Box Breathing Timer

This breathing exercise timer guides you through a paced breathing session with an expanding and shrinking circle, a countdown for every phase and an optional soft chime when the phase changes. Choose box breathing (in 4, hold 4, out 4, hold 4), 4-7-8 breathing, coherent breathing at about 5.5 breaths a minute, an easy extended-exhale pattern, or set your own counts, then pick how many minutes you want to practise.

Slow, structured breathing is widely used to calm nerves before a presentation, settle down for sleep, recover after exercise or take a short mindful break at work. Box breathing is taught to athletes and the military as a focusing technique; 4-7-8 emphasises a long exhale; and coherent breathing aims for a smooth rhythm of around five to six breaths per minute.

Breathe gently and never strain — if you feel lightheaded, return to normal breathing. Beginners can shorten the holds or choose the extended-exhale pattern. Breathing exercises are a relaxation aid, not a treatment for anxiety disorders, asthma or other medical conditions.

Each pattern is a fixed sequence of up to four phases. Adding them gives the length of one breath cycle, and dividing 60 seconds by the cycle length gives your breathing rate. Box breathing at 4-4-4-4 is a 16-second cycle, or 3.75 breaths per minute; 4-7-8 is a 19-second cycle (about 3.2 per minute); coherent breathing at 5.5 seconds in and out is 11 seconds, about 5.45 per minute.

The session runs whole cycles only, so the timer finishes at the end of an exhale rather than mid-breath. The number of cycles is the session length in seconds divided by the cycle length, rounded down.