Recruiting

Breathwork

Sponsor:

UCLA

Code:

NCT06317259

Conditions

Hypoxic Breathwork With Music and Affirmative Messaging

Hypoxic Breathwork Only

Music and Affirmative Messaging

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 45

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Hypoxic breathwork plus music and messaging

Hypoxic breathwork only

Music and messaging meditation

Study Details

Brief summary:

This project will study changes that occur during a short period of intensive daily slow-paced breathing and breath hold practice (i.e., "breathwork"). On the first and last days of the week-long practice, investigators will conduct high-density EEG recordings during breathwork to evaluate spectral power, coherence, and causality dynamics of the brain when it is naïve to breathwork and after adaptation to a breathwork practice. Breath, blood, urine, saliva, stool samples, biometric data, and sleep EEG will be collected before the start of daily breathwork practice and again after 1 week of breathwork practice to examine the effect of breathwork on full body biochemistry, molecular biology, and sleep. Investigators will also use questionnaires to assess the impact of breathwork on stress and sleep quality.

Conditions

Hypoxic Breathwork With Music and Affirmative Messaging

Hypoxic Breathwork Only

Music and Affirmative Messaging

Study ID

NCT06317259

Start date

Jun 17, 2024

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Jan, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Oct, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 45

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Persons, aged 18-45
  • Availability for the duration of the study
  • In good general health as revealed by self-report
  • Stated willingness and capability to adhere to the breathwork regimen
  • Agreement to adhere to Lifestyle Considerations (see section 5.3) throughout study duration
  • Provision of signed and dated informed consent form

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Current or past regular breathwork practice
2. Current use of psychoactive medications (e.g., anti-depressants or anxiolytics)
3. Pregnancy
4. Bedtime past 11:30pm or regularly getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night.
5. Feverish illness within 10 days
6. Regular smoker or tobacco user ( > 1 cigarette, gum or pouch per month)
7. Presence of blood pressure above 140 systolic and/or 90 diastolic, seizure disorder, asthma, or serious cardiac fibrillation disorders.

Study Design

Enrollment

75 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Breathwork, music, messaging

Subjects will perform a 40 min initial breathwork/music/messaging session with a full EEG cap followed by 7 or 14 days of once daily practice of a 20 min breathwork/music/messaging session. At the end of 7 or 14 days, they will again perform the 40 min breathwork/music/messaging session with a full EEG cap.

active comparator: Breathwork only

Subjects will perform a 40 min initial breathwork only session with a full EEG cap followed by 7 or 14 days of once daily practice of a 20 min breathwork only session. At the end of 7 or 14 days, they will again perform the 40 min breathwork only session with a full EEG cap.

active comparator: Music and messaging

Subjects will perform a 40 min initial music/messaging session with a full EEG cap followed by 7 or 14 days of once daily practice of a 20 min music/messaging session. At the end of 7 or 14 days, they will again perform the 40 min music/messaging session with a full EEG cap.

Interventions

Hypoxic breathwork plus music and messaging

Hypoxic breathwork consists of about 5 min of rhythmic breathing in a 4-in/4-out pattern followed by a breath hold on the exhale for about 1-2 min. This is repeated 1-2 times with increasing breath rate up to 2-in/2-out. The audio track also includes dynamic music that accompanies the different stages as well as positive messaging encouraging self-determination.

Hypoxic breathwork only

Hypoxic breathwork consists of about 5 min of rhythmic breathing in a 4-in/4-out pattern followed by a breath hold on the exhale for about 1-2 min. This is repeated 1-2 times with increasing breath rate up to 2-in/2-out. Other than breathing instructions and pacing, the audio track is silent.

Music and messaging meditation

Music and messaging meditation consists of dynamic music that is engaging and aids focus, as well as positive messaging encouraging self-determination.

Primary outcome measure

  • EEG power and/or connectivity differences between groups [ Time Frame: Day 7 and Day 14 or 21 (beginning and end of daily practice week) ]
  • Group differences in sleep EEG power and/or stage changes from baseline to the intervention period [ Time Frame: Days 7-14 or 21 (intervention) vs Days 1-7 (baseline) ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Julie Onton, PhD

8583362704julieonton@hotmail.com

Locations

UC San Diego

Recruiting

La Jolla, California, United States, 92093

Contacts

Julie Onton, PhD

8583362704jonton@ucsd.edu

Principal Investigator:

Julie Onton, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

University of California, San Diego

Last update posted

Aug 4, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • Breathwork
  • Intermittent hypoxia
  • EEG
  • Mitochondria
  • Relaxing

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of California, San Diego on 2026-08-04.