How to Get Through a Craving: 6 Tools That Have Been Tested
A craving is a wave. It builds, it peaks, and it passes whether or not you give in. The goal is not to never feel one. It is to have something to do while it passes.
The short version
- Short bouts of movement have the strongest evidence for cutting a craving on the spot.
- Slow breathing reduced craving in lab studies, but only for people who kept doing it.
- Scent and flavor have early, small-study support.
- Having any coping move ready matters. People were 12 times more likely to be using one in the temptations they got through.
| Tool | Evidence | Time needed |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Move | Strong | A few minutes |
| 2. Breathe slow, exhale long | Moderate | A few minutes |
| 3. Give your mouth a job | Moderate, small studies | Ongoing |
| 4. Give your nose a job | Early, small studies | 2 minutes |
| 5. Surf the urge | Early | A few minutes |
| 6. Change the scene | Observational | Immediate |
1. Move
This is the best supported tool on the list. Researchers at the University of Exeter gathered the raw participant data from the trials that qualified and pooled it. Short bouts of activity reduced both the strength of desire and the desire to smoke. Every single trial pointed the same way, and the authors called the evidence strong.
Meta-analysis of individual data
Short bouts of physical activity reduced desire to smoke in every trial analyzed. The authors call the evidence strong.
A brisk walk counts. So do stairs.
Addiction, 2013 · Read the study
2. Breathe slow, exhale long
At Duke, dependent smokers went 4 hours without a cigarette on two separate days. On one day they took a series of deep breaths every 30 minutes. On the other they sat quietly. Deep breathing reduced craving, tension and irritability, and they stayed alert.
On the inhale the diaphragm pulls down and the lungs fill. On the exhale it rises. Slow the exhale and the whole system slows with it.
A larger trial in London taught 96 smokers a set of breathing exercises. Craving dropped right away in the lab. Twenty-four hours later the advantage was gone, and the reason was simple: very few people had kept doing the exercises. Breathing works while you do it.
Randomized trial, 96 smokers
Ten minutes of breathing exercises reduced craving in the lab. A day later the benefit was gone, and few people had kept practicing.
Psychopharmacology, 2013 · Read the study
Which pattern? A Stanford study compared three breathing styles with meditation, five minutes a day for a month. The exhale-focused style improved mood the most. That study was about stress in general, not cravings, but stress is a common trigger.
The vagus nerve links the brainstem to the heart, lungs and gut. One proposed model is that slow breathing with long exhales calms the body by stimulating it.
A slow pull, then a long exhale
CAPNOS BRE-Z
The BRE-Z gives a soft mouth-pull with adjustable pressure, and a quieter pop than the Legura. Draw in slowly through it, then breathe out long.
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3. Give your mouth a job
In a controlled study, smokers who could not smoke but had free access to ordinary chewing gum reported less craving and less withdrawal than those without it. A follow-up found that the flavor of the gum changed the result.
4. Give your nose a job
Smell has a short path to the parts of the brain that handle emotion and memory. At the University of Pittsburgh, smokers were shown smoking cues to raise their urge, then given something to sniff. An odor, pleasant or unpleasant, reduced the urge compared with an odorless control.
Scent signals run from the olfactory bulb to the amygdala and hippocampus, regions involved in emotion and memory.
Two small studies went further with black pepper. In one, puffing pepper vapor reduced craving more than mint or an empty device. In the other, two minutes of inhaling pepper oil from a tissue lowered craving scores and delayed the next use of tobacco.
5. Surf the urge
Urge surfing means watching a craving rise and fall without fighting it or acting on it. At the University of Washington, 123 student smokers were shown cues, and half were given brief urge-surfing instructions. Their urges were no lower. But over the next 7 days they smoked significantly less. The technique did not shrink the wave. It changed what people did with it.
Randomized study, 123 students
Brief urge-surfing instructions did not lower urges, but students who got them smoked fewer cigarettes over the next 7 days.
