Breath hold timer

Sit down, breathe normally, then press Start and hold. Press Stop as soon as you feel a strong urge to breathe. The timer runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere.

How to use this breath hold timer

1. Sit or lie down. Somewhere you could slump without hitting anything. A sofa or bed is ideal. Tick the safety box to switch the timer on.
2. Breathe normally for a minute. No big gulps of air, no fast breathing. Just settle.
3. Breathe out gently, then press Start. Let the breath go without forcing every last bit out, and hold with your mouth closed or your nose pinched lightly.
4. Press Stop at the first strong urge to breathe. Not when you can't stand it any more. The first clear urge is the point to stop. You can press the button or the space bar.
5. Take the recovery breath. If the recovery option is on, the timer prompts you to breathe in fully and hold gently for 15 seconds, then breathe normally.
6. Rest before the next one. Give yourself at least a minute of normal breathing between holds. Two or three holds is plenty for one sitting.

Your times appear in a list under the timer, with your best for this visit. They are not saved: close the tab and they're gone. That's deliberate. This page doesn't use cookies or storage, and nothing you do here leaves your browser.

What the numbers mean (and what they don't)

A breath hold time is a measure of how long you held your breath today, in this position, after this breathing. That's all. It changes with how relaxed you are, the time of day, whether you just ate, how much you breathed before and how far you let yourself push. It isn't a test of your lung health and it doesn't diagnose anything.

Holds after a normal breath out are usually shorter than people expect, often well under a minute for beginners. Holds after a series of deep, fast breaths can be much longer. For rough context, the guide to typical breath hold times explains why the range is so wide, and why comparing yourself with someone else's number is not useful.

What is useful is noticing your own pattern. If you practice regularly, sitting the same way at the same time of day, you'll see how your holds change and how calm you can stay through them. That's the point of a practice, not a single record.

The safety rules that matter

Breath holds are simple, which is exactly why people underestimate them. Read the full breathwork safety guide before you try fast breathing followed by holds, but these are the rules that never change:

• Never near water. Not in a pool, the sea or the bath. Fast breathing before a hold can let you lose consciousness without warning, and in water that can be fatal.
• Never while driving, standing or doing anything that needs attention. Dizziness and fainting are possible.
• Sit or lie down. If you get light-headed, you're already in a safe position.
• Stop at the first strong urge. Don't fight through it to beat a time.
• Don't do it if it isn't right for you. If you're pregnant, or have a heart, lung, seizure or other health condition, talk to a doctor before practicing breath holds.

Tingling in your hands or face, light-headedness and a buzzy feeling are common after fast breathing. If you feel unwell, stop, breathe normally and rest.

From a stopwatch to a full practice

A timer on its own is just a number. Simple Breathwork turns breath holds into guided rounds: 30 to 40 paced breaths, an exhale hold timed on a guided ladder or left open while you tap when you're done, then a 15-second recovery breath. Haptics and soft tones lead each phase, so you can keep your eyes closed. The details of how the rounds work are on the breath retention app page.

After each session you get a per-round summary, and your personal records, streaks and best and average holds build up over time. With Apple Health turned on, the summary can show your average heart rate for each hold, and the session is saved as Mindful Minutes. On Apple Watch, the hold is timed on your wrist and the haptics tell you when each phase changes.

You can start small: the free Start Fresh two-minute reset and Box Breathing are available every day, no account needed. Premium adds the rest of the sessions and programs.

A note on where this timer stops

This page is a stopwatch with a safety check and a recovery prompt. It doesn't coach your breathing, it doesn't measure anything about your body, and it can't tell whether you're safe. You are the safety system, which is why the rules above matter more than the timer does.

General wellness information, not medical advice. Simple Breathwork is not a medical device. Breathing exercises and breath holds can cause dizziness, tingling or fainting: practice seated or lying down, never in or near water, while driving or standing. If you are pregnant or have a heart, lung, seizure or other health condition, talk to a doctor first.