---
title: "Music and Breathwork Integration: What It Is, How It Works, Cited Research & Best Free Videos"
description: "Music and Breathwork Integration pairs music with guided breathwork so the music's rhythm and emotional arc shape and deepen the breathing session."
canonical: "https://insighttimer.com/techniques/sound-healing/music-and-breathwork-integration"
category: "Sound Healing"
last_reviewed: "2026-07-28"
---

# What is Music and Breathwork Integration?

Music and Breathwork Integration pairs music with guided breathwork so the music's rhythm and emotional arc shape and deepen the breathing session (Bogt, 2023).

**Evidence: Promising Evidence.** Both ingredients are well supported separately: music-therapy meta-analyses report small-to-moderate anxiety reductions (Hedges' g around 0.36 to 0.41) and a randomized trial backs coherent breathing for wellbeing. Few trials test the exact music-plus-breathwork pairing, most included studies are at high risk of bias from lack of blinding, and one placebo-controlled breathwork trial (n=400) found no stress benefit over a matched sham. The combination is promising rather than established.

Last updated: 2026-07-28

We are still reviewing this page. Our research team checks every technique page for accuracy and evidence quality before final release. Details may change as that review completes. The evidence badge shows our current reading of the published research.

## Explore Music and Breathwork Integration

- [Inviting Bliss Into Your Life](https://insighttimer.com/davidji/guided-meditations/healing-and-bliss-seven-minutes-of-mindfulness) — davidji, Guided, 7 min, rated 4.8/5
- [Calming Breath Practice With Singing Bowl, Drum & Nature Sounds](https://insighttimer.com/sonicyogi/guided-meditations/calming-breath-practice-with-singing-bowl-drum-and-nature-sounds) — Sonic Yogi, Guided, 20 min, rated 4.8/5
- [Nervous System Reset Meditation With Alchemy Bowls](https://insighttimer.com/katievalentine/guided-meditations/nervous-system-reset-meditation-with-alchemy-bowls) — Katie Valentine, Guided, 11 min, rated 4.8/5
- [The Ruins Of Atlantis](https://insighttimer.com/sleepandsorcery/guided-meditations/the-ruins-of-atlantis) — Sleep & Sorcery, Talks, 70 min, rated 4.8/5
- [4-7-8 Breathing Practice](https://insighttimer.com/drkwaltman/guided-meditations/4-7-8-breathing-practice) — Kelly Waltman, Guided, 5 min, rated 4.8/5
- [5.5 Breaths Per Minute](https://insighttimer.com/allisonterrell/guided-meditations/5-dot-5-breaths-per-minute) — Allison Terrell, Guided, 5 min, rated 4.7/5

### Music and Breathwork Integration effort level

#### How hard is Music and Breathwork Integration?

**Hard** (3 / 4). A rising piece of music drives your breathing faster and harder as it builds, and following that intensity curve makes this demanding.

- **Mental Effort** (2 / 4): Your breath stays locked to the music's tempo and swell, holding the active pattern as it escalates.
- **Emotional Depth** (1 / 4): The score can stir strong feeling, but your task is riding the breath the music sets, not processing what rises.
- **Physical Intensity** (3 / 4): Sustained, music-driven breathing loads your body far more than sitting and listening ever would.
- **Prior Knowledge** (2 / 4): You want to know the breathing pattern the session uses so the music can push it rather than confuse it.

## Recommended dose: Recommended Practice Dose

### beginner

The largest randomised controlled trial on breathwork used a coherent-breathing protocol of about 10 minutes per day, so a 5–10 minute session is a well-supported, low-barrier starting point. The trial ran daily; for a first-time practitioner we suggest a gentler 3–5 sessions per week to build the habit, which is an editorial recommendation rather than a tested frequency.

- Session length: 5–10 minutes. How long each individual practice session should last from start to finish.
- Frequency: 3–5 days per week. The number of days per week to fit a session into your routine.

### intermediate

This mirrors the exact protocol tested in the coherent-breathing RCT: roughly 10 minutes of paced breathing daily across 4 weeks. Both the session length and the daily frequency are drawn directly from that trial.

- Session length: 10 minutes. How long each individual practice session should last from start to finish.
- Frequency: 7 days per week. The number of days per week to fit a session into your routine.

### extended

The 10-minute daily anchor comes from the coherent-breathing RCT; a longer 14-week structured breathing programme supports sustaining daily practice over several months, though it does not specify an exact weekly frequency. Extending sessions toward 20 minutes is an editorial suggestion for established practitioners rather than a directly tested dose.

- Session length: 10–20 minutes. How long each individual practice session should last from start to finish.
- Frequency: 7 days per week. The number of days per week to fit a session into your routine.

*About this card.* Guidance mixes doses drawn directly from trials with conservative editorial estimates where the literature is silent. These recommendations are not a substitute for personalised guidance from a qualified practitioner.

## Related techniques to Music and Breathwork Integration

- [Tongue Drum / Handpan Meditation](https://insighttimer.com/techniques/sound-healing/tongue-drum-handpan-meditation)
- [Receptive Silence](https://insighttimer.com/techniques/sound-healing/receptive-silence)
- [Mantra Repetition (Japa)](https://insighttimer.com/techniques/mantra/mantra-repetition-japa)

## Common questions about Music and Breathwork Integration

### What does the research say about Music and Breathwork Integration?

*evidence*

Moderate but indirect evidence supports Music and Breathwork Integration for easing anxiety and stress. A 2025 meta-analysis of 51 music-therapy trials found a small-to-moderate drop in anxiety, and pooled analyses show medium-to-large stress reductions. No trial has tested the combined music-and-breathwork protocol itself, and gains are clearest during and shortly after a session.

### Who is Music and Breathwork Integration good for?

*good for*

Music and Breathwork Integration suits adults wanting to ease stress or anxiety, move stuck emotion, or reach a sense of release. Its intensity makes it a poor first step for anyone in acute distress, and it is not a substitute for care where heart, respiratory, seizure, psychiatric, or pregnancy concerns are present.

### Is Music and Breathwork Integration safe?

*safety*

Most healthy adults can practise gentle music-paced breathing safely. Fast, intensifying breathwork can lower carbon dioxide enough to cause dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet, and may trigger strong emotional release. Take extra care with cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled high blood pressure, asthma, seizures, pregnancy, unprocessed trauma, or serious mental-health conditions.

### How does Music and Breathwork Integration work?

*how it works*

Music and Breathwork Integration works by giving the breath a rhythm to follow and an emotional arc to move with. As breathing slows to match calm passages, the nervous system shifts toward its rest-and-recovery branch, so heart rate quiets and breath lengthens; faster, louder passages push the other way, mobilising energy and alertness.

## Music and Breathwork Integration tracks & video

Explore guided sessions to deepen your Music and Breathwork Integration technique.

- [Relaxing into Sleep Meditation](https://insighttimer.com/tarabrach/guided-meditations/relaxing-into-sleep-meditation) — Tara Brach, Guided, 14 min, rated 4.7/5
- [Inviting Bliss Into Your Life](https://insighttimer.com/davidji/guided-meditations/healing-and-bliss-seven-minutes-of-mindfulness) — davidji, Guided, 7 min, rated 4.8/5
- [Calming Breath Practice With Singing Bowl, Drum & Nature Sounds](https://insighttimer.com/sonicyogi/guided-meditations/calming-breath-practice-with-singing-bowl-drum-and-nature-sounds) — Sonic Yogi, Guided, 20 min, rated 4.8/5
- [Morning Energizer](https://insighttimer.com/oliverjamesjenkin/guided-meditations/morning-energizer-2) — Oliver James Jenkin, Guided, 15 min, rated 4.7/5
- [Nervous System Reset Meditation With Alchemy Bowls](https://insighttimer.com/katievalentine/guided-meditations/nervous-system-reset-meditation-with-alchemy-bowls) — Katie Valentine, Guided, 11 min, rated 4.8/5
- [2 Minute Mindfulness Meditation](https://insighttimer.com/daveharding/guided-meditations/2-minute-mindfulness-meditation) — Dave Harding, Guided, 2 min, rated 4.5/5
- [The Ruins Of Atlantis](https://insighttimer.com/sleepandsorcery/guided-meditations/the-ruins-of-atlantis) — Sleep & Sorcery, Talks, 70 min, rated 4.8/5
- [4-7-8 Breathing Practice](https://insighttimer.com/drkwaltman/guided-meditations/4-7-8-breathing-practice) — Kelly Waltman, Guided, 5 min, rated 4.8/5
- [Zen in Ten - A Quick Calming Breathing Ritual](https://insighttimer.com/julieskon/guided-meditations/zen-in-ten-a-1-minute-breathing-technique-and-calming-ritual-release-stress-and-anxiety-and-to-get-your-ming-and-body-centered) — Julie Skon, Guided, 2 min, rated 4.6/5
- [5.5 Breaths Per Minute](https://insighttimer.com/allisonterrell/guided-meditations/5-dot-5-breaths-per-minute) — Allison Terrell, Guided, 5 min, rated 4.7/5
- [Breathe (1 Hour Extended Version)](https://insighttimer.com/sherryfinzer/guided-meditations/breathe-1-hour-extended-version) — Sherry Finzer, Music, 67 min, rated 4.9/5
- [Relaxing Breath Practice With Hang Drum, Piano & Singing Bowl (10 Minutes)](https://insighttimer.com/sonicyogi/guided-meditations/relaxing-breath-practice-with-hang-drum-piano-and-singing-bowl-10-minutes) — Sonic Yogi, Guided, 10 min, rated 4.8/5

## What does a Music and Breathwork Integration session involve?

A sound-based practice that pairs an evocative music playlist with guided breathwork, using the music's tempo, dynamics, and emotional arc to pace the breath and intensify the session's emotional journey.

A session pairs a curated music playlist with a guided breathing sequence, mapping the music's tempo, volume, and emotional arc to an intensity curve that cues when the breath quickens and where it eases. Practitioners breathe in time with the sound, letting crescendos deepen the effort and quieter passages invite release, usually lying down with eyes closed and a facilitator present for the more intense phases.

This is not simply listening to relaxing music, nor breathwork done in silence; the defining feature is that the music actively paces and intensifies the breathing. It is most closely tied to Holotropic Breathwork, where the playlist drives the session's emotional journey, and differs from gentle music-guided relaxation in both intensity and intent. The clinical evidence is indirect, borrowed from the separate music-therapy and breathwork fields rather than trials of the combined format.

### Not to be confused with

- **Sound bath or receptive sound healing:** A sound bath is received passively, letting instruments such as gongs or singing bowls wash over you with no active breathing task. This practice instead asks you to breathe in time with the music, making the breath the working element rather than the sound alone.
- **Clinical music therapy:** Clinical music therapy is a formal, credentialed discipline in which a trained therapist tailors music to specific treatment goals. This practice is a self-directed or facilitator-guided format that pairs a playlist with breathing, not a regulated clinical therapy.
- **Auditory beat stimulation (binaural or monaural beats):** Auditory beat stimulation embeds engineered beat frequencies into music to nudge brain rhythms, and is studied mainly as an add-on to listening. This practice relies on pairing ordinary music's tempo and arc with the breath, not on hidden beat frequencies.

## How does Music and Breathwork Integration work?

Music and Breathwork Integration appears to work by giving the breath a rhythm to follow and a wave of emotion to move with. Reviews of music neuroscience, which studied music broadly, not this specific practice, describe how music engages brain systems tied to emotion, reward, and arousal, the networks that set how alert or settled you feel (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013). As the breath falls into step with the music's tempo, slowing to match calmer passages, the nervous system can shift toward its rest-and-recovery branch, felt as breathing lengthening and the body easing; faster, louder passages push the other way, mobilising energy and alertness.

### Possible mechanisms

**Arousal Downregulation**

A keyed-up, can't-come-down feeling is what arousal downregulation works on, the nervous system stepping down from high alert toward a calmer, lower-energy state. Pairing evocative music with paced breathing engages brain systems tied to emotion, reward, and arousal that music can shift toward a calmer setting (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013), and people often feel the body ease and mental urgency loosen its grip as the session continues.

**Parasympathetic Activation**

Breathing slows, the chest and shoulders loosen, and the braced, on-alert feeling starts to ease as paced breathing set to music shifts the body toward its rest-and-recovery branch, the parasympathetic nervous system. Early, indirect evidence suggests music can influence the brain systems tied to emotion and arousal in ways that support this settling (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013).

**Autonomic Balancing**

Slow breathing matched to calm music can leave the body settling, with heart rate and breathing easing, while faster, intensifying passages lift alertness and energy, as breath and music move the nervous system between its rest-and-recovery and fight-or-flight gears. Early support comes from how music engages brain systems tied to emotion, reward, and arousal (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013), and people often feel the body settle or lift in step with the sound.

**Vagal Tone Modulation**

The chest softening and the heartbeat slowing on their own may reflect a rise in vagal tone, activity in the vagus nerve that runs the body's rest-and-recovery branch, which slow, extended exhales paced to a steady musical tempo are thought to raise (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013).

## What does Music and Breathwork Integration do to the body?

During its calmer, music-led passages, the practice tends to slow the body down: studies of music-based relaxation have measured small decreases in heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure, with systolic pressure running about 5 mmHg lower (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014). That evidence comes from music listening in cardiac and intensive-care patients rather than the combined practice, so treat the size of the change as a guide, not a promise. In the body it can feel like the pulse quieting, the chest loosening, and the breath lengthening on its own; during the deliberately intensifying passages, the same physiology can run the other way, with heart rate and energy rising as the body mobilises.

**Heart Rate**

When you're tense, your pulse can feel like it won't settle. During the calmer, music-led parts of practice, heart rate, how fast your heart beats each minute, tends to slow, and studies of music listening show small reductions in resting heart rate (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014), a shift many people feel as the pulse quieting and the body dropping into a slower, steadier rhythm. In the up-tempo passages paired with vigorous breathing, heart rate can rise instead as the body mobilises energy.

