where it comes from
The method carries the name of Wim Hof, a Dutchman known for records in withstanding cold. His method has three parts: breathing, cold and what he calls commitment. The breathing spread more widely than the rest, because it needs neither an ice hole nor preparation.
The mechanics are simple, and they’re the same as in ordinary hyperventilation: fast deep breaths wash carbon dioxide out of the blood. Hence the tingling, the light dizziness and that sense of lift.
what the Radboud study showed
This is the best-known work on the method, and it gets retold inaccurately all the time — so it’s worth going through what was actually done.
At Radboud University Medical Centre twenty-four healthy volunteers went through the experiment: twelve trained in the method for ten days, twelve not trained at all. Then everyone was given an endotoxin — a substance that triggers a controlled inflammatory response, something like a short artificial flu.
In the trained group the response was weaker: fewer inflammatory signals, milder symptoms.
And here is the part that matters. What they learned wasn’t the breathing. It was the whole method: meditation, breathing and immersion in ice-cold water. From a study like that you can’t tell what did the work — the breathing, the cold, the two together, or the expectation of an effect. The authors never claimed the breathing alone did it; the retellings claim it for them.
The story has a sequel, and it’s more interesting than the first part. Eight years later the same group took the method apart: forty-eight volunteers, four groups — cold, breathing, both, nothing. In that model the breathing had an effect on its own, the cold on its own did almost nothing, and the two together worked best.
One caveat, without which this would be a retelling too: both studies were done on healthy young men, in a laboratory, with inflammation induced artificially. That is not the same thing as a benefit when you’re ill.
has the breathing been tested on its own?
It has — in a Stanford study from 2023 that compared four five-minute practices: cyclic sighing, box breathing, cyclic hyperventilation (which is the breathing part of Hof’s method) and mindfulness meditation.
Breathwork as a whole came out ahead of meditation on mood, and of the three breathing patterns the authors single out cyclic sighing — not hyperventilation. The study doesn’t line the three up against each other, and on anxiety it found no significant difference at all.
The conclusion from that is narrow and honest: if the goal is to calm down or lift your mood, the study gives Hof’s breathing no advantage over the quieter practices. What people do it for is the lift and the warmth — and at that it delivers.
who it doesn’t suit
The conditions here aren’t a formality, which is why they come before the button and not after it.
before you start
This is fast breathing — controlled hyperventilation. Tingling in the hands and light dizziness are expected; this box is about what can come after them.
- sitting or lying down only: fainting is possible, and it’s the main risk of the method;
- never in water, in the shower or while driving — for the same reason;
- if you faint easily, this isn’t your technique;
- if you get panic attacks, choose a different one: the sensations during hyperventilation are almost indistinguishable from the start of an attack and can set one off;
- not suitable in pregnancy, epilepsy, high blood pressure, heart or lung conditions;
- if you feel unwell, breathe normally and stay seated: it usually passes in a minute or two.
A word on panic attacks in particular, because this is the most common mistake. When you’re anxious you’re already breathing faster than usual, and already short of air — the mechanics are set out in why you can’t breathe when anxious. Hyperventilation in that state adds exactly what there is already too much of.
if you came here to calm down
Then this isn’t it, and it’s better said plainly: Hof’s breathing revs you up.
What calms is the opposite — a slow rhythm with a long exhale. The easiest place to start is resonance breathing at 5-5, which has neither holds nor a fast pace. If anxiety has hit you right now, the physiological sigh works faster — the very practice the authors singled out in that Stanford comparison. The full catalogue of rhythms is in breathing techniques.
And if it’s energy you’re after but you can’t meet the conditions for the holds, there are simpler ways.
short answers
How many breaths should I take?
Most descriptions of the Wim Hof breathing method say thirty to forty per cycle, three or four cycles. You don’t have to count, though: in the app the timer holds the rhythm and keeps you from going faster than you should. The button above starts a short three-minute round — enough for a first attempt. Building up comes later, and never on the same day.
Why do my fingers tingle?
That’s expected. Fast deep breathing washes out carbon dioxide, and that changes how excitable the nerves are. It passes on its own after a couple of minutes of ordinary breathing.
Is it true that the method boosts your immune system?
No — and that phrasing has the direction backwards. In the Radboud work the method dampened the inflammatory response to an injected toxin — and in the study that took the method apart, the breathing did that on its own. Either way it suppressed part of the immune response rather than strengthening it. On top of that it was healthy young men in a laboratory model: the method hasn’t been tested that way on actual illness.
Can I do this in the bath or a swimming pool?
No. Fainting on the hold is possible, and in water that ends badly. This is the one rule of the method with no exceptions.
And it isn’t theoretical. Hyperventilating before going under is a known cause of drowning in healthy swimmers: it pushes back the urge to breathe, and the oxygen runs out before that urge arrives. The person passes out underwater without feeling anything coming.
The case that attached this to the method: in August 2022 a seventeen-year-old drowned in a swimming pool, and her father sued Hof, claiming she had been doing the method’s breathing beforehand. In 2024 the court did not find Hof liable — it couldn’t be established that the exercises caused her death. What actually happened underwater nobody could determine. Which is the whole argument: there is no way to test the rule on yourself.
Does it suit panic attacks?
No. The sensations during hyperventilation are almost indistinguishable from the start of an attack, and it can set one off. If you’re prone to panic attacks, take the slow rhythms instead.
How is it different from the Buteyko method?
In nearly every way. Hof’s method is fast, deep breathing with one long hold on empty lungs; Buteyko runs the other way — breathing less and less deeply. Both pause after the exhale, but Buteyko’s pauses are short ones rather than a single long hold. And they’ve been studied for different things: Hof mostly for the inflammatory response, Buteyko for asthma.