Training slow breathing improves sustained attention
3 studies · 36 archers measured
The summary today
There is only one study on archers, and it points the way the claim does. Thirty-six Turkish novices aged 14 to 18, split into three groups of twelve, add fifteen minutes of alternate-nostril breathing, or visualisation, or nothing, for eight weeks: on the Bourdon attention test the breathing group improves by 8.6 points and beats both visualisation and training alone. Before that study the claim rested on thirty-nine healthy office workers who, after twenty sessions of diaphragmatic breathing at about four breaths a minute, improved their sustained attention by 6.7 points against 4.2 for those who simply repeated the test. There are three limits. In both studies the controls improve too, so part of the gain is familiarity with the test. The groups are not randomised, since allocation follows the order of enrolment or a fixed sequence. And attention is measured with a pencil-and-paper test lasting a few minutes, not over a competition round; in the same study on archers, moreover, the advantage on visual reaction time goes to visualisation, not to breathing.
Also phrased as: "breathing and concentration"; "slow breathing for focus"; "diaphragmatic breathing and attention"; "alternate-nostril breathing"; "training the breath to stay focused"
In practice
Archers are advised to train slow breathing off the range as well, because someone who can slow their breathing holds their focus for longer and reaches the last ends of a competition with a clear head.
Evidence
-
2017
For General population Published later
39 healthy office workers, 20 sessions of slow diaphragmatic breathing with biofeedback over 8 weeks, against a group that only repeats the tests: on a number cancellation test sustained attention improves by 6.7 points against 4.2 (interaction F(1,37)=9.68, p=0.004, partial eta squared 0.21). The controls also improve clearly, and the groups are formed by alternating the order of enrolment.
The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults · Xiao Ma, Zi-Qi Yue, Zhu-Qing Gong, Hong Zhang, Nai-Yue Duan, Yu-Tong Shi, Gao-Xia Wei, You-Fa Li
-
2018
Context Review Published later
A systematic review of 15 studies on healthy adults: during slow breathing the EEG studies find more alpha power and less theta. It is a finding about mechanism, not a measure of attention.
How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing · Andrea Zaccaro, Andrea Piarulli, Marco Laurino, Erika Garbella, Danilo Menicucci, Bruno Neri, Angelo Gemignani
-
2025
For Archers Published later
36 novice archers aged 14 to 18 in three groups of 12, eight weeks with 15 extra minutes per session: on the Bourdon test alternate-nostril breathing improves by 8.6 points (p<0.001); across groups Kruskal-Wallis 23.599 (p<0.001), with breathing above visualisation (p=0.018) and both above the control (p<0.001). The control group improves too (p<0.001), and the within-group effect for breathing (d=8.6) is of an implausible size.
Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg
-
2025
Context Archers Published later
In the same study, on visual reaction time the advantage over training alone goes to visualisation (minus 71.4 ms, p<0.001 against the control) and not to breathing (minus 49.7 ms, p=0.060 against the control, above the corrected threshold of 0.017).
Effects of breathing and imagery exercises on postural sway and shooting performance in Olympic archers · Cansu Keskin, Ayşe Nur Tunali Van Den Berg
Status history
- 2017 Transferred The first test is on thirty-nine healthy office workers in Beijing: twenty sessions over eight weeks of slow diaphragmatic breathing with biofeedback, at about four breaths a minute, improve sustained attention by 6.7 points against 4.2 for a group that simply repeats the test, with an interaction at p = 0.004. The controls improve too, so part of the gain comes from familiarity with the test, and the groups are formed by alternating the order of enrolment. There is nothing on archers: the claim rests on another population, transferred.
- 2018 Transferred A systematic review of fifteen studies on healthy adults adds the physiological background: during slow breathing the EEG shows more alpha and less theta, a picture consistent with a calm, alert state. It does not measure sustained attention and does not concern archers, so the status stays transferred.
- 2025 Reported The first data on archers arrive. Thirty-six Turkish novices aged 14 to 18, in three groups of twelve, add fifteen minutes of slow, rhythmic alternate-nostril breathing, or visualisation, or nothing, for eight weeks: on the Bourdon attention test breathing beats both visualisation (p = 0.018) and training alone (p < 0.001). The status moves to reported and no further, because allocation to the groups was sequential, the sample is small, the controls improve too, and the breathing is not the biofeedback-guided kind used in the 2017 study. In the same work the advantage on visual reaction time goes to visualisation: each exercise moves a different measure.
Related
Related articles
- Concentration in archery: how it is measured, how much it matters and whether it can be trainedWhat studies on archers say about concentration: how it is measured, whether it tracks score, whether it fades late in a round and whether it can be trained.
- Thoracic mobility, diaphragmatic breathing and HRVThoracic mobility, diaphragmatic breathing and HRV for archers: the exercises, an eight-week protocol and what the studies on archers show.
- How to breathe before you draw: what the studies have measuredHow much and how fast to breathe before the shot: measurements on the range, where the six-breaths figure comes from, and what changes for anxiety and score.
Research lines
Cite
Campagna, M. (2026). Training slow breathing improves sustained attention (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/slow-breathing-sustained-attention
@misc{campagna2026_respirazioneattenzionesostenuta,
author = {Campagna, Matteo},
title = {Training slow breathing improves sustained attention},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/mind/slow-breathing-sustained-attention},
note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}
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