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You asked, "...Can shallow breathing cause this if there is a somekind of lung defect..." The answer is absolutely. I can sit in a chair, breathe shallowly and watch my O2 sats decline minute by minute. Similarly, I can deep breathe and watch them recover. (By the way, I do have a number of lung issues, but my day-to-day sats, except during exertion, are in the mid nineties.)
Think about the mechanics of breathing - when you breathe in shallowly, you take in a much smaller volume of air with which to replace the oxygen in you lungs. When you breathe out shallowly, you expel much less carbon dioxide, which interferes with the lungs' ability to use the oxygen you are inhaling. Also a normal full breath cycle, not even deep breathing, inflates
and empties all four lobes of your lungs, but a shallow breath either only reaches the upper lobes, or partially inflates & deflates the 4 lobes.
I used to wake often during the night - sometimes feeling like a fish trying to breathe out of water. For the past 2 months, I have been working with a therapist on deep breathing to improve my sleep and reduce pain. Doing belly breathing exercises randomly throughout the day, and 10 minutes of deep breathing and relaxation in bed to fall asleep. My Fitbit has recorded a great improvement in my sleep pattern. I wish it recorded O2, but sadly it does not.
Do you have any underlying lung or heart issues? Maybe when you have your sleep study, if they do not find apnea, you can ask about some breathing exercises to teach yourself to more fully inflate/deflate your lungs?
Sue
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Well I got a sleep study but pulmonologist was a jerk and I now need a real research oriented clinic to evaluate my situation. I assumed I had Central sleep apnea where you just don’t breath. It not obstructive. My research indicated it’s rare, less than 1% and CPAP usually doesn’t work. Sometime supplemental oxygens works great. I asked if they had O2 at the sleep clinic, no they didn’t. Anyway, study started at 11pm, woke me before 1am to put on CPAP as I was having acute sleep apnea. Kept increasing pressure until it was rediculous.
Later Dr called and was going to send me a CPAP machine. I told him NO. Asked for apt to discuss results. He was a jerk, couldn’t even give me a copy of the actual chart which is the type you can see on the net. I am going to do my own study with supplemental oxygen and have first appointment end of October with a real sleep clinic who works with a group of pulmonologist, cardiologist, and Neuralogist. Etc.
Now that I think back on. My history, every time I was in the hospital and all wired up, the O2 would always alarm. I would breath a bunch to force it up.
I always had problems with the O2 gadgets and assumed they didn’t work right on me. Apparently, they were right and I have the problem. I will get to the bottom and fill you guys in.
With the O2 ring I can breath and watch the level drop from 98 to low 90,s or even 80 over a 30 second span. I feel ok. Just strange. During day and active it’s fairly normal, but slight relaxed state with shallow breathing it goes into this cycle behavior.
Is gadget wrong or is it me.
On me O2 flucuent constantly about 8-10 points at roughly one minute cycle. The average will vary with sleep stages and can drop to low 80,s. On my wife, nice slowly varying signal, so not the device.
There is a phrenic nerve stimulator which is like a pace maker and will stimulate the diafram if you don’t breath. It’s surgery, but may be needed in real central apnea