Skip to content
Get in touch

Research › Anxiety & Stress

Clinical utility of paced breathing as a concentration meditation practice

Share

Suggested message

Check out this Knowledge Base article from StressTherapy Solutions: Clinical utility of paced breathing as a concentration meditation practice.

Facebook LinkedIn Email

Facebook doesn't let websites fill in your post. Use Copy message, then paste it in.

Study at a glance

Area
Anxiety & Stress
Study type
Observational study
Authors
Park YJ, Park YB
Journal
Complementary Therapies in Medicine
Year
2012
Participants
58
Population
Adults
Protocol
Paced breathing at six-second cycles; EEG and heart rate variability
Sessions
1

Key findings

  • 58 meditation-naive adults aged 20 to 30; spontaneous then paced breathing (6-second cycles)
  • High-frequency HRV rose and the LF/HF ratio fell during paced breathing
  • Low alpha power rose across the scalp; theta fell locally
  • Personality traits were related to the alpha changes

DOI 10.1016/j.ctim.2012.07.008 → PubMed 23131369 →

58 young adults with no meditation experience breathed normally and then at a paced six-second rhythm while their EEG and heart rate variability were recorded. Paced breathing raised high-frequency HRV, a sign of parasympathetic ("rest and digest") activity, and low alpha power, a marker of inward attention, while theta fell. Personality traits were linked to how much alpha changed. The authors suggest paced breathing as a simple concentration practice for beginners, adjusted to the individual.