**Respiratory Rate**

As the music slows and your breath falls into step with it, breathing rate tends to ease, with fewer breaths a minute, the chest loosening, and exhales feeling fuller. Studies of music-based relaxation measure this as a small drop in respiratory rate, a sign the body is settling toward rest rather than staying on alert (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014).

**Blood Pressure**

When you're wound up, tension can settle as pressure in your chest or head. Pairing music with slow breathing can ease that modestly: pooled trials in heart-disease patients found systolic readings roughly 5 mmHg lower during music-based relaxation (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014), felt as the body settling and the chest and shoulders loosening as urgency drains away.

**Sympathetic arousal**

The keyed-up, fight-or-flight feeling that comes with stress tends to ease during the calmer, music-led passages. Studies of music-based relaxation show small reductions in heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure (Joke et al., 2013), and one small study found the nervous system returned toward its resting baseline faster after a stressor (Thoma et al., 2013), which people often feel as the body settling and the breath slowing on its own.

**Sympathetic Activation**

After a stressful task, the racing, keyed-up feeling may ease sooner with calming music. In one study, sympathetic arousal, the body's fight-or-flight activation, returned toward baseline faster when people listened to relaxing music, tracked by a quicker fall in salivary alpha-amylase, a stress-related enzyme in saliva (Thoma et al., 2013). In the body it can feel like the braced, wired sensation loosening, with breath and shoulders letting go rather than staying held.

**Autonomic Rebalancing**

Once a stressful moment passes, the wired, keyed-up feeling can fade sooner instead of lingering. In one study, the body's stress-arousal system returned toward its resting level faster when people listened to relaxing music, tracked through salivary alpha-amylase, a marker of fight-or-flight nervous system activity (Thoma et al., 2013).

**Cortisol**

That wired, still-buzzing feeling after a stressful moment comes partly from cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, which stays raised for a while before it settles. Early evidence suggests relaxing music helps the stress system return toward its resting baseline sooner, though in the one small study available the clearest change showed up in a related stress marker rather than cortisol itself (Thoma et al., 2013). In the body, this can feel like the keyed-up, still-alert sensation easing faster once a session ends.

## What is Music and Breathwork Integration used for?

Moderate but indirect evidence supports Music and Breathwork Integration for easing anxiety and stress. A 2025 meta-analysis of 51 music-therapy trials, not this specific pairing, found a small-to-moderate reduction in anxiety (Hedges' g = 0.36, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.51, versus control conditions), meaning the average person who practised reported less anxiety than roughly two-thirds of those who did not (Witte et al., 2025); pooled analyses also show medium-to-large drops in stress (Witte et al., 2022). What is not yet established: no randomised trial has tested the combined music-and-breathwork protocol on its own, gains are clearest during and just after a session rather than at follow-up (Lu et al., 2021), and durable change remains unproven.

**Anxiety Relief**

Racing, anxious thoughts can soften when music gives the breath a rhythm to settle into. Pooled analyses of music-based practice show small but consistent reductions in anxiety across clinical and everyday settings (Witte et al., 2025), an effect many people notice as the body loosening and the mind feeling less on guard (Lu et al., 2021).

**Stress Relief**

After a stressful stretch, the body can stay braced and the mind loud. Music-based practices, pooled across dozens of trials, have shown a medium-to-large drop in stress, and setting slow, guided breathing to that music gives the nervous system a steady rhythm to settle into (Witte et al., 2022).

**Support Autonomic Recovery**

The keyed-up, still-buzzing feeling that lingers after a stressful moment may ease a little sooner with relaxing music. In one small study, a marker of the body's fight-or-flight activity returned to its resting level faster when people listened to relaxing music after a stressor (Thoma et al., 2013), which can feel like the nervous system coming back down more quickly rather than staying on alert.

## What does the research say about Music and Breathwork Integration?

Music-based practice reliably eases anxiety and stress across dozens of trials, and people tend to feel tension loosen during a session; the pairing of music with breathwork, however, has few trials of its own, so most of that confidence is borrowed from the two fields studied separately (Witte et al., 2025), (Witte et al., 2022). A combined music-and-breathing trial lowered anxiety and pain during a cardiac procedure (Feryal & Ülkü, 2024), but at least one placebo-controlled breathwork trial found no advantage over a matched sham (Fincham et al., 2023), and brief, impersonal music clips have not reliably reduced anxiety (Soqia et al., 2025). In plain terms, the dependable part is easing while you practise, with less certainty that any change lasts.

- Meta-analyses: 9
- RCTs: 5
- Systematic reviews: 1
- Observational: 0
- Pilot: 2

### Studied populations

- adults
- adults in healthcare settings
- adults in clinical settings
- adults undergoing surgery
- coronary angiography patients
- adults with post-covid breathlessness
- heart disease and ventilated patients
- healthy women

### Outcomes measured

- anxiety
- anxiety and pain
- autonomic recovery, salivary alpha-amylase, cortisol
- heart rate, respiratory rate, systolic blood pressure
- mental-health quality of life; breathlessness
- music-evoked emotion; neurochemical reward and stress systems
- procedural anxiety and pain
- stress-related outcomes

### Effect sizes

| Outcome | Effect size | 95% CI | N | Comparator | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| anxiety (all outcomes) | Hedges' g = 0.357 | 0.201 to 0.514 | 51 | — | Witte et al., 2025 |
| self-reported anxiety | Hedges' g = 0.41 | 0.236 to 0.585 | — | — | Witte et al., 2025 |
| stress-related outcomes | pooled effect size = 0.723 | 0.51 to 0.94 | 2,747 | — | Witte et al., 2022 |
| anxiety at post-intervention | SMD = -0.36 | -0.54 to -0.17 | 1,924 | control group | Lu et al., 2021 |
| anxiety at follow-up | SMD = -0.23 | -0.53 to 0.08 | — | — | Lu et al., 2021 |
| anxiety | Hedges' g = -1.48 | -1.97 to -0.98 | 2,280 | standard care | Yeon et al., 2023 |
| pain | Hedges' g = -0.67 | -1.11 to -0.23 | — | standard care | Yeon et al., 2023 |
| mental health composite (HRQoL) | regression coefficient = 2.42 | 0.03 to 4.80 | — | usual care | Philip et al., 2022 |
| systolic blood pressure | mean difference (mmHg) = -5.52 | -7.43 to -3.60 | — | — | Joke et al., 2013 |
| salivary alpha-amylase recovery | reported significant; p=0.026 | — | 60 | — | Thoma et al., 2013 |
| subjective stress (group x time) | reported non-significant; p=0.765 | — | 400 | matched breathwork placebo | Fincham et al., 2023 |
| state anxiety between arms | reported non-significant; p=0.622 | — | 69 | — | Soqia et al., 2025 |
| self-reported anxiety | Cohen's d = -0.3 | -0.55 to -0.04 | — | — | Panteleeva et al., 2017 |
| anxiety | SMD = -1.09 | -1.50 to -0.67 | 6,014 | standard care | Calderon et al., 2026 |

### Limitations

- Some extracted statistics are significance-only (p-values) rather than full effect-size estimates.

Evidence for the combined practice is indirect, drawn from the separate music-therapy and breathwork literatures rather than trials of the pairing itself. Some pooled findings rest on significance-only statistics rather than full effect-size estimates, study methods and participant groups vary widely, and durable, follow-up change is not yet established.

## Which studies have tested Music and Breathwork Integration?

**Evaluating the Efficacy of a 5‐Min Music Listening Intervention for State Anxiety Reduction in College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial**

n = 69

Finding: In a randomized trial with 69 college students in Damascus, a single 5-minute clip of standardized music played before class did not lower state anxiety any more than the control condition. In practical terms, simply pressing play on a short, generic track may not be enough to settle the nerves. The researchers suggest that longer listening and music you actually enjoy and choose yourself are likely what make the difference, so treat brief, one-size-fits-all clips as a weak tool rather than a reliable calming practice.

`reported non-significant; p=0.622`

**The effect of music therapy and breathing exercise on anxiety and pain in patients undergoing coronary angiography: A randomized controlled study.**

n = 165

Finding: In this 2024 trial, 165 people undergoing coronary angiography were split into three groups: one listened to music, one did guided breathing exercises, and one received usual care. Both the music group and the breathing group ended up calmer and reported less pain after the procedure, while anxiety actually climbed in the group that got neither. Worth knowing for anyone drawn to combining sound and breath: the two were tested as separate tools here, not woven into one practice, so this points to the promise of each rather than proving the blended technique itself.

`reported narratively`

**Music therapy for the treatment of anxiety: A systematic review with multilevel meta-analyses**

n = 51

Finding: This 2025 meta-analysis pooled 51 trials of music therapy for anxiety and found a moderate reduction in anxiety overall, with a similar drop in how anxious people said they felt; the strongest results came from listening-based approaches and from combining listening with active music-making. For someone drawn to this practice, that points to the music side of it as a genuine, if modest, way to take the edge off anxiety across everyday settings like medical, work, and study contexts. Two caveats matter, though: this looked at music therapy on its own rather than the combined music-and-breathwork routine, and most of the underlying trials were low in quality, so the findings are best read as encouraging rather than definitive.

`Hedges' g = 0.357`

**Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients.**

2016

Finding: This Cochrane review gathered controlled trials of music-based interventions for people living with cancer, looking at their effect on emotional and physical symptoms. Most of the trials it examined were rated at high risk of bias, largely because participants and staff knew who was receiving the intervention, so the overall certainty of the results is low, and physical and longer-term benefits were reported inconsistently. For anyone considering music combined with breathwork, that means this evidence points in a promising direction but should be read cautiously; none of these trials tested the integrated music-plus-breathwork practice itself, so it speaks to music generally rather than to this specific combination.

**Music interventions for mechanically ventilated patients.**

2014

Finding: This review of music interventions in people with heart disease and those on breathing machines in hospital found small drops in heart rate, breathing rate, and the top number of blood pressure (roughly 5 to 6 points lower), the kind of shift you would expect when the body settles into a relaxed state. Oxygen levels in the blood generally stayed the same. For someone drawn to combining music with breathwork, this points to a gentle calming effect on the body, though the changes measured here were modest and their real-world health impact remains uncertain. Keep in mind this evidence comes from patients in demanding clinical settings, so it speaks more to physical relaxation than to any lasting medical benefit.

**Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.**

n = 2,747

Finding: This 2020 meta-analysis pooled 47 studies and 2,747 adults in medical and mental healthcare settings, and found that music therapy produced a medium-to-large drop in stress across both psychological and physical measures. The improvements were biggest when music was compared against no treatment at all, and smaller when compared against another active approach, so some of the benefit reflects simply doing something structured for stress. For someone drawn to the music side of this practice, that points to a real calming effect worth building on, though the trials looked at music therapy on its own rather than music paired with breathwork, so the combination itself wasn't directly tested here.

`pooled effect size = 0.723`

**An online breathing and wellbeing programme (ENO Breathe) for people with persistent symptoms following COVID-19: a parallel-group, single-blind, randomised controlled trial**

2022

Finding: In this 6-week trial, 150 adults still short of breath after COVID-19 took part in an online breathing programme that used singing techniques to retrain how they breathe. Compared with usual care, participants ended up with better mental-wellbeing scores and less breathlessness while running, and many singled out the music and singing as the part that made the practice feel doable. Most other outcomes, including broader physical-health measures, did not change, so the clearest gain here is for how people felt rather than a wide range of physical symptoms.

`regression coefficient = 2.42`

**Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients.**

2013

Finding: Pooling trials of music-based relaxation in people with heart disease and patients on breathing support, this review found small but consistent drops in heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure, with systolic pressure falling by roughly 5.5 mmHg on average. For someone using music alongside breathwork, that points to a gentle settling of the body's stress response, the kind of easing you might feel as slower breathing and a calmer pulse during a session. These shifts are modest and their real-world health importance remains uncertain, and blood-oxygen levels didn't change, so this is best seen as support for relaxation rather than a medical treatment.

`mean difference (mmHg) = -5.52`

**Effects of music therapy on anxiety: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials**

n = 1,924

Finding: This 2021 review pooled 32 randomised trials with 1,924 adults across clinical settings and found that music therapy produced a modest but reliable drop in anxiety while sessions were underway. Once the sessions stopped, however, that calming effect faded, and the follow-up measurements showed no lasting reduction. In practice, this suggests music-based practice can help you feel noticeably less anxious in the moment, but you would likely need to keep it up regularly rather than expect the benefit to carry over on its own.

`SMD = -0.36`

**Benefits of Music Intervention on Anxiety, Pain, and Physiologic Response in Adults Undergoing Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.**

n = 2,280

Finding: This 2023 review pooled 30 randomised trials with 2,280 surgical patients and found that listening to music, compared with standard care alone, produced a large drop in pre- and post-operative anxiety and a moderate reduction in pain, with the strongest results when sessions ran 30 to 60 minutes. For someone drawn to this practice, it points to music as a genuinely calming tool during high-stress medical moments, and hints that giving it a real block of time rather than a few minutes may matter. Keep in mind the scope, though: this looked only at the music component in people undergoing surgery, not at the combined music-and-breathwork technique or at everyday use, so the results shouldn't be stretched to all situations.

`Hedges' g = -1.48`

**The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response**

n = 60

Finding: In this experiment, 60 healthy women listened to relaxing music before facing a standardized stress task, and their bodies bounced back faster afterward: a stress-related marker in their saliva (alpha-amylase, which tracks nervous-system arousal) returned to baseline sooner than in the comparison groups. The effect showed up mainly in this quick nervous-system recovery rather than in stress hormones or how stressed people said they felt, which points to relaxing music calming the body's automatic stress response rather than delivering a broad mood or hormonal shift. For someone pairing music with breathwork, this suggests it may help you settle more quickly after a stressful moment, though the study was small, limited to healthy women, and looked only at a single lab stressor, so it does not show that music reliably lowers stress hormones or heart rate in everyday life.

