I think I stop breathing

I noticed the last night or two that I forget to breath sometimes. I exhale and stop. I wonder if this is causing my awakenings. Why would I not breathe in again, especially on Cpap?

What you do when you're awake and conscious of how you breathe can't be compared to how you breathe (or not) when you're asleep. You can drive yourself crazy trying to analyze every breathe when half awake/asleep, but it won't prove anything is right or wrong. Use Sleepyhead to track your progress and if you have questions about the reports we can help if you post them. I imagine though that there could be times when you are well oxygenated, especially if you've been on on Cpap all night, and your body simply doesn't feel the need to instantly inhale when you think it should.

Good point. I am hypersensitive to everything. I just want to figure out why I'm not getting decent restorative sleep.

Hey Joanne! I thought I would share something I recently learned about my own sleep patterns in the event it might help someone else. I began my CPAP therapy in late January and discovered that I too have periods of time when I simply stopped breathing. CPAP does nothing to "trigger" me to breathe during these periods and they sometimes last for 30 seconds or longer. Worse yet, I was showing a regular pattern of CSR breathing night after night which was freaking me out. About two weeks ago (after several nights of CSR breathing) we had a warm day here and I rode my bike for about an hour one afternoon and that night i posted the lowest AHI and had no CSR breathing. So I started walking and/or biking at least 45 minutes each day. My AHI numbers were consistently low (under 4) and NO CSR breathing. That is until last night. Yesterday I sat around, worked long hours, did no exercise and walked very little. And last night I posted the worst AHI (8.45) and had 41 minutes of CSR breathing; 41 clear airway events where I simply stopped breathing. I'll be back to exercising again today and hope to keep my numbers low going forward. Hope this helps.

joannebc wrote:I noticed the last night or two that I forget to breath sometimes. I exhale and stop. I wonder if this is causing my awakenings. Why would I not breathe in again, especially on Cpap?

Did you notice this by reviewing the monitoring software? Or were you awake when it happened? Awake breathing is a different animal than sleep breathing. I think we stop breathing when awake more often than we realize.

Hard to tell what problem you have without you posting some results.

My original post is here... I do follow w good sleep hygiene. If I were able, I'd exercise. I get in10,000 steps, but I would do more. Lots of night awakenings I'm trying to figure out. Very tired.

viewtopic/t111011/Newbie-but-oldie-with ... nings.html

Thanks - Joanne

joannebc wrote:My original post is here... I do follow w good sleep hygiene.

Describe your sleep hygiene:

Have an established bedtime and bedtime routine?

Get up at roughly the same time every day?

Use the bedroom only for sleep and sex?

Try to get off the computer or cell phone at least an hour before going to bed?

Lots of night awakenings I'm trying to figure out.

How many wakes are we talking about? How many of them do you remember in the morning?

How long does it take you to get back to sleep after waking up?

What's the first thing you do when you find yourself awake in the middle of the night?

What do you do if you can't get back to sleep in 15-20 minutes after waking up?

Did you have any problems with night time wakes before starting CPAP? Are they getting worse?

Are you dealing with any discomfort problems when you wake up? Do you notice leaks when you wake up? Do you have problems with air in your stomach when you wake up?

I know that you answered many of these questions on the previous thread, but I really think that fixing your sleep problems is going to mean looking outside of CPAP. CPAP fixes sleep disordered breathing, but CPAP does not fix other causes of bad sleep.

On paper your CPAP therapy is pretty much optimized: Your leaks are "good enough", your AHI is fine, your usage is usually plenty long enough. So your on-going sleep problems are not being caused by the sleep disordered breathing. And that means your on-going sleep problems are being caused by something else. You've got to figure out what that something else is and fix it before you are going to start feeling better.

Describe your sleep hygiene: I typically go to bed at 9:30 and am up at 5:30. Last week was slightly different because of spring break. I went to bed an hour later and slept as long as I could. I was up anywhere from 5:00 - 7:00. I don't use the bedroom for anything other than sleep and sex. I do have the tv on just before I go to bed. I have no lights in the room, use room darkening, sound reducing curtains. I wear ear plugs. I have my phone lights adjusted for "night-shift" and tend not to look at it before bed, just in case. I have no caffeine after 10:00 am, unless I'm eating a piece of chocolate, and do not do much of that. No sodas. I don't eat after dinner 6:30. I do not nap. I couldn't fall asleep if I wanted to. I don't use my bed or my room for anything. I am not sad in my room, I don't get stressed out about not sleeping, I go to bed hoping to get the best night of sleep I've ever had.

Have an established bedtime and bedtime routine? yes
Get up at roughly the same time every day? yes
Use the bedroom only for sleep and sex? yes
Try to get off the computer or cell phone at least an hour before going to bed? yes

Lots of night awakenings I'm trying to figure out.
How many wakes are we talking about? How many of them do you remember in the morning? According to the fit bit I have between 15 and 30. I can remember about 6 of them.
How long does it take you to get back to sleep after waking up? Sometimes I don't get back to sleep... Sometimes I toss and turn for hours. If I can't sleep and I am able, I get out of bed. I know this sounds weird, but I've been so physically tired that I cannot always get my self out of bed. When I am awaken I always hope to return to sleep by rolling over, focus on my breathing, the beach, a dark room, and hope to go back to bed

What's the first thing you do when you find yourself awake in the middle of the night? Determine if I need to go to the bathroom, if I don't I roll over and try to go back to sleep. I have NO negative thoughts. No ruminating thoughts.

What do you do if you can't get back to sleep in 15-20 minutes after waking up? I usually leave the room and sit somewhere else quietly, read, or watch tv.

Did you have any problems with night time wakes before starting CPAP? Are they getting worse? Yes. Horrible awakenings. Since CPAP, the awakenings are better, in that I believe I return to sleep more quickly. I have also moved to another room, because while I was awake, my boyfriend's snoring may have kept be from falling back asleep. I feel better now, but I am still so tired. I feel good enough to start exercising... I will start that tomorrow.

Are you dealing with any discomfort problems when you wake up? Do you notice leaks when you wake up? Do you have problems with air in your stomach when you wake up? Sometimes I hear air when I roll over, I do have problems with stomach in my air, but nothing horrible. I don't think the mask fits exactly right on my head, but I think it is good enough.

I'm trying to fix what is wrong. I've tried everything I can physically do. I'm willing to do whatever it takes.

Thanks - Joanne

It is possible that you stop breathing because of central or clear airway apnea events.
IF that is the case you may need a new titration study and a change to a BiLevel ASV machine. That is what happened to me. It helped keep the AHI well below 3 and eliminate the CSR. It hasn't helped my practice of waking up for a bathroom break and staying awake for hours solving all the problems of the world in my head.

I have been dealing with a variety of personal stressors the past year. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in the next month or two. If that light isn't on the front of a locomotive things should start to settle down for me.

You may want to look at your big picture and see what is getting to you. Maybe your boyfriend needs a CPAP so you can move back to the same bedroom. Maybe there are deeper issues there that you need to deal with.