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I'm still fine, never started CPAP nor did I invest in a dental appliance, and I've had no recurrences of the sleep transition apnea/wake up gasping. I haven't done Wim Hof breathing practice in the last year. I believe that doing Wim Hof for that short period of a few weeks really trained my brain that higher CO2 levels at sleep transition didn't require a fight/flight reaction, so my body no longer reacts that way. I did make a few other changes around that time - bought a treadmill and still do about 30mins/day vigourous walking, which was a component of some of the other advice given for this problem. I lost about 15lbs then gained back because beer is just too tasty. Despite the treadmill daily I still believe the Wim Hof was the key.
Good luck deinhac, it's a awful situation to fear going to bed and I hope you find something that works.
Hi Becca, I did years of regular belly breathing for anxiety. It is an amazing solution for that problem, changed my life really. The person I credit is Eli Bay and his "Empowered Breathing" relaxation tape. My belief is that doing that deep breathing so frequently oxygenated my blood to high levels which became the norm for my body. Then at sleep transition time when breathing becomes autonomic and more typical, those O2 levels dropped, CO2 increased, and my body was reacting with a terrorful "WAKE UP AND GET MORE OXYGEN" response. Wim Hof breathing went the other way - exhale and hold, get used to higher C02 levels, and my body's terror reaction subsided. I know you mentioned elsewhere the Wim Hof doesn't seem to be working for you, which I'm sorry to hear....this is a horrible state to be in so I will say a prayer that you find a solution.
1,100 views of this thread. Rumours of the death of myapnea.org forums might have been premature!
Yes, exactly. Tinnitus? Wow...I also suffer from that but it wasn't impacted by the breathing. You can trim it down - 3 breaths instead of 10. I was doing 3 reps of normal inhale, big exhale, then one additional exhale to empty the lungs, then hold as long as possible. I used the timer on my iPhone to track my hold progress. When I got to about 45 secs the sleep onset transitional apnea stopped. I was so relieved, I thought I was in for an ongoing night time horror.
From google: There are: Visual Learners: those that need to see pictures and graphs to visualize. Auditory Learners: those who need to hear the information. Kinesthetic Learners: those who need to engage in an activity in order to grasp a concept.
You're not dense at all - we all learn differently!
Thank you...great news!
Also - the email notifications work fine - I'm receiving them.
I posted this thread here, similar to this one, and tried the technique mentioned: https://myapnea.org/forum/sleep-onset-transitional-central-sleep-apnea
The Wim Hof breathing has worked - I'm pretty sure it trained my mind & body to not be terrified of a higher CO2 level for those few seconds on the wake/sleep border, and the wake-up-gasping symptom went away. Initially I was doing the breathing exercise 3-4 times per day, but I haven't done them for a few weeks now, and my falling asleep has remained normal. All I can say is - give it a try! For me it was a godsend.
Thanks! Great info, I appreciate it.
I'm just here to post in support of the powers that be doing anything they can to keep this knowledgebase fresh and thriving. Many, many people will benefit as I have. I think I might be a very typical drive-by poster who has a specific issue for a short duration, but if you stack all the small bricks like mine you can build an impressive long-lasting pyramid for the ages.
Hi Sierra - Unfortunately it was a phone consult and I only received the limited info I mentioned above. I did read the complex sleep apnea article pretty much right after I arrived here. In my case I believe the post I linked nailed it with respect to my condition - I programmed myself for high oxygenation / low CO2 by doing a lot of anxiety-relieving deep belly breathing, and then at sleep transition where the CO2 got higher my body was reacting negatively (ie: screaming to WAKE UP AND BREATHE). The Wim Hof breathing practice (hold breath as long as possible on empty lungs) re-acclimatized my body to a higer CO2 level and it made the sleep transition reaction go away. This may be a terrible case of bad science / high belief on my part but my primary issue is resolved. I hope it can help others. I am still considering whether or not to start CPAP or try a dental appliance. My thanks for your presence here and responses, I think this forum has great value and I hope the other thread about it slowly dying proves to be wrong.
