Is Loam meditation app free?

Yes. Loam is free to download and free to start. Core tools like breathing exercises, journaling, daily check-ins, and streak tracking are always available at no cost. Premium unlocks the full guided session library, unlimited custom Moments, and advanced features.

What makes Loam different from Calm or Headspace?

Loam composes every session around how you feel right now — the voice, the pace, and the therapeutic approach all adapt in real time. Instead of a catalog of pre-recorded tracks, Loam generates a new meditation tailored to your current emotional state, calibrated to your experience level, and grounded in peer-reviewed research. It also ships with Sage, a wellness coach trained in Motivational Interviewing, and 15 breathing exercises with haptic-synced animations.

Is Loam safe to use alongside therapy or medication?

Yes. Loam is designed with clear clinical guardrails. Sessions never claim to diagnose or treat mental illness, never tell you to stop therapy or medication, and always defer to professional care for symptoms that warrant it. Content is constrained to evidence-based techniques (ACT, self-compassion, MBSR, somatic experiencing, CBT-I) and a carefully reviewed voice and pacing library. Meditation is a complement to care, not a replacement. If you're in crisis, please contact a local crisis line or your care provider.

What research is Loam based on?

Every therapeutic technique in Loam cites primary peer-reviewed research. Loam's breathing library is grounded in work by Balban et al. (Stanford, 2023), Zaccaro et al. (2018), and Lehrer & Gevirtz (2014). The Moment's therapeutic architecture draws on polyvagal theory (Porges), ACT (Hayes), self-compassion (Neff), MBSR (Kabat-Zinn), and somatic experiencing (Levine). A full citation library is available at /research.

Who are the voices in Loam?

Loam uses 13 research-selected voices. Each voice is chosen for the emotional state it handles best, based on polyvagal theory, ASMR research, and voice psychology — low resonant voices for grounding, warm bright voices for light moods, measured voices for heavy ones. Loam automatically picks the voice the research says will work for your current state, or you can override manually.

Does Loam work offline?

Core tools work offline, including downloaded meditations, breathing exercises, and the journal. The Moment — Loam's custom meditation composer — requires an internet connection at the moment of generation, because the session is composed on the fly. Once generated, every Moment is saved to your library and can be replayed offline without using any credits.

Does Loam have sleep stories?

Yes. Loam includes narrated sleep stories, sleep soundscapes, and wind-down rituals. The sleep content uses anti-storytelling techniques — structured to prevent the mind from latching on to narrative — based on CBT-I stimulus control research (Bootzin & Epstein, 2011).

What breathing exercises does Loam offer?

Loam offers 15 breathing techniques across beginner, intermediate, and advanced tiers, including Box Breathing (4-4-4-4), 4-7-8 Relaxation, the Physiological Sigh, Coherent (Resonance) Breathing at 5.5-5.5, Alternate Nostril, Ujjayi, Kapalbhati, and the Wim Hof method. Every technique links to the peer-reviewed research that validates it, so you can read the study if you want to.

Will I lose my streak if I miss a day?

No. Loam's streak system is explicitly wellness-first: streaks pause, they don't break. You get two streak freezes, you can mark rest days, and the app never shames you for missing a session. Anxious users are especially vulnerable to streak mechanics turning self-care into another source of pressure — Loam is designed to avoid that failure mode.

BREATHING · EQUAL IN/OUT · ~5 BPM

Every claim cited · Every technique peer-reviewed

Ujjayi (Ocean Breath)

Name: Loam
Availability: InStock
Author: Loam

Ujjayi is a pranayama technique where a gentle throat constriction creates a soft ocean-like sound on both inhale and exhale. It is the default breath of Ashtanga and vinyasa yoga, used to maintain focus and extend breath during movement. Research suggests parasympathetic activation similar to other slow breath techniques.

Updated April 2026·5 min read

How to do it

Find the constriction. Exhale through your mouth as if you were fogging a mirror. Notice the soft constriction at the back of your throat.
Close your mouth. Maintain that gentle throat constriction and close your mouth. Continue breathing through your nose.
Breathe slow and even. Inhale slowly through your nose for about 5 seconds, keeping the throat toned. Exhale for about 5 seconds with the same soft ocean-like sound.
Keep the sound small. The sound should be audible only to you. If anyone else can hear it, you are working too hard — relax the throat.
Continue for 5–10 minutes. Keep the rhythm steady. Let the sound be the metronome.

Why the sound matters

Ujjayi's defining feature is the soft throat-generated sound, sometimes described as waves washing on a beach. The sound isn't decoration — it is what lets you hear the breath's rhythm, which lets the nervous system entrain to that rhythm. Most people find the technique noticeably calming within the first minute, which is partially the slow pace and partially the auditory feedback.

What the research suggests

The evidence base for Ujjayi specifically is small but consistent with the broader slow-breathing literature. Saoji et al. (2019) reviewed the effects of pranayama across clinical populations and found modest but repeated benefits for cardiovascular, pulmonary, and mental-health outcomes. The effect size is similar to other ~5–6 breaths-per-minute techniques; the distinguishing feature of Ujjayi is more about adherence — the throat-tone is an audible anchor that makes long sessions tolerable.

What the research says

The evidence base for Ujjayi (Ocean Breath) rests on:

When to use it

During yoga or slow strength training
As a 10-minute focus practice before deep work
In place of coherent breathing when you want the auditory anchor

When not to use it

If you have a throat infection or irritation
Right before sleep — the inhale-exhale symmetry is more activating than down-regulating

Try it in the Loam app

Ujjayi (Ocean Breath) is included in Loam's breathing library with an animated breath visualizer, optional haptic cues at every phase transition, and configurable durations. Download Loam to practice it.

Related techniques

Back to the full breathing library, or try: resonance, Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana), Three-Part Breath (Dirga).

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