Trial reportJournal of psychosomatic research2021
Investigating components of pranayama for effects on heart rate variability.
Trial report in Journal of psychosomatic research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03280589 (The Effect of Respiration Rate During Pranayama Practice on the Autonomic Nervous System), which is not on this map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Respiration Rate During Pranayama Practice on the Autonomic Nervous System
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Therapeutic potential of slow pranayama in anxiety.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Review
- Breathwork for Chronic Stress and Mental Health: Does Choosing a Specific Technique Matter?Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Article
- Heart Rate Variability, Blood Pressure and Peripheral Oxygen Saturation during YogaJournal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2024Article
- Existing Meditation and Breathing Devices for Stress Reduction and Their Incorporated Stimuli: A Systematic Literature Review and Competition Analysis.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Digital health · 2023Review
- The integration of yoga breathing techniques in cognitive behavioral therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- My Life in HRV Biofeedback Research.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2022Review
- Modulating Heart Rate Variability through Deep Breathing Exercises and Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation: A Study in Healthy Participants and in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Investigating the Dose-Response Relationship between Deep Breathing and Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Participants and Across-Days Reliability in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Evaluation of a tactile breath pacer for sleep problems: A mixed method pilot study.Frontiers in digital health · 2022Article
- The effectiveness and user preferences of two tactile breathing devices in reducing stress in stressed individuals: A mixed methods study.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTraditional Indian breath control practices of Pranayama have been shown to increase indices of heart rate variability (HRV) that are generally held to reflect parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) tone. To our knowledge, individual components of pranayama have not been separately evaluated for impact on HRV. The objective of this study was to isolate five components of a pranayama practice and evaluate their impact on HRV.
methodsIn a crossover clinical trial, 46 healthy adults were allocated to complete five activities in random order, over five separate visits: 1) sitting quietly; 2) self-paced deep breathing; 3) externally-paced deep breathing; 4) self-paced Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama; and 5) externally paced Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama
resultsOur final sample included 25 participants. There was a significant increase in a time-domain index of HRV, the root mean square successive differences between RR intervals (RMSSD), during the five interventions. The change in logRMSSD ranged from 0.2 to 0.5 (p < .01 in all conditions by paired t-test). Greater increases were evident during externally-paced breathing than during self-paced breathing (mean pre-during logRMSSD change of 0.50 vs. 0.36, p = .02) or sitting quietly (mean, 0.17 ms; p = .005 and 0.02 when comparing Activities 3 and 5 to Activity 1 by random intercept model with Tukey correction for multiple comparisons). Lastly, pre-during increase in RMSSD was greater for Sheetali/Sheetkari vs. deep breathing, when controlling for respiration rate, though not significantly different (p = .07 in random intercept model)
conclusionsRMSSD increased with paced breathing, deep breathing, and Sheetali/Sheetkari pranayama, reinforcing evidence of a physiologic mechanism of pranayama.
trial registrationNCT03280589 https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03280589?term=sheetali&draw=2&rank=1.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.