Slow exhale, gentle vibration. Two Nobels. One throat. Ninety seconds.
Humming produces a fifteen-fold rise in nasal NO versus quiet exhalation. Replicated. Robust.
Holter-monitored, n=23. Humming produced the lowest autonomic stress index of any state measured — lower than physical activity, lower than emotional stress, lower than sleep itself.
fMRI during OM chanting showed deactivation of the right amygdala, mirroring patterns seen during clinical vagus nerve stimulation for depression.
SetPoint Medical's implantable vagus stimulator approved for rheumatoid arthritis — the first FDA clearance for neuroimmune modulation. The pathway humming touches is now clinically validated.
Wellness, not medical. Humming is a safe practice for most adults. If you have severe acute sinusitis, vocal cord nodules, or recent ear surgery, consult your doctor first. Gentle is better than loud.
A thin sheet of bone between your sinuses and brain — the same route used by intranasal oxytocin and insulin in pharmacology. You are administering a vasodilator and neurotransmitter to your own brain with your voice.
Each program walks you through a structured arc with a daily dose, a target outcome, and a clear endpoint. No infinite library. No streak shame.
A four-week humming arc for the ringing that won't stop. Built on the two RCTs showing 0.86–0.92 effect sizes on Tinnitus Handicap Inventory from sustained Bhramari practice. Daily 4× dosing, gentle progression from 60 to 120 hums per session.
The Eby protocol. A four-day intensive of strong nasal humming, four times daily, designed for chronic sinus congestion. Based on the 2006 Medical Hypotheses case report where this exact dose resolved chronic rhinosinusitis. Single case, not a trial — but the mechanism is the 15× NO release that's been replicated.
A bedtime sequence. Three minutes of 0.1 Hz coherence breath, three minutes of 130 Hz humming, three minutes of silent settle. Engineered to drop your stress index below sleep itself — what the 2023 Holter study measured during Bhramari.
Two weeks of five-minute daily humming, paced to 0.1 Hz exhalation. Designed to lift heart rate variability over a fortnight — the same outcome the entire vagal-wearable category sells, done with your own voice. Pair with Apple Watch HRV to watch the curve move.
It is catching up to traditions that already worked. Twenty-five centuries of humming, lined up against the modern research that vindicated them.
Twelve verses on AUM. The closing M — held as a nasal, humming resonance — is treated as the symbol of the four states of consciousness. The original humming-as-cosmology.
Rhythmic remembrance of divine names. "Loud dhikr" (jahri) involves chesty resonant chanting; "silent dhikr" (khafi) internalises the same vibration. A modern Istanbul study measured cardiac synchrony across participants.
Benedictine abbess. Composed 77 melismatic chants with long sustained tones. Treated singing as a unifying spiritual-physical act. Wrote her own books of medicine alongside her music.
Earliest unambiguous codification of Bhramari Pranayama — the bee breath. Breathe in fast like a male bee, exhale slow like a female bee, "and the mind is absorbed in bliss." The named humming technique enters the textual record.
Tibetan monks chant in the lowest possible vocal register and selectively amplify upper harmonics, producing one-voice chords with three simultaneous pitches. Low-frequency drone meets laryngeal vibration — humming's harmonic cousin.
The paper. Ten healthy subjects, chemiluminescence measurement of nasal nitric oxide during quiet exhalation versus humming. 15-fold increase. Replicated by Maniscalco in 2003. The mechanism that the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology recognised — vasodilatory, antimicrobial NO — turns out to be released by something humans have been doing for four thousand years.
Twelve subjects, scanned during OM chanting versus a control "ssss." OM produced significant deactivation of the right amygdala — the same pattern seen during clinical vagus nerve stimulation for depression.
Twenty-three participants on clinical-grade Holter monitors across humming, physical activity, emotional stress, and sleep. Humming produced the lowest stress index of any state measured — lower than sleep itself.
First-ever FDA approval for neuroimmune modulation. Implantable vagus stimulator for rheumatoid arthritis. The exact anti-inflammatory pathway humming touches via laryngeal vibration is now a recognised therapeutic target.
One throat. Ninety seconds. The most-evidenced zero-cost intervention in the modern wellness stack, in the form humans have always practiced it.
Nothing leaves your phone. Audio analysis runs locally; sessions are stored in your browser only.
HUM is a wellness practice, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If symptoms persist, see a clinician.
v0.1 · crafted on iPhone · RHYTHMIX
HUM is v0.1 and built solo on an iPhone. Bugs, missing features, requests for sounds, frequencies, programs — all welcome.
Opens your mail app with the message pre-filled — you tap send. No tracking, no database. Goes to Jamie at RHYTHMIX.