You know that feeling when your mind knows everything is fine, but your body still feels like it is bracing for impact? Heart racing. Chest tight. Thoughts going in circles. Anxiety is not just something that happens in your head; it happens in your body at the same time.
That is actually good news. It means you may be able to work on the physical side of the response, not just wait for your brain to settle down on its own. And a nerve most of us have never heard of plays a big role in that process.
What Is the Vagus Nerve?
We actually have two vagal nerves, one on each side of the body. They travel from the brainstem down through the neck and into the chest and abdomen, passing the heart, lungs, and digestive tract along the way. Together, they are made up of more than 200,000 nerve fibers.
The vagus nerve is the primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system, the part of your nervous system that helps your body rest and recover after stress. Richard Gevirtz, PhD, a distinguished professor of psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University, described it to Reader’s Digest as the “rest, digest and restore” side of the system.
When you are stressed, your sympathetic nervous system ramps up. Once the demand passes, the parasympathetic side is supposed to bring things back toward calm. The vagus nerve is central to that shift.
Why Anxiety Keeps the Body Stuck
A 2022 meta-analysis published in Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences found that people with anxiety disorders tended to have lower parasympathetic activity at rest. In other words, the system that helps you wind down may be less active when anxiety is a regular part of life.
Gevirtz compares the nervous system to a thermostat. The goal is not to make it stronger; it is to help it shift more readily when circumstances change. The good news is that there are simple things you can do at home to help that happen.
Christopher Austelle, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, describes these techniques as behaviors that “influence” vagus nerve function. Here are five worth trying.
1. Slow Down Your Breathing
Dr. Austelle calls this “one of the techniques with the most evidence and the most convincing evidence.” A 2022 systematic review published in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews looked at more than 200 studies and found that slow breathing increased signs of parasympathetic activity, both while people were breathing slowly and afterward.
Gevirtz generally recommends slowing to about four to seven breaths per minute. That works out to one full inhale-and-exhale cycle roughly every nine to 15 seconds. “It has to be effortless breathing,” he says. Dr. Austelle adds that the exhale may be especially important; try letting it last a little longer than your inhale. If you feel lightheaded, simply return to your normal pace.
2. Try Cyclic Sighing
Cyclic sighing gives you a specific pattern to follow. Inhale slowly through your nose, then take a second, smaller inhale to fill your lungs a little more. Then slowly and fully exhale through your mouth. The emphasis is on that double inhale followed by a longer exhale.
A 2023 study published in Cell Reports Medicine had adults practice cyclic sighing (or one of three other techniques) for five minutes a day over about a month. All four groups reported less anxiety, but the breathing exercises led to bigger improvements in positive mood. Cyclic sighing also produced the largest drop in respiratory rate.
3. Hum Through a Long Exhale
Humming has a plausible connection to vagal activity, partly because of the proximity of the vocal cords to the vagus nerve. Gevirtz notes that some yoga practices pair humming with slow breathing, and the extended exhale may be doing much of the work.
A 2023 study published in Cureus measured heart rate variability in 23 people during Bhramari (a yoga breathing technique that involves a humming exhale) and found changes consistent with lower physiological stress. That said, the study was small and cannot tell us whether humming reliably reduces anxiety beyond what slow breathing already does. If you find it soothing, it is easy enough to try.
4. Cool Your Face
Cold exposure can trigger something called the diving reflex: a response that kicks in when your face is exposed to cold and helps slow your heart rate. A 2023 systematic review published in Psychophysiology found increased cardiac vagal activity during facial cooling and water immersion, though the included studies were small.
Dr. Austelle notes a catch: very cold temperatures initially activate the sympathetic nervous system, so your heart rate and blood pressure can actually rise before the slowing effect begins. Briefly splashing cool water on your face is a gentler place to start than an ice bath.
5. Try HRV Biofeedback
Heart rate variability biofeedback (HRV biofeedback) is essentially slow breathing with real-time feedback about how your heart is responding. A sensor tracks your heartbeat as you breathe, helping you find the pace that works best for you. Consumer sensors and phone-based tools make it possible to try at home.
Gevirtz helped develop this approach with Paul Lehrer, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at Rutgers University. With practice, he says, people can learn what the right pattern feels like and reproduce it without watching the numbers. A 2024 randomized controlled study published in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback found that people who completed HRV biofeedback training showed greater improvements in resting heart rate variability than a control group.
Gevirtz does caution against treating smartwatch HRV scores as gospel. Those devices tend to be better at measuring heart rate than HRV, and day-to-day numbers can be noisy enough that they are not worth fixating on.
How Quickly Can This Help?
Quite quickly, according to Gevirtz. In his clinical work, patients who have practiced slow breathing can produce noticeable changes in their heart-rate pattern after only a few breaths. At four to seven breaths per minute, that means physiological changes can begin within about a minute.
A small 2026 pilot study supports that. Researchers had 47 university students use either cyclic sighing, box breathing, or no breathing exercise during real-life moments of acute stress. Five minutes later, both breathing groups reported larger drops in anxiety than the control group.
Does Regular Practice Make a Difference?
It may. In his clinical work, Gevirtz has patients practice for about 10 minutes a day so the technique feels familiar before they actually need it. The 2023 Cell Reports Medicine study found that the more consistently people practiced cyclic sighing, the bigger the mood boost after each session tended to be.
The goal, researchers and clinicians suggest, is not to “tone” one specific nerve. It is to practice helping your nervous system shift back toward calm, so that when a stressful moment arrives, your body knows the way back.
When to Talk to a Doctor
These techniques can be useful when anxiety makes your whole system feel revved up. But they cannot address every reason you might feel anxious. If anxiety is affecting your sleep, causing panic attacks, or leading you to avoid parts of your life, that is worth bringing to a health care or mental health professional. These breathing tools are a helpful starting point, not a substitute for care when something more is going on.
