Set the minutes, pick a bell, and sit. A bowl sounds when you begin, another when you finish, and — if you want them — one every few minutes along the way. Add rain or ocean underneath, and a breathing pacer that keeps the rhythm on the dial. It all happens in your browser: no account, no downloads, no ads.
Space to start or pause · Esc to reset. While it runs, the screen stays awake.
Four ways to use it: one full practice, and three moments inside a session.
Three minutes with an opening and a closing bell, no intervals. It gives the person a way to actually arrive at the session instead of still being in the traffic or the meeting before it.
Settings: 3 minutes · 10 s settling in · no interval · 1 closing strike.
Two to five minutes of coherent breathing when arousal has climbed and ten minutes of session remain. The disc gives something outside to hold on to, which is exactly what is missing once attention has gone inward.
Settings: 5 minutes · no settling in · coherent pacer · background on silence.
A long minute at the end, with two strikes of the bowl. A closing ritual makes the edge of the session visible, and online — where there is no corridor and no door — that edge has to be built.
Settings: 1-3 minutes · no interval · 2 closing strikes.
Send the link and let them use it at home. Nothing to sign up for or install, the settings stay in their browser, and the page counts the day's minutes on their own device.
Settings: 10 minutes · 30 s settling in · interval bell every 5 minutes for the first few weeks.
Your heart beats a little faster when you breathe in and a little slower when you breathe out. Lengthening the exhale lengthens that slower stretch, and that is where the calm comes from: it is slow breathing that does it, not deep breathing. At around six breaths a minute —the rhythm of the coherent pattern— breath and heartbeat fall into step, and that is where it shows most. Holding the breath does not calm on its own: it adds difficulty, and something for attention to hold on to.
| Pattern | Rhythm | What it is for | Who to be careful with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coherent | 5.5 s in · 5.5 s out | The default starting point: about six breaths a minute, no holds, sustainable for twenty minutes. It is the best tolerated and the most studied in heart-rate variability work. | Almost nobody. If something feels off, the rhythm is usually too shallow rather than too slow — breathe smaller, not faster. |
| Box | 4 s in · 4 s hold · 4 s out · 4 s empty | For when the mind scatters. The two holds give attention a job, which is why it sustains concentration better than coherent breathing in someone mentally revved up. | Holds are uncomfortable for anyone afraid of suffocating or with a history of panic attacks. Use coherent there. |
| Relaxing | 4 s in · 7 s hold · 8 s out | The most sedating of the three, because of the long exhale. Good at night or at the end of an intense session, in short runs of four to eight cycles. | The most demanding one. Do it seated, never standing or driving, and skip it with anyone who gets dizzy, hyperventilates or dissociates easily. |
A clock is not an intervention. This page is a timer: it does not diagnose, it does not guide the practice, and it replaces neither mindfulness training nor clinical judgement. Attention to the breath can raise arousal in panic, complex trauma and dissociation — there, an external anchor (feet on the floor, the sound of the room, eyes open) is usually a better way in than the air. And if someone is at risk, a bell is not what is needed.
Yes. The bells are scheduled ahead on the browser's audio clock, which does not slow down in the background the way ordinary timers do: the interval bell lands on the second even if the page has not drawn a frame in ten minutes. While a session runs, a screen wake lock is requested as well.
Nothing leaves the browser. Your settings and the day's minutes are kept in your device's local storage, not on a server of ours. No account, no downloads, and the bells are synthesised on the spot.
Yes: share the tab's audio and the client hears the bells. In person, just let it sound in the room. For guided practice, ten seconds of settling in, no intervals and two closing strikes usually works best.
As the clock for the practice, yes: long durations, an opening bell, intervals to mark the segments, several strikes at the end. As a programme, no — it does not instruct, and it does not replace guidance from someone trained.
Coherent — 5.5 s in, 5.5 s out — if in doubt: it is the most sustainable and the best tolerated. Box breathing, 4-4-4-4, holds attention better when the mind scatters. The 4-7-8 pattern is the most sedating and the most demanding: seated, in short runs, and skip it with anyone who gets dizzy or hyperventilates.
This timer is free and asks for nothing in return. If your scheduling, session notes, patient portal and payments live in four different places, that is the problem Alchely solves. We are in open beta: join as an early adopter and the first year is free.
No card. No countdown.