BreatheWell Wear

When people endure stress, they experience the fight-or-flight response. Their heart rate increases and breathing becomes shallow, exacerbating anxiety. Slowing their breathing, particularly when exhaling, helps calm them.

This Wear OS app assists the user in performing deep, slow, diaphragmatic breathing by providing visual and auditory guidance to pace breathing, including a display of the user’s heart rate in real time. It also provides the user with the option of listening to calming sounds and music or selecting a song from their own music library. Breathe Well Wear allows users to program reminders to practice during periods of low stress to help them perform the breathing technique effectively during periods of high stress.

The development of this app was supported by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Community Living, Health and Function (LiveWell RERC) funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in the United States Department of Health and Human Services (grant no. 90RE5023).