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2009 · Read the study
6. Change the scene
When smokers carried handheld diaries and logged temptations as they happened, lapses clustered in predictable places: where smoking was allowed, where cigarettes were within reach, and where other people were smoking. People were 12 times more likely to be using some coping strategy in the temptations they got through than in the ones that ended in a lapse.
Real-time diary study
Lapses clustered around low mood, available cigarettes and other smokers. People were 12 times more likely to be using a coping strategy in the temptations they got through.
Have a move ready. Which one matters less than having one.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1996 · Read the study
The 90-second drill
Here is one way to chain these together. It is our own suggestion, built from the studies above. It has not been tested as a package.
- Name itSay it to yourself: this is a craving, and it will pass.
- Stand up and moveWalk to a different spot. Out of the room if you can.
- Five slow breathsIn through the nose, or a slow pull through your CAPNOS. Out long through the mouth, twice as long as the inhale.
- Notice one flavor or smellMint, citrus, coffee, fresh air. Give your senses something specific.
- Check back inRate the craving from 1 to 10. If it is still high, go again or take a longer walk.
Slow pull. Long exhale. No rush.
Always in control
BRE-Z, the quiet one
Soft adjustable pull, three flavor packs included. Small enough for a pocket, quiet enough for a meeting.
Questions people ask
What is the fastest way to stop a craving?
The best supported quick tool is movement. A pooled analysis of trials found that short bouts of physical activity reduced desire to smoke every time, and called the evidence strong. Slow breathing is a close second and can be done anywhere.
How long does a craving last?
Studies measure cravings in different ways and we could not find one agreed number. What the research does show is that the tools here work within minutes. Craving was lower 20 minutes after a nicotine-free device, and right after 10 minutes of breathing exercises.
Does deep breathing really help with nicotine cravings?
In lab studies, yes. A series of deep breaths every 30 minutes reduced craving and irritability over 4 hours without smoking. The catch, from a larger trial, is that the benefit disappears if you stop practicing.
Do scents or essential oils help?
There is early evidence. Sniffing an odor after smoking cues reduced the urge to smoke, and a small study found that inhaling black pepper oil lowered craving. These are small studies, so treat them as promising and unproven.
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Sources
- Haasova M, Warren FC, Ussher M, et al. The acute effects of physical activity on cigarette cravings. Addiction. 2013. Link
- McClernon FJ, Westman EC, Rose JE. The effects of controlled deep breathing on smoking withdrawal symptoms in dependent smokers. Addictive Behaviors. 2004. Link
- Shahab L, Sarkar BK, West R. The acute effects of yogic breathing exercises on craving and withdrawal symptoms in abstaining smokers. Psychopharmacology. 2013. Link
- Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine. 2023. Link
- Zaccaro A, Piarulli A, Laurino M, et al. How breath-control can change your life: a systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2018. Link
- Gerritsen RJS, Band GPH. Breath of life: the respiratory vagal stimulation model of contemplative activity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2018. Link
- Cohen LM, Collins FL Jr, Britt DM. The effect of chewing gum on tobacco withdrawal. Addictive Behaviors. 1997. Link
- Cohen LM, Collins FL Jr, Vanderveen JW, Weaver CC. The effect of chewing gum flavor on the negative affect associated with tobacco abstinence. Addictive Behaviors. 2010. Link
- Sayette MA, Parrott DJ. Effects of olfactory stimuli on urge reduction in smokers. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. 1999. Link
- Rose JE, Behm FM. Inhalation of vapor from black pepper extract reduces smoking withdrawal symptoms. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 1994. Link
- Cordell B, Buckle J. The effects of aromatherapy on nicotine craving on a U.S. campus. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2013. Link
- Bowen S, Marlatt A. Surfing the urge: brief mindfulness-based intervention for college student smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. 2009. Link
- Shiffman S, Paty JA, Gnys M, Kassel JA, Hickcox M. First lapses to smoking: within-subjects analysis of real-time reports. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1996. Link
- Dawkins L, Turner J, Hasna S, Soar K. The electronic-cigarette: effects on desire to smoke, withdrawal symptoms and cognition. Addictive Behaviors. 2012. Link