3 ms·

I've noticed this. Was pretty surprised. While awake can you really forget to breath? I thought it was impossible, but guess if the brain is really focused

I've noticed this. Was pretty surprised. While awake can you really forget to breath? I thought it was impossible, but guess if the brain is really focused on something, can happen.

VectorLock 3y ago
I don't think you can go all the way to suffocating from it. Even people with severe sleep apnea in very deep sleep will still be roused awake by their brains when their oxygen levels get very low.
dillydogg 3y ago
In med school I was surprised at how long it takes for your oxygen binding to drop. Hemoglobin can hang onto oxygen really well, even with a low partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs. Doctors aren't always right, of course, but my respiratory professors said that the desire to breathe is largely based on mechanical sensing with a lesser effect based on O2 and CO2 in the blood.
- patmorgan23 3y ago
  Isn't your breath reflex based more on the presence of CO2 rather than the lack of O2?
  - steve_adams_86 3y ago
    That’s what I learned in my free diving training. If you lower co2 levels and then use oxygen, your co2-triggered urge to breathe will be delayed. Sometimes it’ll be delayed until you’re hypoxic, at which point you could pass out. This happens due to hyperventilation in free diving (and other reasons, though this is the most common). You exhale more co2 than you would while breathing normally, then dive deeper or longer than you should because your blood isn’t the correct chemistry to trigger an urge to breathe when it should.
  - dillydogg 3y ago
    We have receptors that are specific for both. I don't know of studies that compare the relative effects of each, but for example, the carotid bodies are more specific for the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood than CO2
steve_adams_86 3y ago
If you’re very focused but also relaxed, I think the urge to breathe can be delayed a lot longer than most people realize. When free diving, a major component of extending your dives is not dramatically improving your oxygen capacity but learning to relax and utilize oxygen better. Concentration and relaxation go an impressive distance in improving breath holds. So I don’t think people forget to breathe, but it could be that we substantially delay breathing sometimes and it seems out of the ordinary, longer than someone normally might, and therefor strange. But maybe it’s not? I’m not sure.

I've noticed this. Was pretty surprised. While awake can you really forget to breath? I thought it was impossible, but guess if the brain is really focused on something, can happen.

VectorLock 3y ago

I don't think you can go all the way to suffocating from it. Even people with severe sleep apnea in very deep sleep will still be roused awake by their brains when their oxygen levels get very low.

dillydogg 3y ago

In med school I was surprised at how long it takes for your oxygen binding to drop. Hemoglobin can hang onto oxygen really well, even with a low partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs. Doctors aren't always right, of course, but my respiratory professors said that the desire to breathe is largely based on mechanical sensing with a lesser effect based on O2 and CO2 in the blood.

patmorgan23 3y ago
Isn't your breath reflex based more on the presence of CO2 rather than the lack of O2?
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  That’s what I learned in my free diving training. If you lower co2 levels and then use oxygen, your co2-triggered urge to breathe will be delayed. Sometimes it’ll be delayed until you’re hypoxic, at which point you could pass out. This happens due to hyperventilation in free diving (and other reasons, though this is the most common). You exhale more co2 than you would while breathing normally, then dive deeper or longer than you should because your blood isn’t the correct chemistry to trigger an urge to breathe when it should.
- dillydogg 3y ago
  We have receptors that are specific for both. I don't know of studies that compare the relative effects of each, but for example, the carotid bodies are more specific for the partial pressure of oxygen in the blood than CO2

steve_adams_86 3y ago

If you’re very focused but also relaxed, I think the urge to breathe can be delayed a lot longer than most people realize. When free diving, a major component of extending your dives is not dramatically improving your oxygen capacity but learning to relax and utilize oxygen better. Concentration and relaxation go an impressive distance in improving breath holds. So I don’t think people forget to breathe, but it could be that we substantially delay breathing sometimes and it seems out of the ordinary, longer than someone normally might, and therefor strange. But maybe it’s not? I’m not sure.