Abstract
Academic stress is a condition that develops when pressures of academic challenging situations are facing students; expressly during COVID- 19 outbreak. Through learning breathing methods, students can manage stress circumstances and attain a high awareness level. Objective: the present study was done to measure the effects of coherent breathing on female and male students' academic stress levels. A pilot study and randomized controlled trail included 100 participant (50 males, 50 females) from King Abdul-Aziz University (KAU), their age ranged from 23 to 25 years old. We evaluated their academic stress levels by Academic Stress Scale "ASS". Once we detected that they have at least slight stress, those students were included and randomly separated to two equal groups, (control and experimental). The control group had their BP, HR and RR recorded at normal breathing. While for the experimental group, we measured their BP, HR and RR before and after the coherent breathing. We had done re-assessment after two weeks of doing this exercise. We instructed them to do it twice a day daily. There was a highly significant reduction in RR in the experimental group after intervention, and there was no significant difference between the academic stress levels pre and post intervention. Coherent breathing has shown a significant change in the ASS in one element, which is the lack of concentration at home/ hostel when studying, between the two studied groups. In addition, for the physiological parameters there was only a highly significant reduction in RR