Press one and it is loaded
- Coherent Breathing Timer30 × 5-5Five seconds in and five out, thirty times: six breaths a minute, the pace slow breathing research uses, for five minutes.Frontiers in Psychology
- Box Breathing Timer19 × 4-4-4-4Four counts in, held, out and held, nineteen times over: the five minutes Mark Divine asks for at the least.TIME magazine
- 4-7-8 Breathing Timer4 × 4-7-8In for four, held for seven, out for eight, four times: the most Dr Weil advises at one sitting in the first month.DrWeil.com
- Triangle Breathing Timer20 × 3-3-3Three counts in, three held, three out, twenty times: the three sides an NHS trust teaches, for three minutes of our own.Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust
- Cyclic Sighing Timer23 × 4+1-8Two breaths in through the nose and one long breath out, 23 times: the daily five minutes of a 2023 Stanford trial.Cell Reports Medicine
- Meditation Timer1 × 10:00LoadedTen minutes of sitting with one bowl to begin and two to end, the ten minutes Plum Village suggests.Plum Village
How long people report meditating, in the studies that counted
The eight-week mindfulness courses in a 2017 review ask for about 45 minutes of practice at home a day, six days a week. Across 43 studies and 1,427 people, participants reported doing 64% of it, about 30 minutes a day.
A 2012 trial asked adults new to meditation for at least 10 minutes a day, five or more days a week, for 16 weeks. Their logs show 11.3 minutes a session on average and about 5 sessions a week, and 12 of the 20 stayed to the final measurements.
Source: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Moore et al., 2012, Front Hum Neurosci 6:18, PMID 22363278
How to sit with the meditation timer
Ten minutes, the length Plum Village suggests for a sitting: just aware of the breath, with nothing to achieve.
Sit on a cushion or on a chair, back upright and shoulders hanging loose. Close your eyes, or leave them half open on a point in front of you.
Source: Plum Village Plum Village, How To: Enjoy Sitting Meditation
Rest your attention on the breath. Each time the mind wanders, notice it and bring it back, as many times as it takes.
Press Start and you have 10 seconds to settle. One bowl begins the sitting, which is our choice, and two bowls a second or two apart end it, as Plum Village closes a sitting with two bells.
This timer sounds one bowl as the sitting begins and two as it ends, with nothing in between, has a fullscreen key, and keeps the screen awake where the browser allows; it is free and needs no account. Keep this tab in front, because a browser may pause the sound of a tab you cannot see.
Meditation sessions to try
These are our suggestions. Where one follows a published source, that source is cited under it.
- First sitting
Five minutes, if ten feels long at first. Add a minute a week until ten feels easy.
Load this session- Ten minutes
The length the timer opens on, and the ten minutes Plum Village suggests.
Source: Plum Village Plum Village, How To: Enjoy Sitting Meditation
- Zen period
Twenty minutes, the length of each period at the San Francisco Zen Center’s monthly sitting for beginners.
Load this sessionSource: San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center, For Beginners at City Center
- Course length
45 minutes, the daily home practice of an eight-week mindfulness course. In the 2017 review people managed about 30.
Load this session
Common meditation mistakes
Waiting for the mind to go quiet. Wandering is part of it, and the practice is noticing that and coming back.
Expecting to keep up 45 minutes a day. In courses that assign that much, people report doing about two thirds of it.
Sitting stiff. An upright back with loose shoulders is enough, and a chair is fine if sitting cross-legged is hard.
Source: Plum Village Plum Village, How To: Enjoy Sitting Meditation
Steering the breath. Let it keep its own pace and only notice it; if you want a pace to follow, a breathing timer sets one.
Meditation timer questions
How long should a beginner meditate?
Plum Village suggests ten minutes, just aware of the breath, and the San Francisco Zen Center’s monthly sitting for beginners uses 20 minute periods. In a 2012 trial, people new to it who were asked for at least 10 minutes a day sat 11.3 minutes a session on average.
Source: Plum Village Plum Village, How To: Enjoy Sitting Meditation Source: San Francisco Zen Center San Francisco Zen Center, For Beginners at City Center Source: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Moore et al., 2012, Front Hum Neurosci 6:18, PMID 22363278
Is meditation safe?
It is usually considered low in risk, though few studies have looked for harm, says the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. It cites a 2020 review of 83 studies in which about 8% of people had a negative effect, close to the share reported for psychological therapies. Stop if you feel unwell.
Why does a meditation timer use a bell?
So you can close your eyes and stop watching the clock. In the Plum Village tradition, bells call you back to the body and the breath, and two bells a second or two apart close a sitting.
Last updated . To report a wrong number, see About Bursta.
Six palettes, and a phase keeps its meaning in all of them
The same four grounds, drawn six ways. Each is solved so that get ready, work, rest and done stay apart, and so the clock stays readable from across a gym. Pick one and the whole page turns with it; this browser remembers the choice.
The app
The same clock, in your pocket
Bursta is being finished for phones. Android comes first and iPhone after it. It is the timer you have above, built as an app: the same reading of the wall clock every frame, so a locked screen, a phone call or a backgrounded app does not make it drift.
It keeps sounding with the screen off
The bell lands with the phone locked in your bag and your music still playing. A page in a tab cannot do that.
Your own workouts, and a record of them
A builder, a library you name and reorder, a history that fills itself in, and a calendar with repeats and reminders.
Made to be read while you are breathing hard
Six palettes, five text sizes, and the phase in the colour of the whole screen. English and Ukrainian.
Soon on Google PlaySoon on the App Store
