Anyone "forget" to breathe while awake?

[airhead]

Are central apneas active while awake? Anyone but me have this condition? Although I've had this problem for 20 or more years, Ive never discussed it with a doctor, sleep doc or MD...Its routine, and part of a regular days "work".

[gcsdls]

Yeah, I guess you could say I do...either that or I breathe too shallowly or something, 'cause I'll be thinking about something or reading something (usually not something active, in other words), and I'll all of a sudden have to take a big breath. My wife hears the sigh and thinks I'm upset or something, and I tell her,"I just have to breathe."

Kinda funny.

george

[Hugh Jass]

gcsdls:

You just described me. I'm also a big yawner.

There are a number of shallow breathers here...

[snamvar]

I wonder if a breathing exercise could help this. I am also a shallow breather and found out that breathing exercise before bed realy helped me in the past. Most of the relaxation tapes have the breathing exercise.

[rested gal]

While this is all anecdotal, I'm beginning to wonder if a good many undiagnosed OSA sufferers - older ones in particular who have had it untreated for years - might not eventually become "shallow breathers" over time? A pattern that possibly persists even after they get on cpap treatment. I don't suppose there's been any study about it. And I'm not talking about necessarily from lack of exercise, or being overweight. It does seem that a lot of us seem to fall into at least a self-described "I'm a shallow breather" category. Maybe the normal-while-awake breathers simply have no reason to post something like, "I breathe normally while I'm awake."

I first noticed it about my breathing a year or two before I started on cpap. I'd be sitting at the computer and realize I'd been seemingly holding my breath for awhile. Couldn't tell how long, because of course I didn't know when the "held breath" started. I'd resume my "normal" slow shallow breathing pattern...no gasp or any big deal. Perhaps just a slightly deeper breath and a sigh, as George described. Becoming aware of it did make me begin to think, "Hmmm, my breathing over the past few years seems to have become more shallow/slow than I recall." I guess if we seem healthy otherwise, we wouldn't usually ever notice our breathing pattern unless we've excercised hard and are panting.

But, yeah, I've noticed it about myself both before and still now, after over a year on cpap. While awake I still tend to breathe shallowly all the time and do notice that I've held my breath on occasion.

[wading thru the muck!]

I luckily don't have this problem. I usually get accused of breathing too heavily. My question to you all is do you wonder if your oxygen saturation drops while your doing all this shallow/non-breathing? I agree with rested gals suspicion that years of resricted night time breathing may have conditioned some to have a very shallow breathing pattern. I wonder if regular strenuous activity, say a half hour brisk walk twice a day might help improve this condition. The logic seems right but years of "8 hour a day" conditioning might be hard to reverse.

[Waverly]

I dont forget to breath as much as I forget to lower the toilet seat..

[rested gal]

Waverly!!! LOL!!

Gawd, I hope you at least remember to wash your hands.

DON'T answer that! I don't even wanna know!

[scooter49]

I've been on bipap for 4 years now and have montioned forgetting to breath during the day to my doctor. His reply is to look dumfounded, then reply he has never heard of such a thing. I'm glad to see others have this problem too.

[Popinka]

Glad yo guys posted this...I was wondering about this as well. Since I just started therapy I feared I was just being paranoid about all aspects of breathing.

Is there not a way one could check their daytime O2 levels?

[Hugh Jass]

If your Dr. prescribes it (again at their mercy !), you can get a pulse oximetry unit that measures your O2 levels.

You can buy some of these units, but they can be expensive.

I've seen portable ones available on ebay.

There was some discussion about this already. In case you missed it, follow this link http://cpaptalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=829

Regards

[Fifi]

I too have always not breathed properly. A mixture of holdong my breath and shallow breathing then often resulting in a huge deep breath. Other people often notice this and have remaarked on it all my life.

Commenting 'that was a big sigh' even if it was just a deep breath. I too have drawn a blank when I have mentioned it to doc. Glad to see I am not wierd and alone witht this.

[onlyme]

Here's another shallow breather. Sometimes I just forget to breathe and, as others have said, draw in a deep breath afterwards. Also on the treadmill I have no endurance. Wish my apnea had been diagnosed years ago.

[1koolcat]

I offer one more "ay" to the question of how many of us are shallow breathers.

I've lived with undiagnosed/untreated OSA for 25 years or more.

Is it any surprise that I would subconsciously halt my own breathing during the day, when my body experiences breathing difficulties at night?

Or, a second theory is I lived with terrible muscle fatigue for years and years due to my sleep deprivation, so I learned to "hold my breath" occasionally to deal with the physical discomfort of the muscle fatigue.

As a newer forum member I welcome the open exchange of personal experiences to help unravel the mysteries in our lives.

Peter

[CraigC]

I am glad that I am not the only that has this issue. I am not totaly nuts then