Free, no signup, no tracking beyond aggregate analytics. Three classic breathing patterns rendered as a phosphor-CRT pixel-art bar — pick one and breathe along. Works offline once the page loads.
Inhale 4s, Hold 7s, Exhale 8s
Inhale through the nose for four seconds, hold for seven, exhale through the mouth for eight. Popularised by Dr. Andrew Weil, the long mouth-exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system and is widely used to fall asleep faster, calm racing thoughts, and reduce acute anxiety.
Inhale 4s, Hold 4s, Exhale 4s, Hold 4s
Inhale four seconds, hold four, exhale four, hold four — a square. Used by Navy SEALs, athletes, and emergency responders to lower heart rate and steady focus before high-stakes performance. Equal phases make it easy to count without a timer.
Inhale 4s, Exhale 6s
A slow nasal inhale of four seconds and a longer six-second exhale, drawing breath into the belly rather than the chest. The foundation of yogic pranayama and most clinical breathwork; trains the diaphragm, improves CO₂ tolerance, and lowers resting heart rate over time.
Most breathing apps are heavy: signups, paywalls, autoplay video, push notifications. breath4.life loads as a single static page, runs entirely in your browser, and stores nothing on a server. The visuals borrow from the phosphor-CRT and PETSCII era — a plain horizontal bar that fills and empties in time with the chosen pattern, plus a small pixel-art glyph cueing whether to inhale through the nose or exhale through the mouth. No fonts to download, no images to render — just one canvas and a render loop.
Pick a pattern from the list above the bar. The session starts immediately and ticks through inhale, hold, and exhale phases at the cadence shown beside each name. Switch tabs and the session pauses automatically; come back and it resumes. Stop at any time. Nothing is recorded outside your browser's local storage.