Key result
Slow-paced breathing increases cardiac vagal activity versus control regardless of session duration.
Why the study?
Slow-paced breathing increases cardiac vagal activity, but whether a dose-response relationship modulates this effect remains unknown.
Does slow-paced breathing at six cycles per minute improve cardiac vagal activity in participants?
Does slow-paced breathing at six cycles per minute improve cardiac vagal activity in participants?
Slow-paced breathing increases cardiac vagal activity regardless of session duration between 5 and 20 minutes, though longer sessions may further decrease spontaneous respiratory frequency.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May enhance vagal activity with sessions as short as 5 min; hypothesis-generating for clinical autonomic applications.
The practice of slow-paced breathing (SPB) has been linked to a range of positive outcomes, such as decreasing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as increasing well-being. Among the suggested mechanisms of action, SPB has been shown to increase cardiac vagal activity (CVA). The present study aimed to investigate whether there is a dose-response relationship modulating the effects of SPB on CVA. A total of 59 participants were involved in this study. In a within-subject design, participants attended the lab five times, and realized SPB at six cycles per minute with different durations (5, 10, 15, and 20 min), as well as a control condition without SPB. CVA was indexed via the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). During SPB, findings showed an increase in RMSSD in all conditions compared to the control condition. However, no differences were found in RMSSD among the different session durations, during SPB or during the resting measurement completed immediately after SPB. Noteworthily, session duration showed an influence on the spontaneous respiratory frequency in the resting measurement occurring immediately after SPB. Specifically, respiratory frequency appears to decrease with session duration, thus potentially contributing to additional relaxing effects.
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You et al. (2021) studied this question. Slow-paced breathing (SPB) vs. Control condition without SPB was evaluated on Cardiac vagal activity (CVA) indexed via RMSSD. Slow-paced breathing at six cycles per minute increased cardiac vagal activity compared to control, with no differences in RMSSD among 5, 10, 15, and 20 minute session durations.
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