Posted by dirtywater on March 06, 2009 at 19:28:45:

In Reply to: Re: New diagnosis: complex sleep apnea posted by Gremlin on March 04, 2009 at 23:46:33:

Hmm, you may be having some sort of hyperventilation issue. Have you had it checked out by a pulmonologist?

Check out this description of hyperventilation syndrome:
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/807277-overview

The description is pretty intimidating and describes all sorts of symptoms you probably aren't experiencing, but take a look at the second-to-last paragraph:

"When stressed, these patients rely on thoracic breathing rather than diaphragmatic breathing, resulting in a hyperexpanded chest and high residual lung volume. Because of the high residual volume, they are then unable to take a normal tidal volume with the next breath and consequently experience dyspnea."

So, in plain English: if a person is unconsciously hyperventilating (breathing quickly and shallowly), his lungs will start to fill up with unexhaled air. Then when he tries to take a deep breath, he will be unable to do so, because he already has all this stale air sitting around in his lungs.

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