Reading your session report
What every line in the report means, and what to do about a measurement that came out low.
7 min read
The screen that arrives when a session ends has a score at the top and a few sentences under it. Tap Detailed report and the real information opens up. Let's go through it in order.
The score at the top
Out of a hundred. A weighted average of seven separate measurements.
This number does not measure whether your breathing was "correct". The only thing it measures is how closely you followed the pace on screen. It is perfectly possible to get a low score and feel very good, and the other way round.
If you did the session without the microphone, no score is worked out.
The measurements
Length. How long you did and how long you planned. If you stopped early, it shows here.
Cycles. How many full cycles you completed.
Exhales heard. Something like "3 (target 4, on time 3)". The first number is how many exhales were heard, the second how many were expected, the third how many of those came at the right time.
If the exhales heard are fewer than the target there are two possible reasons: either you really did miss a cycle, or your exhale was too quiet to be heard. To tell them apart, look at the technical lines below.
Inhales heard. The inhale is far quieter than the exhale, and not hearing it is normal. Its share of the score is small.
Holds. In techniques with a hold phase, in how many cycles no air escaped. When there is a leak, the reason is usually trying to lock the hold shut.
Cycle restarts. How many times you restarted the cycle during the session.
The technical lines
These appear in full on the Advanced interface.
Inhale level. How many decibels your inhale rose above your own silence. Close to zero means the inhale wasn't heard at all.
Exhale peak level. The highest point of your exhale and the room's noise floor. Something like "20 dB above the floor (floor -66 dBFS)".
This is the most useful line. If the difference is under 10 dB, your exhale is staying too quiet to be heard: bring the device closer. If the difference is over 40 dB, you are forcing the breath: let it go, don't push.
Variation within the exhale. How much the sound moved during the exhale. A small number means a steady exhale; a large one means a broken or rasping exhale.
The components
The seven measurements that make up the score, each out of a hundred. Looking at which one is low tells you what to work on.
If rhythm match is low, your exhales start late or early against the circle. The fix: wait for the moment the circle begins to shrink, and don't try to count.
If exhales heard is low, either you missed some cycles or your exhale isn't being heard.
If exhale length is low, your exhale is shorter or longer than the target. The most common cause is emptying too fast at the start: give less in the first second and spread the rest to the end.
If exhale smoothness is low, the sound is coming out in bursts. Let the breath go in one piece.
If breath volume is low, you are breathing out either too quietly or too loudly. The peak level line above tells you which.
If completion is low, you didn't finish the session. Pick a shorter length next time.
The suggestions
The sentences at the bottom of the report come from the measurements; they aren't random. If the same problem appears in several sessions in a row, it is worth working on.
If you paused the session several times, a separate note about that appears too.
What you see on the Simple interface
If your interface level is Simple, the report shrinks to a single sentence. To see every measurement, set Interface to Standard or Advanced in Settings.