Paced breathing timer: a slow count of 5 in, 5 out

The exercise above paces your breathing with a gentle on-screen count. You choose how long to breathe in, how long to breathe out and how many minutes to continue, then follow the guide. The starting count of 5 in and 5 out comes from NHS guidance, and every setting can be changed.

Before you start

This is an exercise, not a treatment. The NHS page advises letting the breath go only as deep as is comfortable, without forcing it. The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says relaxation techniques are generally considered safe for healthy people, but some people report increased anxiety, intrusive thoughts or fear of losing control, and there are rare reports of problems in people with epilepsy, certain psychiatric conditions or a history of abuse or trauma. If the exercise makes you feel worse, stop and breathe normally. NCCIH also advises seeing a health care provider for severe or long-lasting symptoms. More on that threshold is in when self-help is not enough.

What the NHS describes

The NHS page says you can stand, sit in a chair that supports your back, or lie down, with feet flat and roughly hip-width apart. It suggests breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, letting the breath flow down into the belly. Some people, it says, find it helpful to count steadily from 1 to 5 on the way in and again on the way out, and it adds that you may not reach 5 at first. It recommends repeating for at least 5 minutes and doing it regularly.

The timer follows that pattern as its default. The shorter sessions and other count options are the editors' additions, not the NHS's. The five-minute choice matches the NHS minimum. For a silent, unscripted alternative, see the mindful minutes timer.

What the research shows, and what it does not

NCCIH describes slow, deep breathing (also called diaphragmatic breathing) and notes that a 2019 review of 3 studies with 880 participants found preliminary evidence that it may reduce stress. It says much of the evidence is low quality and limited.

A 2023 systematic review in the journal Brain Sciences looked at 58 trials of breathing practices alone, covering 72 interventions, and found 54 of those interventions reduced stress or anxiety on questionnaire measures. The reviewers reported that effective practices avoided fast-only breathing and sessions shorter than 5 minutes, while pace, group versus individual practice and home versus supervised practice were not linked to effectiveness. Some interventions did not work.

Taken together, slow breathing looks like a reasonable way to settle for a few minutes, but the studies differ widely, and none of this shows that it treats anxiety or any condition. To see how stress differs from anxiety, read stress and anxiety: what is the difference?. A different sensory approach is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding walkthrough.