Melis Yilmaz Balban
Neuroscientist and first author of the 2023 trial that put three breathing patterns against mindfulness meditation instead of against nothing.
Who they are
Yilmaz Balban worked at Stanford on the study that gave the breathwork field its first useful comparison. The design is the contribution: almost every earlier trial in this area compared breathing with a waiting list or with no intervention, which can tell you whether to breathe deliberately and not which way.
Four arms, five minutes a day, one month, run entirely remotely.
Key papers
Yilmaz Balban, M., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nouriani, B., Jo, B., Holl, G., Zeitzer, J. M., Spiegel, D., & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895.
Key ideas
Breathwork produced greater improvement in mood and greater reduction in respiratory rate than time-matched mindfulness meditation.
Within the breathing conditions, cyclic sighing, which emphasises prolonged exhalations, performed best.
The paper's own conclusion is narrower than its coverage: daily five-minute cyclic sighing has promise as an effective stress management exercise.
Concepts on this site
Sources
- doi:10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895