Breathing patterns by the numbers: what 4-7-8, 7-11, 4-6-8, and box breathing mean

How to read the numbers

The numbers almost always stand for seconds or counts, in the order breathe in, hold, breathe out, and sometimes hold again. So 4-7-8 means 4 in, hold for 7, 8 out.¹ One important exception is the German 4-7-11 rule: there, the 11 means minutes of practice.²

1. 4-7-8: 4 seconds in, hold for 7, 8 out.
2. 4-7-11: 4 seconds in, 7 out, no hold. The 11 means minutes.
3. 4x4, or box breathing: four times 4 seconds, two of them holds.
4. 3-6: 3 seconds in, 6 out, no hold.

Watch again

The best-known patterns at a glance:

I calculated the breaths per minute myself: 60 divided by the seconds in one round. At rest, people usually breathe 10 to 20 times a minute, and slow breathing is generally defined as about 4 to 10.³ So some of these patterns are even slower than that.

7-11, 4-7-11, and 4-6: slow, with a long exhale

7-11 breathing

With 7-11, you count to 7 as you breathe in and to 11 as you breathe out. It appears in leaflets from NHS trusts in the UK and is part of the training in the human givens approach.^{4, 5} There, the numbers are more of a ratio than seconds. One leaflet translates the 7 counts into about 4 to 5 seconds and the 11 into about 7 to 8.⁶ Another says it doesn’t matter how far you count, as long as the out-breath is longer than the in-breath.⁴ If 7 and 11 feel too long, you can start with 3 and 6.⁷

7-11 has barely been studied. The only research I found is an unpublished master’s thesis with 30 adults: 16 found 7-to-11 breathing more relaxing, 14 preferred breathing in and out for equal lengths. Heart rate variability showed no clear difference.⁵

One minute of 7-11

Count at your own pace

Breathe along

4-7-11, the German “4711” rule

In German-speaking countries, 4-7-11 means breathing in for 4 seconds and out for 7, with no hold, for 11 minutes, once or twice a day. The oldest source I found is a 2018 article by Techniker Krankenkasse, a large German health insurer. It quotes Thomas Loew, a professor of psychosomatic medicine in Regensburg, who recommends slow breathing with a clear belly breath.² A fragrance brand with the same name also explains the rule on its website and notes that every single second doesn’t matter.⁸

Don’t mix it up: the 11 isn’t 11 seconds of breathing out, and there’s no hold. I couldn’t find a study behind the 11 minutes. In a meta-analysis, the effect of breathing exercises on stress didn’t depend on how long people practiced.⁹ There’s no study on the 4-7 pattern itself either. The closest is a lab study in which 3 seconds in and 7 out felt more relaxing than the reverse.¹⁰

One minute of 4-7

4 seconds in, 7 out, no hold

Breathe along

4-6: the 10-second version

In a 2019 article, Loew’s recipe is a little different: 4 seconds in, 6 out, for at least 11 minutes. He’s not a fan of breath holds.¹¹ In 2024, the Swiss broadcaster’s science site SRF Wissen also suggested counting to four breathing in and to six or seven breathing out, for eleven minutes.¹²

One round takes 10 seconds here. A study from Loew’s research group compared breathing cycles from 6 to 14 seconds: at 10 seconds, breathing, heart rate, and slow brain potentials were most closely in sync, and the 37 participants also rated this pace as the most relaxing.¹³ That kind of synchrony isn’t a health outcome, though. A 4-to-6 ratio at about six breaths per minute also appears in several short lab studies.^{14, 15}

One minute of 4-6

Six breaths, comfortable, not deep

Breathe along

4-7-8 and 4-6-8: with a long hold after breathing in

4-7-8

4-7-8 breathing goes back to Andrew Weil: breathe out completely, then breathe in quietly through your nose to a count of 4, hold for 7, and breathe out audibly through your mouth to a count of 8. In his handout, he writes that the absolute time for each phase isn’t important, but the ratio is.¹ In healthy people, 4-7-8 has been studied in two small lab studies with one session each.^{16, 15} More in the article on 4-7-8 breathing.

Four rounds of 4-7-8

Breathe out completely first

Breathe along

4-6-8

4-6-8 means breathing in for 4, holding for 6, and breathing out for 8.¹⁷ None of the sources I found say where it comes from, and there’s no study on it. It looks like a slightly gentler 4-7-8, with one second less of holding.

Four rounds of 4-6-8

Only hold as long as it feels easy

Breathe along

4x4, 4-4-8, and 4-2-6: with holds in the rhythm

4x4, or box breathing

“4x4 breathing” usually means box breathing: 4 seconds in, hold for 4, 4 out, hold for 4. So half of every round is holding. Box breathing was popularized by former Navy SEAL Mark Divine, and it’s also in a US Navy training guide.^{18, 19} In a comparison with 84 college students, slow breathing without holds raised heart rate variability more than box or 4-7-8 breathing.¹⁵ More in the article on box breathing.

One minute around the square

Four rounds, four seconds per side

Breathe along

4-4-8

4 seconds in, 4 pause, 8 out, through your nose. In the only study on it, with 15 young men, a heart rate variability measure was higher 30 minutes after twelve of these breaths than before; after an hour, the difference was gone.²⁰ More in the article on breathing and the vagus nerve.

The 4-4-8 pattern

Four rounds, ideally sitting or lying down

Breathe along

4-2-6

4 in, hold for 2, 6 out. I only found this pattern in a guided meditation in an app; I couldn’t find where it comes from or any study on it.²¹ The hold is short, and the exhale is longer than the inhale.

