Prana Breathing Exercises FAQ
Answers about Prana, from choosing a technique to keeping your progress.
Last Updated: November 10, 2026
1. General Questions
Q1: What is Prana Breathing Exercises?
A1: A guided breathing tool: you pick one of fifteen techniques (or tell it how you feel and it picks one), and it guides every breath with an orb, a wave that shows the breaths to come, words only, or a sound you can follow with your eyes closed. It also finds your own slow pace, times a breath test, lets you make and share your own patterns, and keeps your progress.
Q2: How much does it cost?
A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit on sessions. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.
Q3: Do I need to install anything or create an account?
A3: No. Open the page in a modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your sessions are kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.
Q4: Is anything I do uploaded?
A4: No. Every sound is made in your browser, and your sessions, ratings, notes, test results and patterns stay on your device and are never sent to a server. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics, as every page on the site does; the Privacy Policy explains those, and what you do in the tool is never part of them.
Q5: Is this medical advice?
A5: No. Prana guides breathing exercises and says, for each one, why people use it and where the reason comes from. Breathing exercises can help you relax, but they do not replace care for a medical or mental health problem. If you are short of breath at rest, or a problem is new or getting worse, get medical help.
Q6: Does it work without an internet connection?
A6: The page needs to load, which needs a connection. Once it is open, a session keeps running without one: the guide, the sounds and the voice are all made on your device.
2. The Techniques
Q7: Which techniques are there?
A7: Cyclic sighing, box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, coherent breathing, the long breath out, slow down to sleep, the humming bee breath, alternate nostril breathing, triangle breathing, equal breathing, the ocean breath, pursed-lip breathing, the energizing (bellows) breath, the skull-shining breath and breath-hold rounds. Find your pace and your own patterns are under Just for you.
Q8: Which one should I start with?
A8: Equal breathing (in four, out four) or the long breath out (in four, out six): no holds and nothing fast. When you are unsure, tap how you feel under Right now I feel and the tool picks a technique and a length for that moment, with one line on why.
Q9: How does Right now I feel choose?
A9: Each of the ten words leads to one technique and length: Stressed to five minutes of cyclic sighing, Panicky to two minutes of it, Anxious to the long breath out, Angry to the humming bee breath, Cannot sleep to slow down to sleep, Nervous before something and Need to focus to box breathing, Scattered to alternate nostril breathing, Low on energy to the energizing breath and Out of breath to pursed-lip breathing.
Q10: What do Calm, Sleep, Focus, Energy, Balance and Breathless mean?
A10: They filter the list by what a technique is mainly used for. A technique can be in more than one: box breathing is under Focus and Calm, the humming bee breath under Calm and Sleep. All shows the fifteen.
Q11: What do the numbers on a card mean?
A11: The seconds of each step as written, for example 4 - 7 - 8 for breathing in for four, holding for seven and breathing out for eight. Under them the shape of the pattern is drawn: blue for breathing in, green for breathing out, purple for holding. Rounds techniques say "rounds" instead.
Q12: Where do the reasons and sources come from?
A12: Each technique's panel says how to do it and why it is used, and names a source where one exists: for example the 2023 Stanford study of cyclic sighing (Balban and others, Cell Reports Medicine), Dr Andrew Weil for 4-7-8 breathing, the American Lung Association for pursed-lip breathing, and Lehrer and Gevirtz for coherent breathing. Where there is no study, the panel says what many people find, nothing more.
Q13: What does "Read the care note" on a card mean?
A13: The three rounds techniques (the energizing breath, the skull-shining breath and breath-hold rounds) use fast breathing or long holds, which can make you dizzy or faint. Their care note says when not to do them, and the tool shows it again, with a button to confirm you are sitting safely, before the session starts.
3. Sessions
Q14: How long should a session be?
A14: Each technique starts with a usual length, from four breaths for 4-7-8 breathing to ten minutes for coherent breathing, and you can change it: minutes, a number of breaths, rounds, or Until I stop. Even a minute or two is a start.
Q15: How do Faster and Slower work?
A15: They make every step of the pattern shorter or longer by the same share, from 40% faster to twice as slow, so the shape stays the same. If a hold feels too long, make the pattern faster rather than forcing it. The breaths a minute under the shape change with it.
Q16: What are the orb, the wave and words only?
A16: Three ways to follow. The orb fills as you breathe in and empties as you breathe out, with a ring for how far through the step you are. The wave draws the breaths to come like a line of music, so you can see a hold coming. Words only shows the step and a count with a quiet bar. G changes the guide during a session.
Q17: Can I follow with my eyes closed?
A17: Yes. Eyes closed (the eye button, or E) darkens the screen and keeps only the sound: a breath sound that rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out, soft tones or a singing bowl, with a soft tap at each hold. Background sounds (brown noise, rain or a low drone) can play under it.
