How breathing guides memory

BReath is our body’s metronome, running from our first gulp of air at birth to our last exhalation as we leave Earth. Recently, scientists have begun to discover that this fundamental rhythm is also connected to many of our most critical cognitive and neural faculties, including memory.

But how does the link between memory and breathing work? Using EEG, a group of European scientists tried to answer this question. Their results detail an unexpected choreography: Memory retrieval, they discovered, is synchronized to the rhythm of breathing. People remember better if they receive a cue when they inhale while the memory itself seems to materialize as they exhale. They published their results in The Journal of Neuroscience.

For the experiment, scientists taught 18 people to associate 120 images with verbs. The team – from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in collaboration with colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and the University of Oxford – then asked study participants to remember the word-picture pairs before and after a two-hour nap. While they performed the recall, the scientists recorded their breathing and brain activity with EEG.

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In the EEG recordings, scientists found two brain wave signatures associated with successful memorization, and each was timed to a different stage of breathing. The first, a calming of alpha and beta activity, was linked to preparation for memory retrieval and corresponded to inspiration. The second signature was associated with the memory itself and synchronized with the exhalation.

In some people, there was closer synchronization between memory and breathing, the researchers found, and these individuals had better memories. “Breathing is a natural stimulator of memory processes, emphasizing the close interaction between our body and our brain,” Thomas Schreiner, study co-author and psychology researcher at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, said in a statement.

Could the results help people remember things better in everyday life? It’s a topic for future study, said Esteban Bullón Tarrasó, co-author and graduate student at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. The current findings only apply to recently learned items, he notes, so further research could examine how breathing affects older memories. “However, the underlying mechanisms suggest that respiration also plays a role.”

After all, breathing is one of the oldest rhythms, so it makes sense that it could help us travel through time.

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Main image: Billion photos / Shutterstock

• Kristen French

  Published on December 8, 2025

  Kristen French is an associate editor at Nautilus. She has worked in science journalism since 2013, reporting and writing articles and news for publications such as Wired, Backchannel, The Verge, And New York Review. She holds a master’s degree in science journalism from Columbia University.