Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled data from 223 studies to see if voluntary slow breathing (VSB) changes heart rate variability that reflects parasympathetic (vagal) control of the heart. The authors found that VSB increased vagally-mediated heart rate variability during breathing sessions, right after a single session, and after…
This clinical trial tested one session of deep and slow breathing (DSB) in 47 adults (22 older, 25 younger). After the single DSB session, high-frequency (HF) heart rate variability increased and self-reported state anxiety went down in both age groups. The rise in HF power was significantly larger in older…
This study tested how slow versus fast breathing affects anxiety and brain activity. Twenty-seven people did breathing and threat-uncertainty tasks while their brain activity was measured with EEG. Slow breathing reduced anxiety and led to different EEG patterns than fast breathing. In particular, slow breathing raised EEG power across several…
This small observational study checked mood and heart-rate measures before and after one 40-minute seated Himalayan singing bowl (HSB) sound-bath. After the session, 77 people reported higher positive affect and lower negative affect on the PANAS mood survey. A smaller group (17) filling the POMS survey reported less tension, anger,…
