Stress reduction experiments in daily life: Scaling from the lab to the world

Paced breathing-longer exhalation than inhalation-can show short-term improvement of physiologic responses and affective well-being, though most studies have relied on narrow sample demographics, small samples, and control conditions that fail to address expectancy effects. We addressed these limitations through an app-based experiment where participants were randomly assigned to paced breathing or sham control (hand closure) conditions. We first validated the conditions in an online sample (N = 201; Study 1) and in a lab environment (N = 72; Study 2). In the primary app-based experiment, participants (N = 3,277; Study 3) completed 3 days of baseline assessments that included three check-ins each day in which we obtained heart rate and blood pressure responses using an optic sensor and assessed current stress and emotions. Participants were then randomly assigned to either the paced breathing or hand closure condition for the next 6 days. Relative to baseline days, both conditions were associated with increased positive emotions and perceived coping, and reduced blood pressure. Moreover, the increase in positive emotions and perceived coping was not evident among a comparison sample (N = 2,600) who completed check-ins but did not participate in either of the paced breathing or sham-control conditions. However, their blood pressure declined over time, suggesting that the continual monitoring of one's blood pressure may result in detectable decreases. Our results highlight the importance of designing experiments with appropriately matched control conditions and suggest that changes associated with techniques like paced breathing, in part, may stem from positive incidental features of the technique. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).