TECHNIQUES

Humming Bee Breath

Mouth closed, twelve seconds of "mmm". In this technique the microphone isn't looking for a quiet breath, it is looking for a vibration.

5 min read

Breathe in through the nose for four seconds. Close your lips, teeth slightly apart. Breathe out over twelve seconds with an "mmm" sound, like a bee humming.

Its Sanskrit name is Bhramari, meaning "honeybee".

What the humming bee breath is good for

It has two sides.

The mechanical side. The hum lengthens and smooths the exhale by itself. A twelve-second exhale is hard to do silently and easy to do with a sound: the sound holds the pace of the exhale steady on its own.

The vibration side. The hum creates vibration in the nasal and facial cavities. That vibration has been measured to increase the release of nitric oxide in the nasal cavity. Nitric oxide's role in the airways and circulation is known, but what the increase produced by humming means in daily life is unclear.

So "humming raises nitric oxide" is a correct sentence; "the humming bee breath strengthens your immune system" is not.

How to do the humming bee breath

Sit comfortably. Breathe in through the nose for four seconds.

Close your lips, part your teeth slightly, relax your jaw.

Breathe out through the nose over twelve seconds with an "mmm" sound. Keep the sound soft and in one piece. It doesn't have to be loud; continuous is enough.

If you close your ears lightly with your fingers, the vibration comes through more strongly.

Common mistakes in the humming bee breath

Letting the sound break up. It should be one piece at an even volume. A broken sound both splits the exhale and lowers the measurement.

Squeezing the throat. The sound should come from vibration in the nose, not from straining the larynx. If your throat gets tired, you are pushing too hard.

Trying to carry on when the breath runs out. When the air is gone, end the sound and take a calm breath in.

How the app measures the humming bee breath

In this technique the microphone looks not just at the level of the sound but at its quality too. The same goes for Ocean Breath and Cooling Breath.

A hum is a continuous, low sound, while the sound of breath is an irregular rustle. The app measures how much of the exhale consists of that continuous sound and shows a separate "hum" component in the report. A breath blown out through the mouth also makes a low rumble, but that sound comes from air hitting the microphone, and the app doesn't count it as a hum. In this technique a large part of the score comes from the hum. Rhythm, exhales and inhale are measured separately too.

So an exhale without the hum doesn't earn full marks in this technique: breathing out with a plain blow still counts as an exhale, but it lowers the hum score. If no hum is heard during the session, a short note on screen tells you so.

Who should take care with the humming bee breath

If you have an ear infection or an eardrum problem, skip the part where you cover your ears. No other known risk.

Source

• Weitzberg & Lundberg (2002), American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine — nitric oxide in the nasal cavity rises fifteen-fold during humming. PubMed

How we weigh these sources, and what we deliberately don't claim: How we read the evidence.

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