Lighter
Free
$0
- Six breathing rhythms, or set your own timing
- A light and chime to follow
- Sessions saved to Apple Health or Health Connect
For bedtime · Relaxation · Meditation
Light up your breath.
Pick your rhythm. Close your eyes. Lighter keeps the pace, whether you're winding down for bed, taking a moment to relax, or giving a restless mind somewhere to land.
Launching 1 DecemberiPhone, Apple Watch and Android
Features
Sleep, Breathe and Patterns.
Sleep Lighter Plus
A guiding light at bedtime.
Let the day go in a slow, glowing rhythm. Follow the light, with a calming sound if you like. As you drift off, the light fades, then the sound, and the session ends on its own.
Someone asleep beside you? On iPhone, let soft taps on your Apple Watch guide you with the screen dark.
Breathe Free
Come home to your breath.
Enhance your breathwork sessions with a soft light that rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. New to breathwork? Simply follow the glow. Choose from six rhythms or set your own timing, holds included.
For meditation Free
Illuminate your practice.
A soft light to breathe with as you sit. Your mind a little lighter, one breath at a time.
Patterns Lighter Plus
Notice what your practice does for you.
After each session, see where your heart rate began and where it ended. Over the weeks, Patterns lays your sessions side by side, so you can notice what changes when you make time to breathe.
- Watch your heart rate settle across a session
- Your practice over the weeks, side by side
- Mindful Minutes saved to Apple Health
- Private: it all stays on your phone
Siri Shortcuts fit into your Wind Down, and Sleep has controls on the Lock Screen.
Works with VoiceOver, and with Reduce Motion the light only brightens and dims.
Close your eyes and follow the light.
1:00
Pricing
Start free. Go further with Plus.
Plus · Yearly
14-day free trial
$29.99 a year
For eligible new subscribers. Cancel before the trial ends to avoid being charged.
- Sleep with light and sound that fade out
- Patterns with heart rate and sessions over time
- Save your own rhythms
- Apple Watch taps on iPhone
- Everything in Free
Plus · Pay once
Yours to keep
$49.99 once
Launch price
- All the same Plus features
- One payment, no subscription or renewal
Yearly Plus renews automatically. The App Store or Google Play confirms your price and trial eligibility before purchase. Restore brings Plus back on a new phone using the same store account.
I Sverige? Lighter Plus kan omfattas av ditt friskvårdsbidrag. Läs mer om friskvård →
The Research
Explore the scientific studies
Give the breath a little attention, and the body responds. Slow breathing changes the rhythm between heartbeats while you practise. Across trials, people in breathwork and mindfulness programmes consequently report less stress on average.
Everyday stress
Breathwork can ease everyday stress.
Across 12 randomised trials, people who practised breathwork reported less stress than control groups. In a separate four-week trial with adults who had high blood pressure, regular slow breathing also led to lower salivary cortisol.
Light as a guide
A cue you can follow.
After a laboratory stress test, 80 students spent five minutes following a breathing light or resting quietly. Light-guided breathing produced a larger increase in heart-rate variability during recovery, and participants enjoyed it more than quiet rest. A visual rhythm gave them something simple to follow as their bodies settled.
Canazei et al., 2025 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Before bed
A promising evening ritual.
Slow breathing can give the evening a gentler rhythm. In a review of nine studies involving 457 people, those who practised it before bed reported better sleep quality and longer sleep. The clearest positive results came from programmes lasting several weeks; sleep-device and lab measurements were less conclusive.
Eide et al., 2026 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Meditation
One place for attention to rest.
Mindfulness is a practice of noticing where attention goes and gently bringing it back. Across 17 randomised trials with 1,641 adults, people in mindfulness programmes reported less stress than comparison groups. The programmes ranged from a few days to ten weeks and included both in-person and digital guidance.
Rajan et al., 2026 ↗ (opens in a new tab)
The rhythm
Breath and heartbeat move together.
Your heartbeat responds to every breath. It usually quickens a little as you breathe in and slows as you breathe out. Slower breathing makes that rise and fall more pronounced, especially near six breaths a minute in many studies. This beat-to-beat variation is one way the breath and nervous system work together.
Russo et al., 2017 ↗ (opens in a new tab)These studies did not test Lighter.
FAQ
Before you begin.
Do I have to close my eyes?
No. Lighter is made for closed eyes, but you can follow the light with your eyes open too. Sound is optional.
Do I need to know how to meditate?
No. Follow the light at a pace that feels comfortable. If your attention wanders, the light is still there when you come back.
What does the Apple Watch do?
With Lighter Plus, the Watch taps your wrist at each turn of the breath. Start Sleep on your iPhone and the Watch follows, in time with the light. You can also breathe with the Watch on its own. Every session, with its heart rate, shows up in Patterns on your iPhone.
Is Lighter on Android?
Yes, Lighter launches on Android phones on 1 December, the same day as iPhone. The Watch app is for Apple Watch only.
Do I need an account?
No. Lighter Plus is tied to your App Store or Google Play account, and Restore brings it back on a new phone.
Can I use my Swedish wellness allowance?
It depends on the service, the purchase and your employer’s policy. Read our friskvård information (in Swedish).
Is Lighter a medical treatment?
No. Lighter is a wellness app for breathing, relaxation and winding down. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Read Lighter’s intended purpose.
Launching 1 December
