You probably haven’t thought about your breathing today, but how you breathe affects your stress, your focus, and your brain. Breathwork, which means breathing exercises meant to shift your mental and emotional state, is gaining ground in therapy for stress and mental health. One form, high ventilation breathwork, uses rapid, deep breathing, and people who practice it often report intense altered states, including a loss of the usual sense of self. Why does breathing alone do that? Researchers at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany put 30 experienced practitioners in an MRI scanner to find out. They found that intensive breathing cut blood flow to the brain by nearly half. It did not fully explain the experience, though. Here is what that means for your brain and your health.
What Is High Ventilation Breathwork?
Breathing is automatic, so most of us never think about it. But how you breathe can change how you feel, how you think, and even your health. Research has linked specific breathing exercises to lower blood pressure, less anxiety, and changes in risk-taking behavior.
Breathwork is the umbrella term for breathing exercises designed to influence your mental and emotional state. One type, called high ventilation breathwork, involves deliberately rapid breathing, deep breathing, or both. Therapists are using it more often, and it has been reported to help with stress and mental health.
Practitioners also describe something less expected: altered states of consciousness. These are experiences people usually associate with psychedelic drugs, including changes in perception, emotional release, ego dissolution (a loss of the usual sense of being a separate self), and a sense of unity.
So what is intensive breathing doing in the brain to produce this? Researchers say the mechanisms remain poorly understood. A team at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Germany, led by neuroscientist Christian Schmitz, set out to find answers using brain imaging. Their findings were published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry.
How the Researchers Tested Breathwork Inside an MRI Scanner
The study included 30 healthy adults with an average age of 45. All of them already had experience with intensive breathwork, which meant they could reach the altered states the researchers wanted to examine without needing instruction.
Each participant performed circular breathing, a self-guided technique. You breathe continuously, with no pause between exhaling and inhaling. They did this while lying in an MRI scanner, so the researchers could watch what happened in the brain in real time.
The team tracked several measures. They looked at cerebral blood flow, meaning how much blood reaches the brain, and compared it with each person’s baseline. They also recorded heart rate and respiratory rate. On top of that, they examined functional connectivity, which describes how well different brain regions communicate with each other. They paid particular attention to the default mode network (DMN), a group of regions active when your mind wanders or when you think about yourself. Psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin are known to disrupt this network.
The experience itself was measured too. Participants rated how intense their experience was during the breathing exercise, and they filled out a questionnaire after the session about what they felt.
This design let the researchers compare what was happening in the body and brain with what participants reported.
Intensive Breathing Cut Blood Flow to the Brain by Nearly Half
The headline result was a large drop in blood flow. At peak intensity, cerebral blood flow in the brain’s gray matter fell by 45.5 percent compared with baseline. Gray matter is the tissue that contains the brain’s nerve cells, and it needs a steady blood supply to function. Heart rate and respiratory rate both went up during the exercise.
The researchers described this as a substantial change produced by a voluntary technique that involves no drugs. Context matters here. Reports of insufficient oxygen reaching the brain start when blood flow drops by roughly 50 to 60 percent. The breathwork reduction stayed below that range, but it came close. It was also much larger than the reductions typically seen in clinical hyperventilation studies, where participants breathe fast and deep under controlled conditions.
In plain terms, rapid, deep breathing changes what is happening inside your head far more than most people would expect. A drop this size, produced just by the way someone breathes, is why the authors consider the finding notable.
The next question is whether this drop in blood flow explains the altered states people describe. The answer turns out to be more complicated.
Blood Flow Opens the Door, Brain Networks Shape the Experience
Participants rated the intensity of their experience during the breathing exercise as high, averaging 3.47 on a 4-point scale. Their questionnaire answers varied from person to person, but as a group they reported a sense of unity, changes in perception, and a reduced sense of self.
