Five minutes on a clock, a ring that empties as they pass, and 4-7-8 breathing to put between the urge and your hand. Five is the commitment, not a measurement: the NHS says a craving can run up to fifteen minutes. If yours is still going when the ring empties, start it again.
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Three hundred seconds, counted down. The ring is a circle with a 478-unit dash and its offset is the fraction of the five minutes still to run, so the gap in the ring is the time left. The colour walks from the site's orange to green across the countdown by moving each of the three channels a proportional step, which is why it is a gradual change rather than a switch at the end.
The breathing pane runs the 4-7-8 pattern: four counts in, seven held, eight out, looping until you stop it or the clock does. That pattern was popularised by Dr Andrew Weil and has roots in pranayama practice; it is a technique, not a treatment, and this page does not claim it does anything to nicotine.
Now the number the page is named after, said carefully. Five minutes is the length of the commitment, not a measurement of a craving. The NHS's own page says cravings last up to fifteen minutes. Five was chosen because it is a stretch of time a person will actually agree to sit through when they very much do not want to, and because the useful move during a craving is to put something between the urge and the hand rather than to wait out a precise duration. If yours is still going at five minutes, start it again — that is a normal outcome and not a sign the method is wrong.
The craving count is tallied per day in this browser. It exists so you can see the count going down over a week, which is the only thing about a craving that a page like this can honestly show you.
Nothing on this page is medically reviewed and nothing above measures anything about you — it explains a calculation. Where a number here is our own judgement rather than a published figure, the note says so and cites nothing; where the health bodies disagree, it carries the disagreement. Method last checked 21 August 2026.
Nicotine cravings are driven by a surge in neurological signalling from nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain demanding nicotine replenishment. This surge is time-limited — it peaks sharply and then subsides as receptor signalling normalises. Clinical research and decades of cessation counselling practice consistently show the acute craving wave passes within 3–5 minutes in the overwhelming majority of cases.
The strategy is simple: you do not need to want a cigarette less. You only need to outlast 5 minutes of wanting one.
The 4-7-8 technique was popularised by Dr. Andrew Weil and has roots in pranayama breathing practices. The extended exhale (8 counts) produces a parasympathetic response — it activates the vagus nerve and reduces heart rate, cortisol output, and anxiety. Multiple studies have demonstrated that controlled breathing can meaningfully reduce craving intensity by interrupting the sympathetic stress cascade that cravings trigger.
Using the breathing pattern during a craving keeps your mind occupied, your body calming, and your countdown clock running.
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Free nicotine clearance calculator. Enter your last cigarette and watch live countdowns to carbon monoxide clearing (WHO's 12h mark) and nicotine (72h).
Free nicotine withdrawal timeline. Enter your last cigarette to see which symptoms belong to each phase, when withdrawal peaks, and when it starts easing.
Free nicotine addiction quiz using the clinically validated Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence. Six questions, instant score, nothing sent to a server.
A craving is a craving whatever the substance. The alcohol version of this timer lives on our sister site Rebuild — the craving timer at getrebuild.app.
Breathing guide, craving log, and the number nobody else is counting for you.
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