fnorette wrote:dsm -
Your description of "[being] aware of often going into an almost hybernation state where I stop breathing or go into very shallow breathing" is EXACTLY what I have experienced for years but didn't know it was of any significance. And I, too, would do that to lower my BP prior to a doctor's visit.
A long term problem ... ???
I took this matter up today with Dianne one of the senior sleep studies clinic people I have been dealing with here and she remarked that earlier this week she had been discussing much the same issue with one of the sleep studies professors associated with the clinic. She referred to it as 'buteyko breathing' ... http://www.metta.org.uk/therap/buteyko.asp
The professor pointed out that while the breathing could be used to control our awake state, it was most likely it was having no effect (or interference) in our sleeping state, esp REM sleep. Dianne then showed me the output of one person's sleep study graphs & highlighted the period of REM sleep this person was in - each time this person with OSA went REM, their blood oxygen level plummeted & Dianne explained that this was because in REM sleep the muscles become paralysed (else we would act out our dreams physically) and the person airway had become blocked as the slack muscles collapse & blocked the passage of air between the head & torso.
In effect she said that when we go into deep sleep, any training or yoga style meditation control, becomes nullified by the body's natural sleep mechanisms & that breathing becomes autonomic.
In the case of the OSA sufferer going into REM & having an apnea, eventually the brain gets the alarm & issues wake up calls to the body. At this point the autonomic breathing is taken over by the brain, we typically gasp & choke then get air again but by this time our heart is racing & our blood oxygen level has gone low.
Cheers
DSM