Breathing exercises to quit smoking

Can breathing exercises help you quit smoking?

They can help with the hardest minutes of quitting: the cravings, the restlessness, the short fuse of the first weeks. They aren’t a way to quit on their own, and no trial has shown that they are.

What works best is support plus medicine. In a review of 52 trials with more than 19,000 people, combining behavioural support with nicotine replacement or a quit medicine made people about 1.8 times as likely to have stopped at least six months later as brief advice or usual care (Stead et al. 2016). The proven routes, in plain words:

• A stop-smoking service. In the UK it’s free through the NHS, which says expert help makes you 3 times more likely to quit for good (NHS Better Health, Stop Smoking Services). In the US, 1-800-QUIT-NOW puts you through to your state’s free quitline (CDC, quitlines).
• Nicotine replacement: patches, gum, lozenges and sprays. A patch plus a fast-acting form is among the most effective options of all.
• Prescribed quit medicines, such as varenicline, or cytisine where it’s available, from your GP or doctor. In the largest review of quit aids, both clearly raised quit rates, as did nicotine replacement (Lindson et al. 2023).
• A nicotine vape. The same review found nicotine vapes among the most effective quit aids of all, as strong as varenicline and cytisine. A vape works best with a stop-smoking service behind it, and the aim is to stop smoking first and, later, to stop vaping too. The breaths below help with both.

Breathing fits into the gaps between those: after a meal, on the phone, at the bus stop, when the urge arrives and the patch doesn’t feel like enough.

Why does a slow breath help with a craving?

Think about what a cigarette break involved: stepping away, a few minutes to yourself, slow breaths in and long breaths out. When you stop, the nicotine goes, and so does the break. A breathing exercise gives you the break back, without the smoke.

A craving also passes. The NHS puts a single one at up to 15 minutes, and suggests a deep breathing exercise as one way through it (NHS Better Health). The wider withdrawal, the irritability, anxiety, restlessness and broken sleep, tends to peak in the first week and fade over 2 to 4 weeks (Hughes 2007).

Your heart speeds up slightly as you breathe in and slows as you breathe out. A longer out-breath gives the slowing side more time, which is why every breath below lingers on the way out. For the moment itself, step by step, see nicotine cravings, breath by breath.

Which breathing exercises help with cravings?

Four breaths for four moments. Each one plays here: press play and follow the tide.

Craving right now? 4-6 breathing for 2 minutes.

No holds and nothing to get wrong: the longer half is on the way out.

1. Stand or sit where you can be still for 2 minutes. Let your shoulders drop.
2. Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds.
3. Breathe out slowly for 6 seconds.
4. Keep going for 12 breaths, about 2 minutes. If the craving’s still there, walk for a few minutes and do it again.

In a preliminary lab study, smokers who took a series of deep breaths every half hour while not smoking reported less craving, tension and irritability than when they simply sat quietly (McClernon et al. 2004).

Full guide: 4-6 breathing

Missing the hand-to-mouth habit? Breathe out through pursed lips.

Part of what you miss is the long, slow breath out. This keeps it.

1. Breathe in through your nose for 2 seconds.
2. Purse your lips as if you were about to blow out a candle.
3. Breathe out gently through them for 4 seconds.
4. Do 15 breaths, about 90 seconds. If your hands want a job, hold a glass of water.

Pursed-lip breathing is best known in lung disease, where low-quality evidence suggests it may ease breathlessness (Pinna et al. 2025). Here it’s simply a long out-breath you can feel.

Full guide: pursed-lip breathing

Stressed, and that’s when you’d reach for one? Try a physiological sigh.

Two breaths in, one long breath out. A minute of them settles a lot of people.

1. Breathe in through your nose for 2 seconds.
2. Take a second, smaller sip of air on top, for 1 second.
3. Breathe out slowly through your mouth for 6 seconds.
4. Repeat for about a minute. If you feel light-headed, make the breaths smaller.

In a remote trial of 108 adults, 5 minutes a day of cyclic sighing lifted mood more than mindfulness meditation did (Balban et al. 2023).

Full guide: physiological sigh

On edge for days? Coherent breathing, 10 minutes a day.

For the restless, irritable stretch of the first weeks. Practise it while you’re calm, so it’s familiar when the hard moments come. Breathform keeps the 5 and the 5 for you with a soft tone.

1. Breathe in softly through your nose for 5 seconds.
2. Breathe out for 5 seconds, as smooth as the in-breath.
3. Keep going for 10 minutes, once a day.

In a trial of 400 UK adults, 10 minutes a day for 4 weeks eased stress and anxiety, but no more than a faster “placebo” breathing practice did (Fincham et al. 2023). The daily habit may matter more than the exact pace.

Full guide: coherent breathing

What about quitting vaping?

A vape craving is a nicotine craving, so it feels the same and the breaths above work the same way. What’s different is the research. A 2025 review found only 9 trials on quitting vaping: text-message programmes may help young people stop, and varenicline may help, but the evidence for both is low-certainty (Butler et al. 2025). Your GP, a pharmacist or a stop-smoking service can talk you through what’s available where you live.

Routine · First 2 weeks

A breathing plan for your first two weeks

1. Before quit day, practise 4-6 breathing for 2 minutes, twice a day, while you’re calm. It’s easier to find in a craving when your body already knows it.
2. Name your three biggest triggers, for example after meals, with coffee or on the phone. Those are your breathing moments.
3. When a craving hits, breathe for 2 minutes, then move: a walk, the washing-up, a glass of water.
4. Once a day, 10 minutes of coherent breathing, to take the edge off a restless week.
5. At night, if sleep is broken, 4-6 breathing in bed with the lights off. Poor sleep is a common part of withdrawal, and it passes.

The plan works best stacked on top of real support, not instead of it. Keep the patch on, keep the appointment, and let the breath cover the minutes in between.

Do breathing exercises to quit smoking really work?

For cravings, the early evidence is encouraging. In a lab study of 96 people who hadn’t smoked for 12 hours, 10 minutes of yogic-style breathing cut the urge to smoke more than watching a breathing video did. By the next day the difference had gone, and few people had kept practising (Shahab et al. 2013).

In 60 smokers, 20 minutes of mindful yogic breathing eased craving and negative mood, and they smoked fewer cigarettes over the following day than people taught a thinking strategy or nothing at all (Lotfalian et al. 2020).

A 10-minute guided body scan, a relaxation practice, also lowered the desire to smoke (Cropley et al. 2007). Away from the lab, in people’s normal surroundings, the effect lasted only about 5 minutes (Ussher et al. 2009). That’s a reason to repeat the breath, not to give up on it.

Urge surfing, watching the craving rise and fall without acting on it, didn’t shrink urges in 123 student smokers. But they smoked fewer cigarettes over the next week than a group without it (Bowen and Marlatt 2009). The urge stayed; what changed was the response.

These were small, short studies, and none tested breathing alone as a way to stay quit for months.

So: a sensible tool for the craving minutes, with small, early evidence. Use it alongside quit support that’s been proven to work.

How well each breath is studied

• 4-6 breathingWell studied
• Pursed-lip breathingSome evidence
• Physiological sighSome evidence
• Coherent breathingWell studied

Every study on this page (17)

• Stead et al., 2016: Cochrane review: across 52 trials (19,488 people), combining behavioural support with medication (mostly nicotine replacement) raised quit rates at six months or more compared with usual care, brief advice or less intensive support (risk ratio 1.83, high-quality evidence).
• NHS Better Health, Stop Smoking Services: The NHS says your local Stop Smoking Service is free, and that with professional or expert help you’re 3 times more likely to quit for good.
• CDC, quitlines: Calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW automatically transfers a caller to their state quitline; quitline services are confidential and free to callers.
• Lindson et al., 2023: Cochrane network meta-analysis of 319 trials (157,179 adults): nicotine e-cigarettes, varenicline and cytisine were the most effective quit aids (all high certainty), as was combination nicotine replacement (patch plus a fast-acting form); the nicotine patch alone and fast-acting nicotine replacement alone also raised quit rates (high certainty).
• NHS Better Health: The NHS says cravings only last up to 15 minutes, suggests a walk, sugar-free gum or a deep breathing exercise to get through one, and notes some cravings come from the body adjusting to life without nicotine and others from habits and routines.
• Hughes, 2007: Review: anger, anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia and restlessness are valid tobacco withdrawal symptoms that peak within the first week and last 2–4 weeks; constipation, cough, dizziness, increased dreaming and mouth ulcers may be abstinence effects.
• McClernon et al., 2004: In a preliminary lab study, dependent smokers who took a series of controlled deep breaths every 30 minutes during 4 hours without smoking reported less craving and less tension and irritability than when they sat quietly.
• Pinna et al., 2025: In people whose airways are narrowed by lung disease, weak evidence suggests pursed-lip breathing may moderately ease breathlessness in the short term.
• Balban et al., 2023: Five minutes a day of cyclic sighing lifted mood a little more than mindfulness meditation, in 108 adults.
• Fincham et al., 2023: In 400 UK adults, four weeks of slow coherent breathing did no better than a faster placebo breathing practice; both groups improved.
• Butler et al., 2025: Cochrane living review of 9 trials on quitting nicotine vaping: low-certainty evidence that text-message programmes help 13- to 24-year-olds stop vaping and that varenicline may help; other options were inconclusive.
• Shahab et al., 2013: In 96 smokers abstaining for 12 hours, 10 minutes of yogic-style breathing exercises reduced urges to smoke and cigarette craving in the lab compared with a breathing-video control; adherence over the next 24 hours was low and there was no difference at 24 hours; no effect on mood or physical symptoms.
• Lotfalian et al., 2020: In 60 smokers, 20 minutes of mindfulness-based yogic breathing reduced craving and negative mood compared with no treatment, more than halved the chance of smoking during a 50-minute choice task, and was followed by fewer cigarettes over the next 24 hours than a cognitive strategy or no treatment.
• Cropley et al., 2007: In 30 abstinent smokers, a 10-minute guided body scan lowered desire to smoke immediately and 5 minutes afterwards, and lowered irritability, tension and restlessness, compared with listening to a natural history passage.
• Ussher et al., 2009: In 48 smokers, 10-minute body scanning or isometric exercise lowered desire to smoke and withdrawal symptoms compared with a control reading; in the lab the effect lasted up to 30 minutes, in people’s normal surroundings only up to 5 minutes.
• Bowen and Marlatt, 2009: In 123 student smokers, brief mindfulness instructions based on urge surfing did not reduce urges during cue exposure, but the mindfulness group smoked significantly fewer cigarettes over the following 7 days than controls.
• Kanner et al., 1999: In the Lung Health Study (5,887 smokers with early COPD), sustained quitters had the lowest prevalence of chronic cough, phlegm, wheezing and shortness of breath; changes in symptoms occurred mainly in the first year after quitting.

What about breathing necklaces?

You’ll see breathing necklaces and “breathing sticks” sold to help you quit: a small tube on a chain that you breathe out through slowly. The useful part is the slow out-breath, and pursed lips do the same job for nothing. We couldn’t find a single trial of one for quitting. If holding something helps you, it’s a prop rather than a quit aid.

Quitting something else?

The same idea, a slow breath in the place of a reflex, works for other things you might be cutting down: caffeine withdrawal, sugar cravings and doomscrolling. If you’re coming off a prescribed medicine with your doctor, coming off medication matches a breath to each common side effect. And for the weeks after you stop smoking, breathing after quitting smoking covers the cough, the breathlessness and how your lungs recover.

Questions people ask

Can deep breathing stop cigarette cravings?

It can turn them down for a while. In one lab study, 10 minutes of yogic-style breathing exercises cut the urge to smoke more than watching a breathing video did, though the difference had gone by the next day. Make each breath slower rather than bigger: a long, easy out-breath matters more than a big gulp in, which can leave you light-headed.

How long do nicotine withdrawal symptoms last?

For most people, a few weeks. Irritability, anxiety, restlessness, trouble concentrating and poor sleep tend to peak in the first week and fade over 2 to 4 weeks. A single craving is much shorter: the NHS puts it at up to 15 minutes. If one turns up later, at a party or after a hard day, the same breath works.

What is the best breathing exercise for nicotine withdrawal?

The one you’ll actually use when the urge arrives. The studies used slow breathing, usually with a long out-breath, so 4-6 breathing is a good default. If stress is your trigger, try a few physiological sighs. For the restless days of the first fortnight, 10 minutes of coherent breathing once a day is a steady habit that may take the edge off.

Do breathing exercises help you quit vaping?

They help in the same way, because a vape craving is a nicotine craving. Slow breathing takes the edge off the urge and the restlessness. Research on quitting vaping is still young, so pair the breath with real support: your GP, a pharmacist or a stop-smoking service can talk you through what’s available where you live.

Will my breathing get better when I quit?

For most people, yes, though not overnight. Many cough more for the first week or two. In a large trial of people whose lungs already showed early damage, those who stopped for good were the least likely to have a cough, phlegm, wheeze or breathlessness, and most of that change came in the first year. More in breathing after quitting smoking.