`reported significant; p=0.026`

**Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in people with cancer.**

2021

Finding: This Cochrane review gathered trials of music-based support for people living with cancer, where listening to music or working with a trained music therapist was used to ease emotional and physical distress alongside treatment. Most of the studies it drew on were rated at high risk of bias, largely because participants knew which support they were receiving, so the overall certainty of the results is low, and physiological or longer-term benefits were only inconsistently seen. None of these trials tested music combined with breathwork directly, so if you are exploring that pairing, treat this as encouraging background from the music literature rather than proof that the integrated practice works.

**The neurochemistry of music**

2013

Finding: This review of the neuroscience of music found that listening to music changes activity in the brain regions that handle emotion, reward, and stress, and taps into the same chemical systems behind pleasure, calm, and social connection. For a practice that pairs music with breathwork, that helps explain why the right track can shift your mood and settle your arousal so quickly. Keep in mind this is a review of how music affects the brain rather than a test of the combined technique itself, so it points to a plausible mechanism instead of proving a specific benefit for you.

**Music for anxiety? Meta-analysis of anxiety reduction in non-clinical samples**

2017

Finding: Pooling 19 randomised trials in healthy adults, this meta-analysis found that listening to music produced a small but real drop in how anxious people said they felt, while measured body signals of anxiety showed no reliable change. In practical terms, music seems to shift your felt sense of calm more than it moves the physical markers of stress, so pairing it with breathwork may be most useful for easing subjective tension rather than as a guaranteed way to alter your physiology. The included studies varied widely in quality and design, so these results are best read as encouraging for mood but far from settled.

`Cohen's d = -0.3`

**Effect of coherent breathing on mental health and wellbeing: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.**

n = 400

Finding: In the largest breathwork trial to date, 400 adults were assigned to either slow, coherent breathing at about 5.5 breaths a minute or a believable comparison breathing pattern, each practised roughly 10 minutes a day for four weeks. Both groups felt less stressed, anxious, and low by the end, but the slow-breathing group improved no more than the comparison group, so the specific pace of the breathing added nothing measurable on its own. For someone considering this practice, that suggests a good deal of the benefit may come from simply setting aside daily time to breathe and from the expectation that it helps, rather than from any single "correct" breathing rhythm. Keep in mind this ran for four weeks in a general adult population, so it speaks to short-term stress rather than longer-term or clinical use.

`reported non-significant; p=0.765`

**Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions**

2014

Finding: This review of the brain science of music maps how listening activates the same emotion centres that shape how we feel, including the amygdala, reward pathways, and structures that regulate stress and arousal, while also engaging the body's chemistry for reward, stress relief, immunity, and social connection. For someone pairing music with breathwork, it offers a plausible reason why the right music can shift your mood and settle your nervous system so quickly. Keep in mind this is a review of how music affects the brain in general, not a test of this specific practice, so it explains a likely mechanism rather than proving a particular benefit.

**Effectiveness of Non-pharmacological Interventions for Reducing Anxiety in Endoscopy and Colonoscopy Procedures: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.**

n = 6,014

Finding: This 2025 review pooled 48 randomised trials covering 6,014 adults preparing for an endoscopy or colonoscopy and found that listening to music noticeably lowered pre-procedure anxiety compared with standard care, with a large effect, while also raising how satisfied patients felt with the experience. Among all the drug-free options tested, music ranked near the top alongside approaches like aromatherapy, which suggests it can be a genuinely useful way to steady your nerves before a stressful medical procedure. It's worth knowing the limits, though: none of these methods, music included, changed how much pain people felt or how long the procedure took, so the benefit here is about calm and comfort rather than pain relief.

`SMD = -1.09`

## Where does Music and Breathwork Integration come from?

Music and Breathwork Integration grew out of Holotropic Breathwork, developed by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, where a carefully sequenced playlist drives the intensity of the session and acts as both a pacing tool and an emotional catalyst. These roots in a transpersonal, journey-oriented tradition help explain the practice's form, the way music is built into an intensity curve to carry breath and emotion, not its clinical effects.

## Is Music and Breathwork Integration safe?

For most healthy adults, gentle music-paced breathing is low-risk and settling. The cautions below come from how the practice works, not from studies that measured harm, so treat them as practice-informed rather than documented adverse events. When a session shifts into fast, intensifying breathwork, breathing off too much carbon dioxide can bring on dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet, the buzzing, unsteady feeling that signals the body has tipped into overdrive. That same pairing of energising music and vigorous breath can also set off strong autonomic release, felt as shaking, waves of heat, or sudden tears. These reactions are usually part of the emotional release the Holotropic-style format is built to produce, but the same intensity can feel destabilising during acute distress. Build up gradually, and keep the most demanding passages for sessions led by a trained facilitator.

### Who should practise with care?

Some people should get medical or psychiatric clearance and start with a gentler, lower-intensity version before attempting the vigorous breathing passages. These cautions are inferred from how the practice loads the body, not from measured harm. Take particular care if you live with cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled high blood pressure, a respiratory condition such as asthma, a history of seizures, or if you are pregnant. Rapid breathing and a surge of sympathetic activation, the fight-or-flight response that quickens the heart and raises blood pressure, place extra demand on exactly these systems. People carrying unprocessed trauma or living with a serious mental-health condition should also proceed slowly and, where possible, with support, because the cathartic emotional release this format can surface may feel overwhelming to move through alone.

#### Fast, intensive breathing passages

*low* · *practice-informed*

When a session shifts into rapid, intensifying breathwork, breathing off too much carbon dioxide can bring on dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet, the unsteady, buzzing feeling that signals the body has tipped into overbreathing. Build up gradually, keep the most demanding passages for facilitator-led sessions, and if these signals appear, slow the breath back to a normal, gentle pace until it settles.

#### Strong autonomic release during acute distress

*low* · *practice-informed*

The pairing of energising music and vigorous breath can set off strong autonomic release, felt as shaking, waves of heat, or sudden tears. This is usually part of the emotional release the Holotropic-style format is built to produce, but the same intensity can feel destabilising during acute distress. Start with slower, gentler breathing and work with a trained facilitator who can hold the space if strong reactions surface.

#### Cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled high blood pressure

*low* · *practice-informed*

The fast, intensifying breathwork passages trigger sympathetic activation, the fight-or-flight response that quickens the heart and raises blood pressure, placing extra demand on the cardiovascular system. If you live with cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled hypertension, get medical clearance before the vigorous version, keep to slow, gentle music-paced breathing, and reserve any demanding passages for a trained facilitator. This caution is inferred from how the practice loads the body, not from studies that measured harm.

#### Respiratory conditions such as asthma

*low* · *practice-informed*

Rapid, forceful breathing during the intensive passages places extra load on the airways and lungs. If you have a respiratory condition such as asthma, get medical clearance and start with a gentler, lower-intensity version before attempting the vigorous breathing passages. This is a mechanism-based precaution rather than a documented adverse-event finding.

