EasyBreezyMind
1 peer-reviewed source, DOI-verifiedUpdated Oct 1, 2026How we verify
Most breathing studies run for weeks. This one asked what happens after a single session — and whether age makes a difference.
| Study type | Experimental study |
|---|---|
| Who took part | 22 older adults and 25 younger adults |
| What was tested | One session of deep and slow breathing with a longer exhale than inhale |
| Published | Scientific Reports, 2021 |
| Free to read | Full text on PubMed Central |
| Licence | Open access, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) |
What the researchers did
Researchers measured heart rate variability (HRV) and state anxiety before and after a single session of deep, slow breathing, comparing older and younger participants.
What they found
- Slow breathing reduced state anxiety in both age groups.
- It increased high-frequency HRV power, a marker of parasympathetic (vagal) activity.
- The increase in this vagal marker was larger in older adults.
What this doesn’t prove
- It measured short-term effects of one session, not lasting change.
- The groups were small.
- It was not a randomized comparison against a different activity.
How to use this
One session can be enough to take the edge off. Try two minutes of cyclic sighing — the exhale-focused pattern — in our Breathing Regulator.
A single session of deep, slow breathing reduced state anxiety and increased a heart-rate-variability marker of vagal activity in both younger and older adults, with a larger physiological change in older adults.
Summary written by EasyBreezyMind in our own words. Original article: Magnon V, Dutheil F, Vallet GT (2021). Benefits from one session of deep and slow breathing on vagal tone and anxiety in young and older adults. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98736-9. © The authors. Published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This summary is educational and is not endorsed by the authors.