Breathing exercises for focus, calm and sleep
Box breathing, coherent breathing, 4-7-8, the physiological sigh, power breathing and a custom breathing timer—six guided breathing techniques in Hima, with thirteen calming background sounds and gentle vibration.
Box breathing
Four equal sides: breathe in for four seconds, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four. The simplest way to steady your attention before something that matters.
CalmCoherent breathing
Five seconds in, five seconds out, no holds. Also called resonance breathing, it is the calmest rhythm your body can settle into—and the one most studied for stress and heart rate variability.
Sleep4-7-8 breathing
Breathe in for four seconds, hold for seven, breathe out for eight. The long exhale is the point: it tells your body the day is over.
CalmPhysiological sigh
Two inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth. Your body already does this on its own when you cry or before sleep—now you can do it on purpose.
EnergyPower breathing
A deep inhale, a relaxed exhale, a faster rhythm. Where the other practices slow you down, this one wakes you up.
CustomNatural Rhythm
Set the length of your inhale and exhale, add a hold after either one if you like, and breathe. For when none of the ready-made patterns is quite yours.
Thirteen sounds to breathe with
Nature, gentle noise and binaural beats, built into the app and playing offline. Pick one for every practice, set the volume, and let everything else fade out. Binaural beats work best with headphones.
- Ocean Wavesslow surf on the shore
- Rainsteady rain, no thunder
- Forestbirdsong in the trees
- Windsoft wind
- Flowing Streamwater over stones
- Fireplacea crackling fire
- Pink Noisesoft, even background sound
- Brown Noisea deeper, lower background sound
- Om Chanta calm, sustained chant
- Delta 2.5 Hz — Deep Sleepbinaural beat
- Theta 5 Hz — Meditationbinaural beat
- Beta 16 Hz — Productivitybinaural beat
- Gamma 40 Hz — Deep Focusbinaural beat
Pick a practice, a time and a sound
Open the Recharge tab and choose a breathing exercise by goal—Calm, Focus, Sleep or Energy. Set 1 to 60 minutes, pick a sound and a vibration strength, and follow the animation. Add a reminder so the practice happens every day, not just when you remember.
And when you open an app you have chosen to pause, Hima greets you with one slow breath before the feed.
Breathing exercises: common questions
Which breathing exercise is best for sleep?
4-7-8 breathing is built for it: a long hold and an even longer exhale. Coherent breathing with rain or ocean sounds is a gentler alternative.
Which breathing exercise is best for stress and anxiety?
For relief in the moment, the physiological sigh—one to three sighs. For a calmer baseline, coherent breathing for 10–20 minutes a day.
Which breathing exercise is best for focus?
Box breathing: four equal phases of four seconds give a wandering mind one simple job.
How long should I do breathing exercises?
A few minutes already helps. Most people do 3–5 minutes of box breathing or the physiological sigh, 10–20 minutes of coherent breathing, and four to eight cycles of 4-7-8 before sleep.
Are breathing exercises safe?
Slow breathing is safe for most people. Energizing power breathing is the exception: never do it in water, while driving or standing, and skip it if you are pregnant or have epilepsy or a heart condition.
Hima is a wellness app, not a medical device. Breathing exercises are not a treatment for any condition. If you feel dizzy, short of breath or unwell, stop and breathe normally. If you have a heart, lung or anxiety condition, are pregnant, or have epilepsy, talk to your doctor first.
Breathe first. Then decide.
Six breathing exercises, thirteen calming sounds and an app blocker that puts a breath before the scroll.