Here is where it gets interesting. The size of each person’s blood flow drop was not linked to how intense their altered state felt. It was also not linked to changes in their default mode network. So the blood flow reduction, despite being large, did not directly predict the experience.
The default mode network told a different story. Across the whole group, the researchers found no significant change in its connectivity. But participants who reported more intense altered states afterward showed signs of greater change in this network. This result depended on how the data was processed, so the researchers treat it as preliminary and something for future studies to examine.
The team does not think reduced blood flow alone causes the altered states. Their interpretation is that the drop in blood flow, called hypoperfusion, creates the physiological conditions that allow altered consciousness to happen. Changes in how brain regions communicate with each other then appear to play a more direct role in how deep and intense the experience becomes.
If that holds up, two things are involved: a physical shift in the brain’s blood supply that opens the door, and a reorganization of brain networks that determines what happens once it is open.
My Personal RX on Breathing for a Healthier Brain
Breathing is the one automatic function you can take over at will. That makes it a useful health tool. The study above shows that fast, deep breathing can change blood flow to the brain in a big way. Most of us will never practice breathwork at that intensity, but the lesson applies to everyone. How you breathe affects your stress, your focus, and how well your brain gets what it needs.
You don’t need an MRI or a special class to benefit. Small, steady habits go a long way. Here are my personal tips for breathing well and supporting your brain day to day.
- Start With Slow Breathing: Before trying anything intense, learn the basics. Inhale through your nose for four counts and exhale for six. Do this for five minutes. A longer exhale signals your nervous system to settle down, and it’s safe for nearly everyone.
- Know Who Should Skip Intense Breathwork: Rapid, deep breathing is not for everyone. If you’re pregnant or have a heart condition, high blood pressure, a seizure disorder, or a history of panic attacks, talk to your doctor first. Never practice it in water, while driving, or standing up.
- Pay Attention to Your Resting Breath: Many people breathe shallowly into the upper chest all day, especially at a desk. Check in a few times a day. Place a hand on your belly and see if it moves. Breathing low and slow is the goal.
- Support Your Gut-Brain Connection: Stress shows up in your digestion, and your gut talks to your brain constantly. My Gut Brain Reset Bundle pairs MindBiotic, Digestive Enzymes, and Eye Max to support gut balance, nutrient absorption, and cognitive wellness.
- Move Your Body Daily: Exercise is the most natural way to raise your breathing rate. A brisk 30-minute walk improves circulation, including blood flow to the brain, and does it safely.
- Protect Your Sleep: Your brain does much of its repair work overnight. Keep a regular bedtime, keep the room cool and dark, and stop screens an hour before bed. If you need extra help winding down, Sleep Max combines magnesium, GABA, 5-HTP, and taurine to calm the mind and support restorative REM sleep.
- Eat for Brain Health: Your brain needs steady fuel. Build meals around vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and fatty fish. Omega-3 fats from fish and from a quality Omega-3 Fish Oil support heart health and cognitive function.
- Stay Hydrated: Even mild dehydration affects concentration and mood. Drink water regularly through the day rather than all at once.
- Try a Daily Mindfulness Practice: Pair your breathing with ten minutes of quiet attention. Sit, notice thoughts as they pass, and return to your breath. Over time, this trains your mind to settle faster under pressure.
- Learn How Your Gut Shapes Your Mind: My book Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain explains the science of the gut-brain axis and gives you a practical, whole-person approach to mental and digestive health.
Sources:
- Dockrill, P. (2026, October 18). Breathwork really can induce an altered state of consciousness, experiment shows. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/breathwork-really-can-induce-an-altered-state-of-consciousness-experiment-shows
- Schmitz, C. N., Bernardic, M., Vlădoiu, A.-D., Rida, H., Carmana, D., Kärtner, L., Oberthür, G., Gerhard, G., & Adolphi, H. (2026). How high ventilation breathwork alters consciousness: Hypoperfusion, network dynamics, and subjective experience. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 149, 111873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2026.111873
