The world is loud.
Your breath
doesn't have to be.

Breathwork is the practice of intentionally changing your breathing pattern to influence your nervous system. By controlling breath rate, depth, and ratio, you can shift between calming (parasympathetic) and energizing (sympathetic) states. The practice has roots in yogic pranayama, going back more than 3,000 years, and is now supported by modern research from Stanford, Harvard, and other institutions. It is distinct from meditation — your attention is on the breath itself, not on observing thoughts.

Box Breathing (Sanskrit: Sama Vritti, "equal breath") is an equal-count breathing technique. Inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, hold empty for 4 seconds. Repeat for 4–8 cycles. The equal timing of all four phases creates a predictable rhythm that helps the brain shift from sympathetic (stress) to parasympathetic (calm) dominance. It is used by Navy SEALs, first responders, and elite athletes for stress regulation under pressure. Most users report measurable calm within 4 minutes.

4-7-8 was developed by Dr. Andrew Weil. Inhale through the nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, exhale through the mouth for 8 seconds. The extended exhale strongly activates the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing heart rate. The 7-second hold allows oxygen to saturate the bloodstream and gently raises CO₂, which has a natural sedating effect. Many users report falling asleep within 60 seconds after regular practice. Do not exceed 4 cycles in the first month — the technique is potent.

Cyclic sighing — also called the physiological sigh — is a double inhale through the nose followed by one long exhale through the mouth. A 2023 study by Balban, Spiegel, Huberman, and colleagues published in Cell Reports Medicine found that 5 minutes of daily cyclic sighing produced greater improvements in mood and reduced anxiety more than box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation, or mindfulness meditation. Mechanism: the double inhale maximally inflates collapsed alveoli, then the long exhale efficiently offloads CO₂ — the primary driver of breathlessness and anxiety. Your body already does this spontaneously during sleep and crying.

Most breathing techniques are safe for most people. Gentle techniques — cyclic sighing, coherent breathing, 2-to-1 breathing — have virtually no contraindications. Intense techniques like Bhastrika (Bellows Breath) and Kapalabhati (Skull-Shining Breath) are not recommended during pregnancy, with uncontrolled high blood pressure, epilepsy, hernia, glaucoma, or heart conditions. Always practice on an empty stomach for the intense techniques. Nerva's onboarding asks about safety conditions and quietly hides intense techniques from your library — you'll never see a technique you shouldn't try.

Many techniques produce immediate, measurable effects within a single session. Cyclic sighing can calm you in 1–3 sighs. 4-7-8 helps with sleep in about 60 seconds. Cumulative benefits — improved heart-rate variability, reduced baseline anxiety, deeper sleep, better emotional regulation — typically appear after 4 weeks of daily practice, based on multiple randomized controlled trials. We recommend a single short session per day rather than long occasional ones.

Nerva focuses exclusively on guided breathing — not meditation, sleep stories, or music. It offers 8 evidence-based techniques (not hundreds of recordings to dig through), no spoken voice by default, a visual breathing orb to follow, and no account required to start. The design is intentionally quiet — no streak gamification, no push notifications by default, no autoplay. Built for the 90 seconds you actually need it, not for keeping you in-app.

For the first six months, Nerva is free for everyone — every technique, every feature, no account, no ads. Founding members (anyone who joins during this window) keep Pro free for life when subscriptions arrive in v1.6. After the launch window, a small subscription unlocks the full library; a free tier with three techniques will stay forever.

Nerva is currently iOS-only (iOS 17+). An Android version is being evaluated for v2. Join the contact list on this page to get notified if and when it ships.

Your practice data stays on your device by default. There's no account system — nothing to sign up for. We never sell data, never run ads, and never share anything with third parties. v2 will add optional cross-device sync via Apple's iCloud — end-to-end encrypted on their servers, never readable by us.

No. Breathwork is a supportive practice — an evidence-based adjunct to mental health care, not a replacement for professional treatment. If you are managing anxiety, depression, PTSD, or any medical condition, please work with a qualified clinician. Many therapists recommend specific techniques (cyclic sighing, coherent breathing) alongside therapy. We've designed Nerva to be useful in that context, never as a substitute for it.