a caveat on the numbers. The results describe people who filled in the final questionnaire and practised at least a little. Leaving out those who didn’t practise at all can make the outcome look better for breathing than it is. The researchers do point to the risk of the uneven dropout, but they don’t list leaving out the non-practisers as a limitation.
It also says something about practice. Ten minutes twice a day for twelve weeks is a lot, and some students said it was hard to find the time every day. Knowing something helps and keeping it up are two different skills. In the InnerPower Method we say: come back to yourself, again and again. Not once, but over and over. Coming back, the day after you forgot, is part of the practice.
And what happens in your brain?
A second study measured brain waves during a very different kind of breathwork: a long session, partly fast and vigorous, that moves into Yoga Nidra.
The study
Unlocking deep relaxation: the power of rhythmic breathing on brain rhythms, by Vaibhav Tripathi and colleagues in India and the United States, published in August 2025 in npj Mental Health Research, a Nature group journal.
Who took part
43 experienced practitioners of Sudarshan Kriya Yoga, a breathing technique taught by the Art of Living, with seven years’ experience on average. They did about forty minutes of breathing practices, some of them fast and vigorous, then twenty minutes of Yoga Nidra, seated. Participants were recruited through an Art of Living centre, and two of the five researchers work at the Art of Living’s research institute. A small comparison group of ten people listened to relaxing music for the same length of time.
What they found
- During rhythmic breathing: more theta waves.
- During Yoga Nidra: more delta and theta waves, less alpha, which the researchers interpret as deep relaxation.
- Music group: no such shift.
- Not measured: whether participants stayed awake, or any effect on stress. How relaxed they felt was only briefly asked afterwards, and everyone said yes.
Delta waves also show up during sleep. Without measuring wakefulness, you can’t say the brain was deeply relaxed and clearly aware at the same time.
So this study says nothing about whether Yoga Nidra works better after breathwork. It describes what happens in the brains of people who have done this practice for years.
Want to know what’s known about the effects of Yoga Nidra itself? At the end of 2025 what the researchers describe as the first meta-analysis of Yoga Nidra for stress, anxiety and depression came out, pooling 73 studies and 5,201 participants. It found clear reductions, with the researchers’ own caveat that most studies were weak and the effects are probably overestimated. I wrote a separate post about it: Does Yoga Nidra actually work?
Steering or noticing
In the study, the students steered their breath: five seconds in, five out, a two-second pause. In LAND • BREATHE • FEEL, the InnerPower Method from House of InnerPower, BREATHE asks for something else. You don’t have to improve or steer your breath. You just notice it.
Those two can sit side by side. A set rhythm is a tool, something to reach for when your head is too full to simply notice. Noticing is what you keep coming back to. And it starts one step earlier, with landing: feet on the ground, lean back a little, arrive where you are. In practice, your breath often slows down by itself from there.
One small step for this week
Choose a moment that’s already part of your day. After brushing your teeth, before you open your laptop, in the car before you get out. Start by landing: feel your feet, lean back slightly. Then notice your breath without changing it.
If you want to try more, let your out-breath last a little longer than your in-breath. Or count, as in the study, five in and five out. You can skip the pause after the exhale. Three minutes is plenty to start with, and doing it regularly counts for more than doing it long.
If you feel dizzy, short of breath or more restless, stop and breathe normally. Open your eyes if they were closed. This rhythm just doesn’t suit you right now, and that’s fine. If heart, circulation or lung problems make you unsure, check with your doctor first. And if you miss a day, simply start again the next.
Where this leaves you
Breathing won’t make your stress go away. What this study cautiously suggests is that regular practice, in this study set at ten minutes twice a day, may help you stay steadier when it counts. That’s something you build in the quieter weeks beforehand.
If you’ve been struggling with stress, anxiety or low mood for a while, or if paying attention to your breath keeps overwhelming you, talk to your doctor or a psychologist. Breathing is a tool, not a treatment.
