The most-cited research behind cyclic sighing is Balban et al. (2023), published in Cell Reports Medicine. Here's a plain-language look at what it actually measured — without overstating what it found.
The study compared several brief daily breathing practices, including cyclic sighing, against each other over about four weeks. Participants completed roughly five-minute sessions each day. Researchers tracked self-reported mood alongside measures of physiological arousal.
Across the study period, participants generally reported improvements in mood, and some measures of physiological arousal shifted as well. Cyclic sighing performed comparably to, and in some measures favorably against, the other practices tested — though the differences between techniques were often modest.
The app is built to guide roughly the same pattern and daily duration the study used, and to help you track your own mood alongside your sessions — so you can see, in your own data, whether it seems to matter for you. It doesn't make claims beyond what the research measured.
Read Balban et al., 2023 on PMC →
This is a general-information summary, not medical advice, and individual results vary. Cyclic Sighing app is a wellness tool, not a treatment. The app and Breathwork Studios LLC are not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the authors, institutions, or publisher of the cited research.
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