One minute of 4-2-6

The hold is short and light

Breathe along

5-5, 3-6, and 5-7: no holds

5-5

5 seconds in, 5 out, no holds: that’s the usual form of coherent breathing, at six breaths per minute. Slow breathing in this range has been studied a lot, and it measurably changes heart rate variability during practice.²² In the largest trial, though, 5.5 breaths per minute over four weeks did no better than breathing at 12 per minute with the same guidance.²³ More in the article on coherent breathing.

One minute at 5 and 5

Six breaths, comfortable, not deep

Breathe along

3-6 and 4-8: twice as long out

With 3-6, the exhale takes twice as long as the inhale. This ratio is often explained with yoga.¹⁰ University Hospital Zurich teaches it as a counting exercise: count to three as you breathe in, then count down from six as you breathe out.²⁴ 4-8 follows the same ratio, just slower. I couldn’t find a study on either exact pattern. Whether a twice-as-long exhale does more for your body than an equal one is unclear; the studies disagree.²⁵

One minute of 3-6

3 seconds in, 6 out, no hold

Breathe along

5-7

5 seconds in, 7 out. A US Navy training guide calls this “ratio breathing,” for recovery after training and in the evening.¹⁹ I couldn’t find a study on it.

One minute of 5-7

5 seconds in, 7 out, no hold

Breathe along

2-1-7 and 4-2-4: two special cases

2-1-7: the sigh with a pace

2 seconds in, 1 second of a short extra breath in on top, 7 seconds out: that’s how nowa paces the physiological sigh. So the 1 isn’t a hold but a second, short inhale. The well-known Stanford study on sighing didn’t set any seconds; participants breathed in slowly, took a short second breath in, and then breathed out slowly and fully.²⁶ More in the article on the physiological sigh.

Six sighs, one minute

2 in, 1 more in, 7 out

Breathe along

4-2-4: a pause after breathing out

4 seconds in, 2 out, 4 pause. Here, the exhale is shorter than the inhale, followed by a relaxed pause. In a study with 40 college students, a heart rate variability measure was higher with this pattern than with 5-5 without a pause, and 68 percent found it the easiest to follow.²⁷ It was a single session.

One minute of 4-2-4

4 in, 2 out, 4 pause

Breathe along

What the patterns have in common

• They’re slow. All the patterns here come out at 3 to 7 breaths per minute, well below what’s typical at rest.³
• Most of them lengthen the exhale. In small studies, a long exhale felt more relaxing.¹⁰ Whether it does more for your body is unclear.²⁵
• You don’t need holds. Without holds, heart rate variability rose more in a comparison than with box or 4-7-8 breathing.¹⁵ Long holds can trigger air hunger.²⁸ A relaxed pause after breathing out, on the other hand, felt easy to most people in one study.²⁷
• There’s no best pattern. Direct comparisons are rare, short, and small. One review argues that most breathing techniques share the same core mechanisms.²⁹

The seconds don’t have to be exact. Andrew Weil says so about 4-7-8, the fragrance brand’s website about the 4-7-11 rule, and an NHS leaflet about 7-11.^{1, 8, 4} If a phase feels too long, count faster and keep the ratio, or shorten or skip the holds.^{1, 26} And don’t breathe excessively deep: with exactly that instruction, college students overbreathed only about half as much during slow breathing.³⁰

Frequently asked questions

What do the numbers in breathing techniques mean?

Usually seconds or counts, in the order in, hold, out, hold. So 4-7-8 means 4 in, hold for 7, 8 out. In the German 4-7-11 rule, though, the 11 means minutes of practice.^{1, 2}

What is 7-11 breathing?

You count to 7 as you breathe in and to 11 as you breathe out. NHS leaflets treat the numbers as a ratio rather than exact seconds; what matters is that the exhale is longer.^{4, 6}

Is 7-11 breathing the same as 4-7-11?

No. 4-7-11 means 4 seconds in and 7 out, for 11 minutes. What both share is a longer exhale.^{2, 4} If you count 7-11 the way one NHS leaflet does, you even end up at almost the same pace.⁶

Which breathing pattern is best?

No pattern has been shown to be best. In a small comparison, slow breathing without holds changed heart rate variability more than box or 4-7-8 breathing.¹⁵ In the largest trial, though, the slow pace itself didn’t beat calm breathing at a normal pace.²³ Pick the pattern that feels easy for you.

Do the exact seconds matter?

No. If a phase feels too long, count faster and keep the ratio, for example 3-5-6 instead of 4-7-8, or 3-6 instead of 7-11.^{1, 7}

Do I have to hold my breath?

No. In comparisons, slow breathing without holds did at least as well as patterns with holds.¹⁵ If you like holds, only hold as long as it feels easy.

Why make the exhale longer?

Your heart beats a little slower as you breathe out and a little faster as you breathe in.³³ In small studies, a longer exhale felt more relaxing. Whether it does more than breathing in and out for equal lengths is unclear.^{10, 25}

I feel dizzy or tingly. What should I do?

Stop and breathe normally. You’ve probably taken in a bit too much air.³⁰ Next time, breathe more gently, skip the holds, and use shorter counts. More in the article on when breathing exercises make you anxious.

How long should I practice? Do I really need 11 minutes?

There’s no proven minimum. The 11 minutes come from an advice article, not from studies.² In a meta-analysis, the effect didn’t depend on how long people practiced.⁹ More in the article on how often to do breathing exercises.