#### History of seizures

*low* · *practice-informed*

The overbreathing that comes with intensive, fast-paced breathwork lowers blood carbon dioxide and can shift the body's balance in ways that warrant caution for anyone with a seizure history. Seek medical clearance first and keep to slow, gentle music-paced breathing rather than the vigorous passages. This caution reflects how the practice loads the body, not measured harm.

#### Pregnancy

*low* · *practice-informed*

No research has measured the safety of vigorous, music-paced breathwork during pregnancy, so this guidance is inferred from how the practice loads the body. Rapid breathing and a surge of sympathetic activation add demand to systems already adapting in pregnancy. Talk with your clinician, skip the intensive Holotropic-style passages, and if you practise at all keep to gentle, slow music-paced breathing with qualified support.

#### Unprocessed trauma or serious mental-health conditions

*low* · *practice-informed*

This format is built to bring on cathartic emotional release, and that same intensity can feel overwhelming to move through alone when unprocessed trauma or a serious mental-health condition is present. Begin with slow, music-paced breathing, hold off on the vigorous passages until you feel steady, and work with a trained facilitator or mental-health professional who can support you if strong emotion surfaces.

### How to practise safely?

Music and breathwork sit together best when you start gentle, letting slower, quieter music guide the breath into a longer exhale before you go anywhere near the faster, more energising passages. A sensible starting format is a handful of calm, low-intensity sessions on your own, saving the vigorous Holotropic-style crescendos for when you have eased in and, ideally, have a trained facilitator alongside you. Let how your body responds set the pace, and treat any dizziness or tingling as a signal to soften rather than push on.

1. **Check your health first.** Before trying the intensive, fast-breathing version, talk through any heart, blood-pressure, respiratory, seizure, pregnancy, or mental-health considerations with a clinician. This is a precaution based on how vigorous breathing loads the body, not a response to documented harm.
2. **Begin at low intensity.** Start with slow, music-paced breathing where the exhale simply lengthens with the music, and let several calm sessions pass before you explore anything faster. Easing in lets you learn how your body responds before you add intensity.
3. **Match the music to your intention.** For settling, choose slower, quieter pieces so the breath can lengthen and the shoulders drop. Save up-tempo, intensifying playlists for when you specifically want energy and are ready for stronger reactions.
4. **Get support for intense sessions.** For Holotropic-style sessions that drive hard through crescendos and fast breathing, practise with a trained facilitator who can hold the space if strong autonomic release such as shaking, heat, or tears comes up.
5. **Ease off if the signals turn uncomfortable.** If dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands or feet appears, slow the breath back to a normal, gentle pace and let it settle. These are signs of overbreathing, not progress, and they pass as the breath steadies.
6. **Come back down slowly.** After an active session, give yourself several minutes of quiet, slower breathing before standing, so the body can return to its resting rhythm instead of being rushed back into activity.

### Medical disclaimer

This information is educational and is not medical advice. This practice is not a substitute for professional care and should not replace prescribed medication or treatment for any medical or mental-health condition. If you are managing a health condition or taking medication, talk with a qualified health professional before changing your practice. If you are in distress or crisis, seek professional support.

## How does Music and Breathwork Integration compare to similar techniques?

| Technique | Best for | Use with care | Distinction |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Music therapy or music listening (without breathwork) | Easing anxiety and stress through listening, especially in clinical, procedural, or waiting-room settings. |  | Music therapy uses music, most often as receptive listening led by a trained therapist, without the paced or intensive breathing that defines this practice. Its research base is far larger, spanning dozens of trials for anxiety and stress, and most of what is known about the music component is borrowed from here. This practice adds a breath layer meant to deepen and drive the experience rather than letting the sound work on its own. |
| Standalone breathwork (without music) | Portable self-regulation when you want a breathing tool without a soundtrack or a facilitator. | Fast, intensive breathing can cause dizziness, tingling, or hand and foot cramping; ease in gradually. | Breathwork practised on its own uses paced or patterned breathing to shift arousal, with no musical score to pace it. It is portable and needs no audio, but it loses the emotional arc and the entrainment cue the music supplies. The evidence is mixed: one large placebo-controlled trial found slow, coherent breathing no better than a matched sham, suggesting expectation carries part of the effect. |
| Holotropic Breathwork | Deep cathartic or transpersonal exploration within a structured, facilitated setting. | High-intensity sessions warrant medical and psychiatric screening and a trained facilitator. | Holotropic Breathwork is the fuller therapeutic format this scored-breathing practice derives from, using sustained rapid breathing and an emotionally arced playlist to pursue cathartic, non-ordinary states across long sessions. Music and Breathwork Integration can describe that scored-breathing element more broadly, including gentler secular versions. Holotropic work is more intense and typically facilitator-led. |

## Other questions readers ask

### Is Music and Breathwork Integration just listening to relaxing music?

No. Unlike passive listening, the breath is the working element: the music's tempo, dynamics, and emotional arc pace and intensify a guided breathing session, so you breathe in time with the sound rather than letting it wash over you (Bogt, 2023).

No. Here the music is a pacing template and emotional catalyst, not background sound: its rising and falling tempo cues when the breath quickens and where it settles, so breath and music move together through the session (Bogt, 2023). That sets it apart from receptive listening or a sound bath, where the sound alone does the work and there is no active breathing task. The format is rooted in Holotropic Breathwork, so this describes what the practice is, not a claim that pairing breath with music works better than listening on its own.

### Does pairing music with breathwork actually reduce anxiety?

Partly, and the support is indirect. Music-based practice reliably eases anxiety in pooled trials, and one trial pairing music with breathing lowered anxiety during a cardiac procedure, but no trial has tested this specific music-and-breathwork pairing on its own (Witte et al., 2025), (Feryal & Ülkü, 2024).

Partly, and the support is indirect. Large music-therapy meta-analyses show a consistent, modest drop in anxiety, and music can ease anxiety during a session even where lasting change is less certain (Witte et al., 2025), (Lu et al., 2021). A combined music-and-breathing trial lowered anxiety during a cardiac procedure (Feryal & Ülkü, 2024), but a placebo-controlled breathwork trial found no advantage over a matched sham, so expectation may carry part of the effect (Fincham et al., 2023). Because this rests on the separate music and breathwork literatures, read it as easing during and shortly after practice, not a proven treatment for diagnosed anxiety (Bradt et al., 2016).

### Do the calming effects last after the session ends?

Mostly during and shortly after. Music-based practice reliably eases anxiety while you practise and just afterward, but one meta-analysis found the effect no longer reached significance at later follow-up, so lasting carry-over is suggestive rather than settled (Lu et al., 2021).

Mostly during and shortly after. In pooled music-therapy trials, anxiety dropped clearly right after a session but faded and was no longer statistically significant at follow-up, so in-the-moment relief is the dependable part (Lu et al., 2021). No trial has tested the combined music-and-breathwork protocol's durability directly, so this read draws on the two fields studied separately and is best treated as suggestive, not confirmed (Witte et al., 2025). It supports easing stress in the moment, not treating a diagnosed condition.