Q18: Can the steps be spoken?
A18: Yes, with Say each step aloud in Sound and settings. The tool uses only a voice that runs on your device; if your browser has none, the steps are not spoken, so your words never go to an online voice service. Fast breathing is not spoken, it would be too quick.
Q19: Can my phone vibrate at each step?
A19: On most Android phones, yes: Vibrate at each step in Sound and settings. iPhones do not let web pages vibrate. Fast breathing does not vibrate.
Q20: How do I pause or stop?
A20: The round button in the middle pauses and carries on (or Space); End, or Esc, stops the session. Paused time does not count. A session of 15 seconds or more is kept in Progress, even when you end it early.
4. Safety
Q21: Are breathing exercises safe?
A21: Slow breathing without holds suits most people. Fast breathing and breath holds can bring dizziness, tingling or fainting: never practise them in or near water, while driving or standing up, and skip them if you are pregnant or have epilepsy, heart problems or high blood pressure, unless your doctor agrees. Stop and breathe normally whenever you want to.
Q22: I feel dizzy or tingly. What should I do?
A22: Stop and breathe normally. Light-headedness and tingling can come from breathing too fast or too deeply. Next time, make the pattern faster (shorter holds) or choose a gentle technique such as equal breathing or the long breath out.
Q23: Why does breath-hold rounds ask me to confirm first?
A23: The deep breaths before each hold lower the carbon dioxide in your blood, which delays the urge to breathe and can make you faint without warning. That is why it must never be done in water, while driving or standing up. A hold is never a contest: tap I need to breathe as soon as you want to.
Q24: Can children use it?
A24: The techniques are written for adults. Children can try the gentle ones, such as equal breathing or the humming bee breath, with an adult, but not the fast breathing or breath-hold techniques.
5. Pace Finder and Breath Test
Q25: What does Find your pace do?
A25: It guides you through five slow paces, from 6.5 down to 4.5 breaths a minute, one or two minutes each, and after each asks how it felt, from Hard work to Smooth and easy. The pace you rate highest, the slower one on a tie, becomes Your pace in Just for you.
Q26: What is Your pace?
A26: Coherent breathing at the speed you chose, with the breath out a little longer than the breath in (four tenths in, six tenths out). Find your pace again at any time to change it.
Q27: What does the breath test measure?
A27: How long you can hold, comfortably, after a normal breath out, until the first clear urge to breathe. Press Start (or Space) as you pinch your nose and Stop at the first urge, not when you cannot hold any more.
Q28: Why does the breath test not give me a score?
A28: Because a single number is not a health score: it changes with the time of day, sleep, a cold and how you count. The tool compares each result only with your own earlier ones, and the chart shows your trend over the weeks. Results under two seconds or over ten minutes are not kept.
6. Progress, Data and Your Patterns
Q29: What does Progress show?
A29: Today against your daily goal, the days in a row, this week, how many sessions left you calmer, the last 14 days as bars, the last 26 weeks as a calendar, a table of what helps you by technique, and every session with its time, breaths, tension ratings, holds and note.
Q30: What is the tension rating?
A30: Before and after a session you can say how tense or stressed you feel, from 1 (very calm) to 5 (very tense), or skip it. Progress averages the ratings per technique, so you can see which ones leave you calmer. Turn the question off in Sound and settings.
Q31: How does the daily reminder work?
A31: In Sound and settings, type a time and press Add to my calendar. The tool saves a calendar file with an event every day at that time, with an alert; open it to add it to Google Calendar, Outlook or your phone's calendar. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Q32: Where are my sessions kept, and how do I move them?
A32: In this browser on this device. Nothing is saved on a first visit until you change something or finish a session. Backup on the Progress tab saves everything in one file and Restore reads it back, in this browser or another, adding only what is not there yet. Spreadsheet saves your sessions as a CSV file.
Q33: How do I make my own pattern?
A33: Make your own pattern, at the end of Just for you, sets the seconds for breathing in, a top-up breath, holding full, breathing out and holding empty (0 turns a part off), nose or mouth, pursed lips or a hum, alternate nostrils, and Slow down as I go, which changes each part to a second number over the first three quarters of the session. The shape and breaths a minute show as you set it.
Q34: How does sharing a pattern work?
A34: The share button on your pattern copies a link that carries the pattern after the # sign, which browsers never send to a server; the page takes it out of the address before anything else loads. Whoever opens it sees the pattern and can try it once or keep it.
Q35: How do I delete everything?
A35: Delete everything, under Sound and settings, removes all sessions, test results, patterns and settings this tool keeps in this browser after you confirm; the rest of the site is left alone. A single session or test result can be deleted with its bin, with Undo in the message.
Still have a question?
The help page walks through every part of Prana Breathing Exercises. For anything else, use the contact form.