Safety note
If your illness is more severe, you may find it difficult to practice coherent breathing. If your Monthly Check-In score is 2.0 or below, we recommend starting with sessions of no longer than 2 minutes, and increasing this only if you feel able to.
Overview
Coherent breathing helps you enter a restful state, which can allow your body to rebalance and recover.
Your optimal breathing rate can be calculated by our in-app test.
Your heart rate is displayed in real time as dots during the session.
The more pronounced the peaks and troughs are in your HR data during breathing, the higher your HRV is.
After you finish a breathing session, you'll see the highest HRV achieved as well as the percentage of increase in HRV throughout the session.
Coherent breathing is a powerful technique for entering a deep, restful state. Spending more time in deep rest allows your body to rebalance and recover, which is crucial for pacing.
Research has shown that as little as 10 minutes of coherent breathing can have a beneficial impact on symptoms. By incorporating coherent breathing into your daily routine, you can experience regulatory effects on your autonomic function.
A few minutes each day is all you need to build a coherent breathing habit.
Coherent breathing practice
Tap Coherent breathing practice to start a breathing session
Visible uses real-time heart rate data from your band to guide you through coherent breathing. This helps you use your breathing to increase your heart rate variability during your session to improve rest and recovery.
To get started with coherent breathing,
In the app, go to the Today page.
Tap Coherent breathing practice.
Tap Start to begin your breathing session.
Start with shorter breathing sessions if your illness is more severe
The duration of a coherent breathing practice can vary based on individual comfort and experience level. For most people, 10 minutes a day is a good starting point.
For beginners, it can be helpful to start with shorter sessions, for example two 5-minute sessions. This is especially true if your illness is more severe. Over time, as you become more comfortable with breathing practice, you can gradually increase the duration.
Try diaphragmatic breathing in time with the circular timer
To get the most out of coherent breathing, we recommend practicing diaphragmatic breathing. This means:
Focusing on getting a full expansion of the lungs, rather than breathing into the top of your chest.
Placing a hand at the base of your ribcage can help you feel the filling of the lower part of your lungs.
Both your inhalation and exhalation should be done through the nose. We recommend aiming for a silent inward breath and slow outward breath.
Try to keep your breathing in time with the circular timer, to help keep a steady and consistent rhythm.
Watch your heart rate rise and fall as you breathe
The dots on the screen represent your heart rate in real-time during the session. During a breathing session, your heart rate varies. It gets faster when you breathe in and slower when you breathe out.
When you’re breathing coherently, the distance between the peaks and troughs in the wave represents your heart rate variability (HRV). The more pronounced those peaks and troughs, the higher your HRV. At the end of your session, the highest HRV reached is highlighted for you.
These peaks and troughs coincide with your breathing pattern and should become more pronounced as you practice, indicating improved HRV. This real-time feedback helps measure the effectiveness of your breathing sessions and supports consistent improvement through practice.
Review how your HRV changed after each session
Each time you complete a coherent breathing session, the app tracks your HRV continuously. Your highest (peak) HRV value reached during the session is displayed in your results. Additionally, if your HRV increased during the session, you will see the percentage increase from your starting HRV to the maximum value achieved. This offers immediate feedback on how your breathing has impacted your HRV.
Note: The HRV shown is the same 0 to 100 HRV scale we use elsewhere in Visible. This consistent scale ensures that all HRV readings across the app are comparable, simplifying the interpretation of your progress and trends.
Personalizing your breathing rate
Take a test to find your optimal breathing rate
Everyone has a unique breathing rate that maximizes their heart rate variability. This is also known as your resonant frequency.
Visible can help you to find your resonant frequency by completing a breathing rate test. This is a 6-minute session that changes the pace of your breathing over the course of the session and then calculates the breathing rate at which your heart rate variability was highest.
Find the breathing rate test in Breathing settings
You can take the breathing rate test to find your resonant frequency by tapping into your Breathing settings on the Coherent breathing practice page:
In the app, go to the Today page.
Tap Coherent breathing practice.
Tap on the Settings icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen. This opens the Breathing settings page.
Tap Take Test.
Start your 6 min breathing test to calculate your optimal breathing rate.
You can retake the test at any time.
Manually adjust your breathing rate at any time
In Breathing settings, you can set or update your breathing rate at any time. You can choose any breathing rate between 4.5 and 7.5 breaths per minute (with increments of 0.5).
Make coherent breathing a daily practice
Choose a daily breathing goal in Breathing settings
You can set a daily goal of 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes in your Breathing Settings.
You can find this by tapping Coherent breathing practice on the Today page, followed by the Settings icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
Set up a coherent breathing practice reminder in your Profile page
To set up a reminder to complete your daily Breathing practice, open the app and go to Profile → Reminders. From there, you can turn the Breathing reminder on or off and choose the time you'd like to be notified. Once enabled, you'll get a notification on your phone at the set time each day.
Practice coherent breathing at any time of the day
Coherent breathing can be practiced at any time of day. However, choosing a consistent time can help in forming a daily habit.
Common questions
How can I turn off the breathing music?
How can I turn off the breathing music?
The breathing music that can accompany your coherent breathing session can be turned on and off by tapping on the sound icon in the top right corner of the screen after you've started a breathing session.
The sound icon will fade away after a few seconds to help you focus on your breathing. To make it reappear, tap anywhere on the screen.