### Why does breathing in time with music feel so calming?

Likely because the breath entrains to the music's tempo, falling into step with it, and as it slows to match calmer passages the nervous system can shift toward its parasympathetic branch, which governs rest and recovery (Joke et al., 2013). This mechanism is drawn largely from music research in general, not proof of a unique effect from this pairing (Koelsch, 2014).

Likely because two things happen together. As the breath entrains to the music's tempo, slowing to match quieter passages, studies of music-based relaxation have measured small drops in heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure, signs the body is settling into its parasympathetic rest-and-recovery branch (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014). At the same time, reviews of music neuroscience describe how music engages brain systems tied to emotion, reward, and arousal, the networks that set how alert or settled you feel (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013). This is mechanism-level and drawn from music research broadly, not measured for this specific music-and-breath pairing.

### Can fast, intense music-paced breathing make you feel energized or wired?

Yes. Fast, intensifying music-paced breathing can leave you feeling energized or wired, because up-tempo passages paired with vigorous breathing rev up the sympathetic branch of the nervous system, the fight-or-flight response that raises heart rate and alertness. This is an expected physiological response, not a trial-measured effect for this specific practice.

Yes. During the deliberately faster, louder passages, the same physiology that settles you in calm sections runs the other way: music engages brain systems tied to emotion, reward, and arousal (Koelsch, 2014), (Chanda & Levitin, 2013), while quickened breathing lifts heart rate and mobilizes energy (Joke et al., 2013), (Joke & Cheryl, 2014). This is inferred from how the practice loads the body rather than measured for the combined music-and-breathwork pairing. Because rapid overbreathing lowers blood carbon dioxide, a state called hypocapnia, the buzzing energy can tip into dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet, signals to slow the breath back to a gentle pace.

### Is it safe to do if I have a heart condition or high blood pressure?

Use care. Gentle music-paced breathing is low-risk, but the vigorous fast-breathing passages raise heart rate and blood pressure, so with a heart condition or uncontrolled high blood pressure get medical clearance first, start low-intensity, and avoid or slow the intense passages.

Use care. This caution is inferred from how the practice loads the body rather than from studies that measured harm: the fast, intensifying breathwork passages trigger sympathetic activation, the body's fight-or-flight response that quickens the heart and raises blood pressure, which places extra demand on the cardiovascular system. If you live with cardiovascular disease or uncontrolled hypertension, seek medical clearance before the vigorous version, keep to slow, gentle music-paced breathing, and reserve any demanding passages for sessions with a trained facilitator who can slow things down. This is not a safety promise or a substitute for advice from your clinician.

### Is intense music breathwork safe during pregnancy?

Not without clinician clearance. No study has tested intense, music-paced breathwork in pregnancy, so this is a mechanism-based precaution rather than a safety verdict: rapid, forceful breathing and the rush of alertness it brings add demand at a time your body is already working harder. Choose a gentler, facilitator-supported pace and check with your clinician first.

Not without clinician clearance. No research has measured harm or safety for vigorous, music-paced breathwork in pregnant participants, so this guidance is inferred from how the practice loads the body, not from documented outcomes. During fast, intensifying passages, overbreathing can lower blood carbon dioxide enough that some people notice dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet, and the surge of sympathetic activation, the body's fight-or-flight response often felt as a racing heart and a wired, on-edge alertness, adds load to systems already adapting in pregnancy. The safe step is individualized: talk with your clinician, skip the intensive Holotropic-style passages, and if you practise at all keep to gentle, slow music-paced breathing with qualified support. This is not a replacement for personalized medical advice.

### Is this practice okay if I'm carrying past trauma or feel emotionally fragile?

Use care. If you carry past trauma or feel emotionally fragile, the intense, fast-breathing passages can surface strong cathartic release that may feel overwhelming, so start low-intensity, keep sessions gentle, and ideally practise with support or a trained facilitator.

Use care. This format is built to bring on cathartic emotional release, and that same intensity can feel destabilising when trauma or acute distress is present. A practical approach is to begin with slow, music-paced breathing, hold off on the vigorous Holotropic-style passages until you feel steady, and work with a trained facilitator or mental-health professional who can hold the space if strong emotion comes up. This caution reflects how the practice loads the nervous system rather than a measured finding of harm, and it is not a substitute for clinical care.

### How do I start Music and Breathwork Integration on my own at home?

Start gentle. Choose slow, calming music and simply let your exhale lengthen with the sound, keeping several easy sessions before trying anything faster. Save vigorous, Holotropic-style fast breathing for a trained facilitator, and ease off if dizziness, tingling, or cramping appears.

Start gentle and let the music lead. Pick slower, quieter pieces and breathe in time with them so the exhale lengthens and the shoulders drop; give yourself several calm sessions to learn how your body responds before adding any faster or more activating passages. If dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands or feet turns up, slow the breath back to a normal, gentle pace until it settles, and take a few quiet minutes to come down before standing. The intense, fast-breathing version is best reserved for a session with a trained facilitator, and a quick health check with a clinician is worth doing first if you have heart, blood-pressure, respiratory, seizure, pregnancy, or mental-health considerations.

### What's the difference between Music and Breathwork Integration and Holotropic Breathwork?

Holotropic Breathwork is the more intense, facilitator-led parent format it derives from, using sustained rapid breathing and a long, emotionally arced playlist to reach cathartic states. Music and Breathwork Integration is the broader term for music-paced breathing, and it includes gentler, secular versions.

The difference is one of intensity, setting, and scope, not proven effect. Holotropic Breathwork, developed by Stanislav Grof, drives hard through crescendos and prolonged rapid breathing across long, typically facilitator-guided sessions aimed at non-ordinary, cathartic states. Music and Breathwork Integration names the wider practice of pairing a curated playlist with guided breathing to shape and deepen the session, spanning both that intense format and calmer self-directed versions. No head-to-head trial has compared the two, so this is a distinction of form and lineage, not evidence that one works better.

## Glossary

### Entrainment

The tendency of the body's rhythms, such as brainwaves, heartbeat, or breathing, to fall into step with an external beat like a musical tempo. In this practice it is what lets the breath settle into the music's pulse, often felt as being carried by the rhythm without effort.

The synchronisation of endogenous physiological oscillations, including neural, cardiac, respiratory, and motor rhythms, to an external periodic stimulus such as musical tempo.

### Parasympathetic nervous system

The rest-and-recovery branch of the nervous system that slows the heart and breath and lets the body settle. When it takes over, people often notice the chest loosening and a sense of coming down from alertness.

The branch of the autonomic nervous system, largely mediated by the vagus nerve, that supports restorative functions and downregulates cardiac and respiratory arousal.

### Sympathetic activation

The fight-or-flight branch of the nervous system ramping up, raising heart rate, breathing, and alertness to ready the body for effort. During up-tempo, vigorous passages it can feel like a surge of energy and intensity.

Increased activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, via adrenal and sympathetic pathways, producing catecholamine release, elevated heart rate, and heightened arousal.

### Autonomic discharge

The nervous system releasing stored tension through involuntary physical expression such as shaking, trembling, tears, or waves of heat, often followed by a sense of settling. It is a common part of more intense breathwork sessions.

