Acute Psychophysiological Effects Of 4-7-8 And Nadi Shodhana Breathing: A Randomized Crossover Study.

Brief breathing practices showed some favorable stress and mood responses, but conventional HRV measures did not significantly improve by condition.

Avcık FE, Koç F, Aktop A.
Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · Publication date: 2026-09-22
Added to site: 2026-09-23
DOI: 10.1007/s10484-026-09811-8

Electronic publication date verified in Europe PMC; first indexed 2026-09-23. This source date is separate from the site's addition date.

Modalities

Breathing training, HRV

Clinical focus

Stress, Affect, Autonomic physiology

Population

University students, not a clinical treatment sample

Sample

34 university students: 19 men and 15 women

Intervention / method

Three 10-minute conditions separated by one-week washouts: 4-7-8 breathing, alternate-nostril breathing and resting breathing

Comparator

Counterbalanced within-person resting-breathing condition

Clinician summary

Subjective responses interacted with sex: 4-7-8 favored women and alternate-nostril breathing favored men. The study did not demonstrate corresponding condition effects on SDNN, RMSSD or LF/HF.

How to interpret the findings

Small sample, acute outcomes and subgroup uncertainty. No longer-term autonomic adaptation or specific brain-heart mechanism established. This was breathing practice, not feedback-guided HRV training; adverse-event detail was unavailable.

Equipment and disclosures

Polar H10 recordings at 1000 Hz analyzed with Kubios and artifact correction.

Funding and competing-interest details were not available in the checked indexed record.

Related evidence

Compare findings from the same clinical area, including mixed results.

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• The effect of heart rate variability biofeedback training on stress and anxiety: a meta-analysis. · Positive with limitations
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• Regulation in acute stress experience through functional near-infrared spectroscopy neurofeedback of the prefrontal cortex. · Positive with limitations
• Modulation of neuroendocrine and autonomic responses to competitive stress by slow cortical potentials training in golfers: An exploratory randomized controlled trial. · Mixed
• The Effects of Alpha-Theta EEG Biofeedback Training on Anxiety and Stress: Novel Use of Hair Cortisol Concentration as a Biomarker · Positive with limitations