Hyperventilation Causes Sleep Paralysis and Sleep Talking

(How and Why Sleep Can Create Health Problems)

Video: Good Sleep Hygiene (see on the right). Hyperventilation is breathing more than the medical norm. When our breathing is heavy (deep and/or fast) during sleep, we lack two crucial chemicals in the brain: carbon dioxide and oxygen. Cerebral hypocapnia (lack of CO2 in the brain) makes the nerve cells overexcited. Hypocapnia also causes reduced brain perfusion and lowered brain oxygen levels. Some people can experience sleep paralysis (with nightmares and hallucinations) and sleep talking. Reduced blood flow to vital organs and vasoconstriction also leads to poor control of blood glucose, weight gain, headaches, acne and other negative symptoms.

Person sleeping on his back with open mouth

If you have healthy relatives or friends, you can see that their breathing during sleep is very light. In fact, the breathing of the healthy person is noiseless and so quiet, that it may scare some people to death ("Is he alive?"). Vice versa, breathing of sleeping sick people is easy to hear and see: it is noisy and visible.

Numerous medical studies showed that morning hyperventilation (of sleep heavy breathing effect) leads to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, epilepsy seizures, acute asthma exacerbations, and so forth.

Russian medical doctors invented various methods and techniques to prevent these acute life-threatening states, as well as sleep talking and sleep paralysis. They also discovered that sleep talking and sleep paralysis with nightmares and hallucinations disappear when the person has more than 20 s for the body oxygen test.

What are the causes of sleep hyperventilation?

Mouth breathing

People with mouth breathing problems This is the most destructive sleep factor. Nasal breathing is crucial for one's health during sleep and at all other times. It was considered before and is easy to check. Is your mouth dry when you wake up? If it so, consider using a simple mouth taping technique, which is a part of web page How to Maintain Nasal Breathing 24-7. For many modern mouth breathers, mouth taping technique will immediately reduce their problems with after-sleep headaches, weight gain, acne, sleep talking and sleep paralysis.

Sleeping on one's back

Among body positions, sleeping on one's back (supine position) is worst for all tested conditions, as 24 medical studies suggest (see Sleep Positions Medical Research Summary). Some people experience sleep paralysis and sleep talking only in supine position. Research conducted in the Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) found that, indeed, "...A greater number of individuals reported SP [with terrifying hallucinations] in the supine position than all other positions combined. The supine position was also 3-4 times more common during SP than when normally falling asleep..." (Cheyne, 2002). Kompanje (2008) also observed that "that sleep paralysis and hypnagogic experiences occur more often in supine position of the body".

Woman sleeping In order to solve this problem, you can review How to Prevent Sleeping on One's Back. Sleeping on the right side also causes increased ventilation in comparison with sleeping on the left side or on the chest (see the graph from the Correct Sleeping Positions web page showing typical body oxygen changes for different sleeping postures in adults). Sleeping on the left side and the abdomen (prone position) are also best for prevention of weight gain, sleep headaches, and acne. The best sleep position, according to Russian medical Buteyko doctors, is sleeping sitting, while inclined sleep therapy is also beneficial (see the complete manual for all sleep related factors - Good Sleep Hygiene).

Children's ventilation is minimum when they are sleeping on their tummies (Buteyko, 1977). Swaddled infants should sleep on their backs.

Presence of disease and existing damage in the body

Sick man sleeping in hospital Talking about sleep effects during his Lecture in the Moscow State University, Dr. Buteyko noticed,

"The horizontal position, lying intensifies breathing. Patients with asthma, heart disease, hypertension, and stenocardia often have acute states at night. If they lie down during the day time, or lie for 2-3 hours; the breathing gets heavier, the attacks come. Many severely sick patients sit, afraid to lie down. This is sensible. We should lie down only for sleeping. Our patients cannot control their breathing at night, and hence, sleep is poison for them." (Buteyko, 1977).

Sleeping too long

Six medical doctors smiling Sleeping too long, according to Dr. Buteyko, intensifies breathing causing prolonged periods of gradually increasing hyperventilation (p.177, Khoroscho, 1982). Hence, it also leads to weight gain, headaches, sleep talking, sleep paralysis, and acne. However, lack of sleep also causes hyperventilation due to daytime sleepiness, hormonal misbalance, brain dysfunction, and other negative effects.

Other causes

Among other causes are poor air quality (especially due to carpets), soft beds, abnormal thermoregulation (e.g., too warm blankets), etc. During sleep, as each hour passes, breathing gets deeper and heavier for most people. As a result, body oxygen levels decreases. That is easy to check using the body oxygen test. The CP drop is especially noticeable after 4-6 hours of sleep. (We are physiologically created to sleep less than 4-5 hours.)

Related Web Pages

Manual (Instructional Guide) "How to prevent sleeping on one's back"
Web pages: Sleep Positions; Cold Shower Benefits and Rules (excellent just before sleep too)

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References
Buteyko KP, Lecture in the Moscow State University, Soviet national journal Nauka i zshizn'; [Science and life], Moscow, issue 10, October 1977.

Cheyne JA, Situational factors affecting sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations: position and timing effects, J Sleep Res. 2002 Jun;11(2):169-77.
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Khoroscho A, Interview with Buteyko [in Russian] 1982, in Buteyko method. Its application in medical practice, ed. by K.P. Buteyko, 2nd ed., 1991, Titul, Odessa, p.168-180.

Kompanje EJ, 'The devil lay upon her and held her down'. Hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis described by the Dutch physician Isbrand van Diemerbroeck (1609-1674) in 1664, J Sleep Res. 2008 Dec;17(4):464-7. Epub 2008 Aug 5.
Department of Intensive Care, Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
... This case from 1664 should be cited as the earliest detailed account of sleep paralysis associated with hypnagogic illusions and as the first observation that sleep paralysis and hypnagogic experiences occur more often in supine position of the body.

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* Illustrations by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe