Rapid Breathing During Sleep | Heavy Breathing Reduces Body O2
If you have healthy relatives or friends, you can see that their breathing
during sleep is very light. In fact, the breathing of the healthy person is noiseless and so
quiet, that it may scare some people to death ("Is he alive?"). Vice
versa, the breathing of sleeping sick people is easy to hear and see: they have heavy breathing while sleeping.
Numerous medical studies showed that morning hyperventilation (see this page: rapid breathing during sleep) leads to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy seizures, acute asthma
exacerbations, and so forth, as well as highest mortality rates in comparison with any other part of the day.
Russian medical doctors invented various methods and techniques to prevent these acute life-threatening states. They also discovered that most symptoms disappear
when the person has more than 20 s for the body-oxygen test.
Video: Good Sleep
Hygiene (see on the right).
Hyperventilation is breathing more than the medical norm. When our
breathing is heavy (deep and/or fast) during sleep, we lack two crucial
chemicals in the brain: carbon dioxide and oxygen. Cerebral hypocapnia (lack of CO2
in the brain) makes the nerve cells overexcited. Hypocapnia also causes reduced brain perfusion and
lowered brain oxygen levels.
Reduced blood flow to vital organs and vasoconstriction also leads to poor
control of blood glucose, weight gain, headaches, acne and/or other symptoms.
Causes of rapid breathing while sleeping
Mouth breathing during sleep
This is the most destructive sleep factor. Nasal
breathing is crucial for one's health during sleep and at all other times. It was considered before and is easy to check. Is your mouth dry when you wake up? If it so, consider using a simple mouth taping technique (see links below).
For many modern mouth breathers, the night mouth taping
technique will immediately reduce their
problems with after-sleep headaches, weight gain, acne, sleep talking and sleep
Sleeping on one's back makes breathing heavier
Among body positions, sleeping on one's back (supine position) is worst for
all tested conditions, as 24 medical studies suggest (see
Sleep Positions Medical Research Summary). Some
people experience sleep paralysis and sleep talking only in the supine position.
Research conducted in the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo
(Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) found that, indeed, "...A greater number of
individuals reported SP [with terrifying hallucinations] in the supine position
than all other positions combined. The supine position was also 3-4 times more
common during SP than when normally falling asleep..." (Cheyne, 2002).
Kompanje (2008) also observed that "that sleep paralysis and hypnagogic
experiences occur more often in supine position of the body".
In order to solve this problem, you need to use the technique to prevent supine sleep. Sleeping on the right side also causes increased ventilation in comparison with sleeping on the left side or on the chest. The best sleep position, according to Russian medical Buteyko doctors, is sleeping sitting, while inclined sleep therapy can also be beneficial (see the complete
manual for all sleep related factors - Good
Children's ventilation is minimum when they are sleeping on their tummies
(Buteyko, 1977). Swaddled infants should sleep on their backs.
Presence of disease and existing damage in the body
about sleep effects during his Lecture in the Moscow State
University, Dr. Buteyko noticed,
"The horizontal position, lying intensifies breathing. Patients with asthma,
heart disease, hypertension, and stenocardia often have acute states at night.
If they lie down during the day time, or lie for 2-3 hours; the breathing gets
heavier, the attacks come. Many severely sick patients sit, afraid to lie down.
This is sensible. We should lie down only for sleeping. Our patients cannot
control their breathing at night, and hence, sleep is poison for them." (Buteyko, 1977).
Sleeping too long causes breathing more
Sleeping too long,
according to Dr. Buteyko, intensifies breathing causing
prolonged periods of gradually increasing hyperventilation (p.177, Khoroscho,
1982). Hence, it also leads to weight gain, headaches, sleep talking, sleep
paralysis, and acne. However, a lack
of sleep also causes hyperventilation due to daytime sleepiness, hormonal
misbalance, brain dysfunction, and other negative effects.
Other causes of rapid heavy breathing at night
Among other causes are poor air quality (especially due to carpets), soft
beds, abnormal thermoregulation (e.g., too warm blankets causing overheating), etc. During sleep,
as each hour passes, breathing gets deeper and heavier for most people.
As a result, body-oxygen levels decrease. This is easy to check using the body
oxygen test. The CP drop is especially noticeable after
4-6 hours of sleep. (We are physiologically created to sleep less than 5 hours.)
As your bonus content, there is a link to a page below here. This unique page
analyzes results of 26 clinical studies that compared 4 common sleep positions (left, right, chest and on the back) to avoid symptoms. This will help you to prevent or stop heavy and fast breathing during sleep.
Related Web Pages:
- How to Maintain Nasal Breathing 24-7
- Manual (Instructional Guide)
prevent sleeping on one's back"
Web page: Cold Shower Benefits and Rules
(cold shower is excellent just before sleep too).
Buteyko KP, Lecture in the Moscow State University, Soviet
national journal Nauka i zshizn'; [Science and life], Moscow, issue 10,
Cheyne JA, Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and
associated hallucinations: position and timing effects, J Sleep Res.
Khoroscho A, Interview with Buteyko [in Russian] 1982, in
Buteyko method. Its application in medical practice, ed. by K.P.
Buteyko, 2nd ed., 1991, Titul, Odessa, p.168-180.
Kompanje EJ, 'The devil lay upon her and held her down'. Hypnagogic
hallucinations and sleep paralysis described by the Dutch physician Isbrand
van Diemerbroeck (1609-1674) in 1664, J Sleep Res. 2008 Dec;17(4):464-7.
... This case from 1664 should be cited as the earliest detailed account
of sleep paralysis associated with hypnagogic illusions and as the first
observation that sleep paralysis and hypnagogic experiences occur more often
in supine position of the body.
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* Illustrations by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe