Prolonged Exhalation (Extended Exhale Breathing)

How to do it

1. Sit upright or lie down. Let your shoulders and jaw soften.
2. Breathe out once to empty your lungs, then begin.
3. Breathe in gently through your nose for 4 seconds. Keep it soft and small, not a deep breath.
4. Breathe out slowly for 8 seconds, through your nose or softly pursed lips, as if cooling a spoonful of soup.
5. Let the next inhale come on its own. There is no hold at either end.
6. Repeat for 3 to 5 minutes. If 8 seconds feels tight, start at 3 in and 6 out.
7. Finish on an exhale and let your breathing find its own rhythm.

Benefits

• Calmer in a couple of minutes

  In a lab study, a long exhale brought more relaxation and less stress than the same pace with a long inhale^[2].

• Calm you can still act in

  Under time pressure and noise, people did a hard task better with prolonged exhalation than with box breathing^[1].

• Nothing to hold

  No breath holds means no air hunger. It is easy to keep going, and easy to use in the middle of a busy moment.

• An easy way to wind down

  In bed, a soft inhale and a long, unhurried exhale slow you down for sleep.

What the research says

Your heart rate rises a little as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out, so a longer exhale gives each breath more of the slowing phase^[2]. In a study of 30 people by Van Diest and colleagues, breathing with an exhale almost two and a half times as long as the inhale brought more relaxation, stress reduction, mindfulness and positive energy than breathing with a long inhale^[2]. High-frequency heart rate variability, a marker of the body's calming branch, rose with the long exhale only at the slow pace of 6 breaths a minute^[2].

Two small studies point the same way. In 10 healthy young men, breathing 4 seconds in and 6 out raised parasympathetic activity, while fast 1-second breathing suppressed it^[3]. In a single session with 25 younger and 22 older adults, slow breathing with a long exhale raised high-frequency heart rate variability and lowered state anxiety in both groups; another measure, RMSSD, did not change^[4].

One lab study compared it head to head with box breathing. Thirty healthy adults did a hard color-word task under time pressure and rising noise, once with each technique^[1]. Prolonged exhalation gave better task performance, and box breathing gave lower physiological arousal^[1]. The authors suggest the long exhale suits moments when you must keep acting, and box breathing suits moments when you can simply settle^[1].

The studies are small, so the evidence is moderate, and they back the principle of a longer exhale more than any exact count^[2][3][4].

Tips

• Keep the inhale soft and small. The long exhale should come from slowing down, not from breathing in more first.
• Use the count as a guide. Let the air run out comfortably instead of forcing the last second.
• Don't rush into the next inhale. Let the exhale finish, then let the inhale arrive.
• Build up over sessions: start with an exhale a little longer than the inhale and work toward double.
• Breathe out through your nose by default. Soft pursed lips are fine; straining is not.

Related exercises

• Physiological SighTwo breaths in through the nose, one long breath out. Calmer in one or two breaths.
• 4-7-8 BreathingBreathe in for 4, hold for 7, breathe out for 8. The long exhale slows you down for sleep.
• Nogare BreathingA quick, quiet breath in, a long, silent breath out, and nothing that shows.
• Coherent BreathingFive seconds in, five seconds out, no holds. An even breath that steadies your heart and clears your head.