Rapid Breathing During Sleep

Hi everyone. I haven't posted in ages, mainly since I've adjusted very nicely to my snorkle. I feel pretty good and don't go to bed without putting my mask on, and have stopped pulling it off unintentionally during the night.

My husband has told me that he has noticed that when wakes up during the night that I'm breathing rather quickly, though I'm obviously sound asleep. He tries to keep pace with me, but it's so rapid that it's uncomfortable for him. Does anyone have else breathe quickly when they sleep, or have any idea what might be going on?

Thanks for your help.

My machine records by breath rate as BPM. I vary from 5 to 25 BPM throughout the night. Whe I'm breathing fast my heart rate exceeds 100 BPM (this time it's beats per minute). Don't know what causes it, but I have very disturbed sleep.

Bev

My wife has told me that she noticed that I was breathing very shallow and rapidly when I first started XPAP. She hasn't said anything about it for a while. I'll ask her tomorrow (after she wakes up)

My husband reported the fast breathing and I heard it as well when he had Aflex and Cflex turned on. When we turned it off his breathing became normal again and he was able to exhale OK without it. Just a thought.

Just some thoughts ...
Fast breathing can be a sign of excessive Co2 build up - that triggers respiration to clear the co2 & thus causes hyperventilation. Excessive Co2 can be from too much deadspace in the mask or re-breathing. I haven't heard of C-Flex or A-Flex contributing to hyperventilation but I guess it is possible.

Am sure other regulars will have some thoughts on this.

DSM

DSM, it wasn't so much the fast breathing as it was that he felt he had to breathe faster to keep up with the machine. The flex started to raise the pressure before he had completely finished his exhale, hope I'm explaining my hubby's description correctly.

DoriC wrote:DSM, it wasn't so much the fast breathing as it was that he felt he had to breathe faster to keep up with the machine. The flex started to raise the pressure before he had completely finished his exhale, hope I'm explaining my hubby's description correctly.

C-Flex can cause breaths to get out of synch but rarely does it cause breathing rapidly (I am taking the original poster's meaning as breathing faster breaths per minute, not as getting out of synch).

The post mentioned how the husband tried to keep pace but poster was breathing so rapidly he found it uncomfortable (he was probably hyper ventilating himself).

There can really be 2 types of 'rapid breathing' I can think of

1) co2 build up causing hyperventilation, or
2) rapid shallow breathing (panting) which has other causes (many).

One question I might ask is 'is there a history of high blood pressure here ?'

DSM

Cheyne-Stokes respiration? I don't know your current health status, but I've heard that term used for short bursts of rapid breathing. I don't think it's very common though.

tattooyu wrote:Cheyne-Stokes respiration? I don't know your current health status, but I've heard that term used for short bursts of rapid breathing. I don't think it's very common though.

Cheynes-Stokes breathing is a very distinct 'pattern'.

It has two cyclic phases -
waxing - when the sleeper breathes deeper & faster - hyperventilation
waning - when the sleeper breathes slower & shallower - hypoventilation
after the waning cycle it is typical that an apnea (central) occurs.

Each phases lasts a couple of minutes & the pattern repeats. It is largely caused by the heart not being strong enough to drive respiration.
The blood flow is inadequate to do a good gas exchange in the lungs & co2 builds up causing the waxing phase & when the co2 is flushed that
causes the waning phase.

The SV class machines nearly all started out as devices to 'normalize' CS Respiration (CSR). The same mechanisms used to normalize CSR also help
normalize PB (Periodic Breathing - best understood as 'periods of breathing', kind of like an erratic CSR rather than regular pattern that CSR is).
As well as PB, SV normalization helps with mixed and complex sleep disordered breathing types.

Mixed is where someone has both OSA & CA (obstructions & centrals) that are not triggered by each other or the therapy pressure.
Complex is where the CA bit starts to happen as a result of going on therapy for the OSA - i.e. machine pressure induced centrals

DSM

#2

CA = Central Apnea (sleeper's brain stops sending 'breathe' signal)
OSA = Obstructive Sleep Apnea (airflow gets blocked)