How do you fully exhale?

Without CPAP, I sometimes feel like it requires too much effort to fully fill my lungs with each breath. (As I'm relaxing, the breaths definitely get somewhat shallower.) Relaxing fully empties my lungs.

But with CPAP in my titration study, the feeling was reversed. It was now easy to fully fill my lungs, but it felt like it required extra effort to fully empty them. Every once in a while, I'd do a full exhale to get what felt like stale air out.

Have other people felt like that? Is it just a comfort issue, or does it indicate a problem? How do people deal with it?

I've never experienced this, but have some ideas for you to explore:

- Allergies?
- Have you ever considered yoga? There are deep relaxation yoga classes that are focused on breathing and calming yourself.
- UARS?
- Anxiety?

We all began this way. It takes a while to become accustomed to breathing against a hurricane
If your pressure is high enough, you may even have a few mornings of sore chest muscles (like you have following a cold when you have coughed so much your muscles are taxed.) But like any muscle, the more you work your chest, the stronger it gets. In two or three weeks you will find yourself exhaling against the wind as if it weren't there.
The "new life" that comes with effective treatment makes all of this worth while so, hang in there.

@caffeinatedcfo, it doesn't feel like obstruction or tension. It mostly feels like a lazy diaphragm. Without CPAP total relaxation "totally" empties my lungs (at least it feels that way). With CPAP total relaxation doesn't. After a while that feels a little uncomfortable so I occasionally have to use additional effort to get rid of the lingering CO2.

I wasn't sure whether that was a problem or simply different from what I'm used to.

@imfletch, thanks for the encouragement!

my first night using a cpap machine, I woke up with sore abs. Felt like I'd been doing crunches while asleep. It also 'hurt' a little exhale and inhale for a couple of hours afterwards. It was explained to me that my lungs were fully inflating while asleep so I was stretching muscles to make room for the inflated lungs

I have that problem, and in my case it caused complex apnea and I got a AVS machine...

You might look into a BiLevel machine, which cuts the pressure to allows you to exhale.

Personally I think within a few years all treatment will be by ASV machines.

Rich

sawinglogz wrote:@caffeinatedcfo, it doesn't feel like obstruction or tension. It mostly feels like a lazy diaphragm. Without CPAP total relaxation "totally" empties my lungs (at least it feels that way).

I would wager that you would benefit from a 'deep relaxation' yoga class. Remember that the diaphragm is a muscle too. I have found that yoga breathing has complimented my CPAP therapy nicely.

caffeinatedcfo wrote:

sawinglogz wrote:@caffeinatedcfo, it doesn't feel like obstruction or tension. It mostly feels like a lazy diaphragm. Without CPAP total relaxation "totally" empties my lungs (at least it feels that way).

I would wager that you would benefit from a 'deep relaxation' yoga class. Remember that the diaphragm is a muscle too. I have found that yoga breathing has complimented my CPAP therapy nicely.

+1

Most people have forgotten how to breathe. Just watch how a toddler breathes ... that is how we are supposed to breathe, with our belly muscles.

Every night, even with BiPAP, I start off feeling like I have to work to exhale (which if I concentrate on it triggers the heeby-jeebies and the mask goes flying across the room), yet by morning it's effortless. But 18 hours later, it's back to conscious exhaling, at least for the first few minutes until I fall asleep.
One of the Mysteries of The Hose, I guess...

Sawinglogz, how long have you been on Cpap? If you have been on less than a month, you might simply being going through an adjustment period developing stronger breathing muscles. More than a month, it is time to try different solutions including looking into a bi level.

I too find yoga a wonderful complement to cpap use. Doing some simple yoga exercises every day resulted in having a much deeper and regular breath and helped me develop my breathing muscles. Not just diaphragm but all those little muscles in the torso and stomach that are helpers.

What is your pressure? That information might help us help you.

sawinglogz wrote:Without CPAP, I sometimes feel like it requires too much effort to fully fill my lungs with each breath. (As I'm relaxing, the breaths definitely get somewhat shallower.) Relaxing fully empties my lungs.

But with CPAP in my titration study, the feeling was reversed. It was now easy to fully fill my lungs, but it felt like it required extra effort to fully empty them. Every once in a while, I'd do a full exhale to get what felt like stale air out.

Have other people felt like that? Is it just a comfort issue, or does it indicate a problem? How do people deal with it?

You don't say what machine you are using...(that would help), but if your machine has an exhale relief (EPR) setting perhaps it needs to be increased.

I would strongly suggest using the EPR (Expiratory Pressure Relief) setting on your machine. It wil make exhaling much easier. I have mine set at the max. of 3, which works well for me. If you wil go to your user control panel and input your machine, mask, and humidifier (if you use one) we can help you change your setting for the EPR if you aren't sure how to do it.

Thanks everybody for the tips. This was during my titration study using a ResMed VPAP Tx (looks like the old S8 series), which can be remotely monitored and controlled to switch between therapies (CPAP, APAP, Bi-Level, and ASV). It was in CPAP mode with EPR=3.

I'm off to a follow-up study tonight!

sawinglogz wrote:Without CPAP, I sometimes feel like it requires too much effort to fully fill my lungs with each breath. (As I'm relaxing, the breaths definitely get somewhat shallower.) Relaxing fully empties my lungs.

But with CPAP in my titration study, the feeling was reversed. It was now easy to fully fill my lungs, but it felt like it required extra effort to fully empty them. Every once in a while, I'd do a full exhale to get what felt like stale air out.

Have other people felt like that? Is it just a comfort issue, or does it indicate a problem? How do people deal with it?

Hi sawinglogz!

In highschool I played trombone and sang a lot. Church kept me singing and I probably talked too much. My exhale muscles are strong.

So the pressure did not bother me in terms of exhale.

Now with Post Tramatic Stress added to the fray some three years after CPAP therapy started the constant pressure of the machine makes it easy to over breath.

We all have our individual issues with getting used to and using CPAP.

Have a great weekend!

Todzo