The involuntary release of accumulated autonomic arousal through motor and physiological expression, associated with completion of an incomplete stress response.

### Salivary alpha-amylase

An enzyme in saliva that researchers use as a marker of fight-or-flight nervous system activity. It rises with stress and falls as the body recovers, which is why studies track how quickly it returns to its resting level.

A salivary enzyme used as a non-invasive biomarker of sympathetic nervous system and sympatho-adrenal-medullary axis activity.

### Hedges' g

A statistic that expresses how large an effect is in standardized units, letting researchers compare results across studies. Values near 0.2 are small, around 0.5 moderate, and near 0.8 large.

A standardized mean difference effect-size estimate that applies a small-sample correction to Cohen's d, commonly pooled in meta-analyses.

### Exteroception

Awareness directed outward through the senses, such as sight, sound, and touch, toward the surrounding environment, as distinct from sensing internal body states. Here it shows up as attending to the music's detail and structure while breathing.

The perception of external environmental stimuli through the sensory modalities, distinct from interoception, which senses internal bodily states.

### Vagal tone

A measure of activity in the vagus nerve, the main nerve of the rest-and-recovery branch, which helps slow the heart. Higher vagal tone is linked to the body settling and is often felt as the chest softening and the breath deepening on its own.

An index of parasympathetic, vagally mediated regulation of cardiac activity, often inferred from heart-rate variability measures.

### Hyperventilation and hypocapnia

Breathing faster or deeper than the body needs lowers blood carbon dioxide, a state called hypocapnia, which can cause dizziness, tingling, or cramping in the hands and feet. It is the main reason intensive breathwork is eased into slowly.

Ventilation in excess of metabolic demand, reducing arterial carbon dioxide (hypocapnia) and producing respiratory alkalosis, with symptoms including paraesthesia, dizziness, and carpopedal spasm.

## Full references

1. Jameel Soqia, Laila Yakoub‐Agha, Mhd Basheer Alameer, Lujain Nahas, Lama Mohamad, Ibrahim Antoun (2025). Evaluating the Efficacy of a 5‐Min Music Listening Intervention for State Anxiety Reduction in College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial. https://doi.org/10.1002/hsr2.70590 (randomized controlled trial)
2. Gauthier Feryal, Güneş Ülkü (2024). The effect of music therapy and breathing exercise on anxiety and pain in patients undergoing coronary angiography: A randomized controlled study.. https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13145 (randomized controlled trial)
3. Tom ter Bogt (2023). Music and music listening. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-96023-6.00053-1 (book or historical source)
4. Martina de Witte, Sonja Aalbers, Annemieke Vink, Stijn A.H. Friederichs, Anne Knapen, Thomas Pelgrim (2025). Music therapy for the treatment of anxiety: A systematic review with multilevel meta-analyses. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2025.103293 (meta analysis)
5. Joke Bradt, Cheryl Dileo, Lucanne Magill, Aaron K. Teague, Bradt Joke, Dileo Cheryl (2016). Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients.. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd006911.pub3 (meta analysis)
6. Bradt Joke, Dileo Cheryl (2014). Music interventions for mechanically ventilated patients.. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd006902.pub3 (meta analysis)
7. Martina de Witte, Ana da Silva Pinho, Geert-Jan Stams, Xavier Moonen, Arjan E. R. Bos, Susan van Hooren (2022). Music therapy for stress reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2020.1846580 (meta analysis)
8. Keir Philip, Harriet Owles, Stephanie McVey, Tanja Pagnuco, Katie Bruce, Harry Brunjes (2022). An online breathing and wellbeing programme (ENO Breathe) for people with persistent symptoms following COVID-19: a parallel-group, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2213-2600(22)00125-4 (randomized controlled trial)
9. Bradt Joke, Dileo Cheryl, Potvin Noah (2013). Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients.. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd006577.pub3 (meta analysis)
10. Guangli Lu, Ruiying Jia, Dandan Liang, Jingfen Yu, Zhen Wu, Chaoran Chen (2021). Effects of music therapy on anxiety: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114137 (meta analysis)
11. Lee Ho Yeon, Nam Eun Sook, Chai Gong Ju, Kim Doo Myung (2023). Benefits of Music Intervention on Anxiety, Pain, and Physiologic Response in Adults Undergoing Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2023.05.002 (meta analysis)
12. Myriam V. Thoma, Roberto La Marca, Rebecca Brönnimann, Linda Finkel, Ulrike Ehlert, Urs M. Nater (2013). The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070156 (randomized controlled trial)
13. Bradt Joke, Dileo Cheryl, Myers-Coffman Katherine, Biondo Jacelyn (2021). Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in people with cancer.. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd006911.pub4 (systematic review)
14. Mona Lisa Chanda, Daniel J. Levitin (2013). The neurochemistry of music. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007 (other peer reviewed)
15. Yulia Panteleeva, Grazia Ceschi, Donald Glowinski, Delphine S. Courvoisier, Didier Grandjean (2017). Music for anxiety? Meta-analysis of anxiety reduction in non-clinical samples. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735617712424 (meta analysis)
16. Guy W. Fincham, Clara Strauss, Kate Cavanagh, Fincham Guy W, Strauss Clara, Cavanagh Kate (2023). Effect of coherent breathing on mental health and wellbeing: a randomised placebo-controlled trial.. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-49279-8 (randomized controlled trial)
17. Stefan Koelsch (2014). Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3666 (other peer reviewed)
18. Martinez Ernesto Calderon, Ghattas Hasbun Patricia, Almeida Hidalgo Joceline Isabel, Salolin Vargas Vanessa Pamela, Floridia Rietmann Lautaro Manuel, Fermin Madera Mariela Denise (2026). Effectiveness of Non-pharmacological Interventions for Reducing Anxiety in Endoscopy and Colonoscopy Procedures: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-025-09447-4 (meta analysis)

## More Music and Breathwork Integration in Insight Timer

Editorially curated. Tracks are not themselves clinically studied; evidence on the page applies to Music and Breathwork Integration as a technique.

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- [Children's Meditation -  Banana Breaths With Miko The Monkey](https://insighttimer.com/reshmaazizkhan/guided-meditations/children-s-meditation-banana-breaths-with-miko-the-monkey) — Reshma Aziz Khan, Guided, 9 min, rated 5.0/5
- [Navigating Expectations](https://insighttimer.com/Om-Haiku/guided-meditations/navigating-expectations) — Om Haiku, Guided, 13 min, rated 5.0/5
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- [Harmonize Your Breath And Mind](https://insighttimer.com/victoriamgallagher/guided-meditations/harmonize-your-breath-and-mind) — Victoria Gallagher, Guided, 11 min, rated 5.0/5
- [Shaking Up The Routine: Same Life, New Eyes](https://insighttimer.com/Om-Haiku/guided-meditations/shaking-up-the-routine-same-life-new-eyes) — Om Haiku, Guided, 12 min, rated 5.0/5
- [The Peace Of Patience: Let It Take Time](https://insighttimer.com/Om-Haiku/guided-meditations/the-peace-of-patience-let-it-take-time) — Om Haiku, Guided, 11 min, rated 5.0/5