A Simple Breathing Pattern Kept Stress From Spiking During Exams, New Trial Finds

A 12-week randomized trial of a structured breathing pattern found it helped a group of high-stress students hold steady through exam season, while a comparison group's stress climbed. Here is what the study found, and how a similar rhythm shows up in a typical Las Vegas yoga class.

Why researchers looked at paramedic students

Training to become a paramedic is demanding in a specific way. Students juggle clinical placements, exams, and the emotional weight of practicing for real emergencies, and surveys of this population tend to show higher-than-average rates of anxiety, depression, and poor sleep. That combination made paramedicine students a useful group for testing whether a simple, low-cost breathing practice could actually move the needle on stress, rather than just feel nice in the moment.

Researchers at Griffith University, led by Abbie Little, recruited 98 students from two Australian universities for a single-blind, randomized, controlled trial. Half were assigned to a structured breathing protocol for 12 weeks, and half continued with their normal routine as a comparison group. Both groups filled out standard, validated questionnaires measuring stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and psychological wellbeing before and after the study period.

The pattern itself, and the exam-week finding

The breathing pattern researchers tested is sometimes called the A52 method: a five-second inhale through the nose, a five-second exhale, and a two-second pause before the next inhale, repeated for about ten minutes, twice a day. It is close to what yoga teachers often call an even, elongated breath, just with a specific count attached so it can be measured consistently across a study.

By the end of the 12 weeks, the breathing group reported significantly lower stress, anxiety, and depression scores than the comparison group, with effect sizes researchers described as medium to large. The detail that stood out most, though, was timing. As exams approached, stress scores in the comparison group rose noticeably, which is a familiar pattern for anyone who has studied for a big test. The breathing group's stress scores stayed close to flat across that same stretch, suggesting the practice may have acted as a buffer during the exact window when pressure usually spikes.

Not everything moved. Insomnia and overall psychological wellbeing scores did not reach statistical significance, and the trial had a real limitation worth naming: completion was uneven between groups, with the breathing arm losing more participants along the way than the comparison arm. The researchers were candid that this is an early, promising signal rather than a settled conclusion.

Where this fits with the yoga world's own version of slow breathing

None of this is brand new territory for yoga practitioners. A separate 2025 narrative review of the same breathing method, also out of Griffith University, laid out the reasoning behind it: slow, even, nasal breathing with a brief pause is thought to nudge the nervous system toward its calmer, rest-oriented mode, the same territory pranayama practices have worked in for a very long time. What this newer trial adds is a controlled, before-and-after comparison in a specific, high-stress group of real students, rather than a general description of how breathing might help.

In a studio setting, this shows up constantly, just without the stopwatch. A teacher cueing a long exhale before a challenging pose, a few rounds of counted breath at the start of class to settle everyone in, or a closing minute of quiet breathing before savasana are all doing a version of the same thing this trial measured. You will not get a research printout at the end of a class, but the underlying idea, that a slower, more even breath can steady you before a stressful stretch, lines up with what this study found in a much more demanding setting than a yoga room.

Trying it yourself, gently

If you want to experiment with a similar rhythm on your own, keep it simple and comfortable rather than forcing a strict count. Try five seconds in through the nose, five seconds out, and a short pause before the next inhale, for a few minutes at a time, once or twice a day. If counting feels stressful in itself, that defeats the purpose, so let the numbers be a loose guide rather than a rule.

This kind of pacing is easiest to learn with guidance, since it is easy to tense up or hold the breath in ways that work against you. That is exactly the kind of thing we help people find their way into during a class here in Las Vegas, where a teacher can watch how you are actually breathing and adjust in real time. Come try a class with us and we will build a few rounds of slow, even breathing into your practice, no exam required.

5 ways slow, even breathing already lives inside a typical yoga class

You do not need a clinical trial to notice that breath pacing changes how a class feels. Here is where a similar rhythm to the one studied shows up on the mat.

1. The opening seated breath: Most classes start with a minute or two of quiet, even breathing to shift focus away from the day and into the room.
2. The long exhale before a hard pose: Teachers often cue a longer exhale right before a challenging hold, which tends to soften the tension that builds up in anticipation.
3. Counted breath during pranayama: Practices like sama vritti, or equal-part breathing, use a matched count for inhale and exhale, similar in spirit to the pattern in this trial.
4. The pause between breaths in restorative poses: A brief, unhurried pause after the exhale, rather than rushing to the next inhale, is a small detail that changes how settled a pose feels.
5. The closing minutes before savasana: Slowing the breath down deliberately in the last stretch of class is often when people notice the biggest shift in how calm they feel.
6. Breath awareness carried off the mat: Many students report using a slower breath pattern during a stressful commute or before a big meeting, essentially self-cuing what they practiced in class.

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