Ilse-Marie Sobering, House of InnerPower
Sources
- Little, A., Stainer, M., MacQuarrie, A. S., Wiseman, N., & Haskins, B. (2026). Examining the Effectiveness of Breathwork to Improve Resilience and Psychological Wellbeing While Reducing Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and Insomnia in Paramedicine Students: A Single-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial. Stress and Health, 42(2), e70161. doi.org/10.1002/smi.70161
- Tripathi, V., Bhaskar, L., Kharya, C., Bhatia, M., & Kochupillai, V. (2025). Unlocking deep relaxation: the power of rhythmic breathing on brain rhythms. npj Mental Health Research, 4, 39. doi.org/10.1038/s44184-025-00156-4
- Ghai, S., Odyniec, P., & Ghai, I. (2025, online; February 2026 issue). Effects of Yoga Nidra on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1556(1), e70149. doi.org/10.1111/nyas.70149
Frequently asked questions about slow breathing and stress
How long does it take for breathing exercises to work for stress?
Sometimes you feel yourself settle during the exercise itself. That’s a snapshot. What research tracks over weeks is something else: how you respond when you’re under pressure. In the study with paramedicine students, people practised for twelve weeks. So don’t expect a turnaround after a few days, and don’t judge yourself on a single session.
How often should you do breathing exercises?
There’s no fixed rule. In this study it was ten minutes twice a day, and only half the breathing group stayed in the study to the end. Some participants said it was hard to find the time every day. Start with a few minutes at a set moment you’ll actually keep. Doing it regularly matters more than doing it long.
What is 5-second inhale, 5-second exhale breathing?
It works out at about six breaths a minute, a good deal slower than most people breathe at rest. This rhythm is often called resonance breathing or coherent breathing. The study added a two-second pause after each exhale, which brings it to about five breaths a minute. If five counts feels like too much, use four, or simply let your out-breath get a little longer.
Is it safe to hold your breath after exhaling?
A pause of a few seconds, as in this study, isn’t a problem for most people and can feel calming. Never force it, and leave the pause out if it makes you tense. If you want to hold your breath for longer and you’re pregnant, have heart, circulation or lung problems, blood pressure that isn’t well controlled or epilepsy, or have ever fainted, check with your doctor first.
Can breathing exercises make anxiety worse?
Yes, that can happen. Breathing too deeply or too fast can bring on dizziness or tingling, and for some people focusing on the breath makes them more restless, especially with panic symptoms or a lot of difficult experiences behind them. If that happens, stop, breathe normally and open your eyes if they were closed. Put your attention on your feet or on something you can see. You don’t have to push through anything.
Why can’t I stick with a breathing practice?
You’re in good company: in this study only half the breathing group stayed in to the end. In practice it’s often a session that’s too long, or one that isn’t tied to a fixed moment in your day. Link it to something you already do, keep it short, and practise with others when you can. Missing a day is part of it. Coming back is the practice.
What happens in the brain during Yoga Nidra?
In an EEG study with experienced practitioners, delta and theta activity rose and alpha activity fell during Yoga Nidra, after a long breathing session. The researchers interpret that as deep relaxation. Whether participants stayed awake wasn’t measured, and delta waves also show up during sleep. So it describes a brain state, and it isn’t proof that Yoga Nidra helps with stress.
Is Yoga Nidra backed by science?
There’s a lot of research on it. The first meta-analysis of Yoga Nidra for stress, anxiety and depression, pooling 73 studies and 5,201 participants, found clear reductions. The researchers themselves note that most studies were weak and the effects are probably overestimated. Promising, then, but not yet proven the way a treatment should be.
Stay close to the practice
Would you like to practise together? You’ll find upcoming sessions, trainings and retreats on the agenda page.
Or sign up for the English newsletter below. You’ll receive one welcome email to get you started.
Ilse-Marie Sobering is the founder of House of InnerPower and the creator of the InnerPower Method: LAND • ADEM • VOEL (Land, Breathe, Feel), a cyclical practice of returning to yourself again and again. She has studied yoga philosophy and Eastern philosophy for more than 25 years, and has worked professionally since 2015 as an E-RYT 500 yoga and Yoga Nidra teacher, mindfulness and breathwork coach, Ayurveda practitioner and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner. In Spain, where she lived for seven years, she taught trainings, teacher trainings and retreats at various locations in the Málaga region, including near Periana, Nerja and Frigiliana. She now works from the Netherlands, teaching trainings and speaking in the Netherlands, in Spain and online. Within the method she works with Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, breathwork, meditation, Qigong and somatic work, complemented with elements from her hypnotherapy training. She teaches teacher trainings, continuing education and company training, for people living with long-term stress and for professionals who want to deepen the way they guide others.
