Box breathing timer

Breathe in, hold, breathe out and hold, for the same count each time. Press Start and follow the box. No sign-up, and this timer saves nothing.

I develop Inhale, an iPhone breathing app with a Box Breathing timer, so I built this page around the same rhythm. The timer and the notes below work without the app.

How to do it

Box breathing is four equal steps: in, hold, out, hold. Cleveland Clinic lists the other names you may see, including square breathing, four-square breathing and 4-4-4-4 breathing.

1. Sit with your back supported and your feet on the floor, or lie down, as WebMD suggests.
2. Breathe out slowly, the first step in Cleveland Clinic's version. The timer gives you three seconds for this before the first breath in.
3. Breathe in through your nose for one side of the box, hold for the next, breathe out for the next and hold for the last.
4. Keep it gentle. Cleveland Clinic's advice is to stay at your comfort level and not strain.

How long, and what count

Cleveland Clinic suggests three to four rounds, and Healthline four cycles in one sitting. Four cycles at four seconds a side take 1 minute 4 seconds, which is the timer's default. If four seconds is too long, WebMD suggests starting with two or three. The timer offers two to six seconds a side.

If you feel dizzy, and who should ask a doctor first

Stop right away and go back to normal breathing if you feel breathless or dizzy. Healthline gives that advice, adds that you should get medical attention immediately if the symptoms do not go away after you stop, and says to talk to a doctor first if you have a heart condition or another severe health condition, or are pregnant. If you are struggling to breathe or have chest pain, do not use a timer: get urgent medical help. Do not do this while driving or in water.

What the research does and does not show

One randomized trial that included box breathing was published by Balban and colleagues in Cell Reports Medicine in 2023. It assigned 108 people to five minutes a day of one of three breathing exercises or mindfulness meditation for 28 days. Twenty-one were assigned to box breathing, with the length of each step set per person from a breath test, not fixed at four seconds.

In the box breathing group, positive mood rose and negative mood and state anxiety fell. Negative mood and state anxiety also fell with meditation, and the paper found no difference between the breathing exercises and meditation on either. The study had no group that did no exercise, so those changes cannot be credited to the breathing alone. On positive mood, the three breathing exercises taken together did better than meditation, but taken one at a time, only cyclic sighing differed significantly from meditation; box breathing did not. The paper reports no significant changes in resting heart rate, heart rate variability or sleep.

The authors say it was originally intended as an exploratory study, and they point to small groups, remote practice that limited daily monitoring and no follow-up after four weeks. It excluded people reporting moderate to severe conditions, among them heart disease, glaucoma, a history of seizures and pregnancy. In an optional questionnaire at the end, 10% of participants reported negative experiences related to the exercises; the paper's text gives that figure for the whole study, not for box breathing alone. This timer does not reproduce that protocol, and none of this shows that box breathing treats anxiety, panic or any other condition.

About this timer

• Nothing saved. There is no account and no history, the timer sets no cookies, and your settings are gone when you leave. The page loads no third-party scripts, fonts or images. The web server still receives the ordinary request for the page.
• A still version. One side of the box lights at a time, and only the words and the count change. It starts on if your device asks for reduced motion, and you can switch it at any time.
• It pauses when you leave. If the tab goes to the background, the timer stops and waits for Resume.
• Silent, and it needs your eyes. There is no sound or vibration. Where the browser allows it, the page asks the screen to stay on during a session.

What the iPhone app adds

Inhale: Box Breathing Timer is the app I build. Its Box Breathing is fixed at four seconds a side and you choose the number of cycles, so the choice of two to six seconds exists only on this page. The app adds haptic guidance on supported iPhones, so you can follow with your eyes closed as long as Inhale stays open. It also has ambient sounds (rain, ocean, night forest, pink and brown noise) and session statistics and streaks.

Inhale is free to download for iPhone with iOS 17 or later, in English, with no account and no advertising. Box Breathing, 4-7-8, Cyclic Sighing, the sounds, the haptics and the statistics are all free. One optional purchase, paid once and never renewed, adds Coherent Breathing and Power Breath. The app shows that offer after your first completed session.

The link carries a campaign label, so App Store Connect can count some of the downloads that came from this page.