Problems with breathing through mouth?

[naiad]

Maybe a bit off topic, but I've always found it difficult to breathe through my mouth. This is obviously a problem for diving, but it usually isn't too bad. Most of the time I try to breathe through my nose. The problem is that breathing through my mouth makes me feel stressed, and I start hyperventilating, or I just don't breathe.

If my nose is blocked because I have flu, this gets out of control. At night, if my nose is blocked, I just don't sleep, because I have to put lots of effort into breathing through my nose. If I do fall asleep eventually, and I start breathing through my mouth, I wake up with a bad chest pain and bronchitis, which can last for days. :waterwork

Does anyone else have this problem?

Lucia

 

[land shark]

just concentrate on your exhale. the rest will automaticlly be accepted

 

[perow1]

I think the problem might be that your "focus point" of the breath is your mouth. I have a similar problem but the other way around. Actually it is not really a problem, but i cannot feel relaxed breathing through my nose. This is somewhat prevented if i stop thinking about breathing and just do it by chest and stomach movements. If i breath through my mouth and do it "sucking# like when im breathing through my nose it is very unpleasant. Just do it in a relaxed manner and it will be fine.

Since you get chest pains when breathing through your mouth while sleeping I would say that it has something to do with getting dry. You loose a lot more fluid when breathing through your mouth.

 

[naiad]

The problem is with the inhale, it just doesn't feel right. I think it might be partly psychological and partly physical. I have always suffered a lot from colds and flu, and complications caused by them, so I have negative associations of breathing through my mouth and feeling very ill. Now if I have to breathe through my mouth because my nose is blocked, I get that feeling of panic that I had when I had flu. I used to get what I call a 'blocked face' - blocked nose, blocked sinuses, sinus headache, blocked ears, earache, sore throat, swelling under the jaw, red eyes, sore mouth...

The chest pain probably does have something to do with getting dry.

I guess maybe the best thing is to try to think of it as something good, and something that I am doing voluntarily instead of something that I have to do.

Lucia

 

[DeepThought]

Try dedicating a few minutes a day to breathing through your mouth, increase duration when it gets better, build tolerance, same as with not breating.

Another thing you can try that might help psychologicaly:
Breath through your nose with your mouth open and play with the soft pallate, see how little difference it can be to alternate between both airways, use both at the same time... could be good for your mouthfill eq. as well.

 

[Skywalker]

Hm not being comfy with breathing with your mouth would be quite serious for me. Maybe you wanne see a trained therapist? There are these people that are doing rehabilitation for people who have suffered chest injuries or compareable by training breathing.

Robert

 

[naiad]

It is a serious problem. When I had trouble breathing because of complications after an operation, it was made much worse by the fact that I was always trying to breathe through my nose, even when it was blocked.

I'll try to get used to it and see what happens. I still don't know if it is physical or psychological. If it is psychological, I should be able to overcome it.

Lucia

 

[Jee]

Well, my wife has the same problem. She use a lot of chemicals (nose-drops) when going to sleep. I allways told her, that this is a silly thing, but as I could see on your case, this can be serious.

So I can only tell some experiences about this: there were periods, when she didn't have to use nose.-drop, then later she had to use that - otherwise she could not sleep. This could point to the fact, that in times, the airway through the nose was totally clean, she managed to breath through her nose easily - no medicine needed, other times having the slightest problem (flu, after flu, allergic reaction), the nose-drop was needed. This could point to, that it is physical, not psychological. I don't know.

So I am also interested in, if you can find out if this is physical or psychological issue.

 

[land shark]

you may find when you leave the city it may improve.

 

[naiad]

I have worked out what the problem is. It is physical. If I am lying down relaxed, and my nose is blocked, my mouth doesn't stay open enough for me to breathe properly. I don't know whether the problem is with my jaw, tongue, soft palate or something else, but if I don't keep my mouth open on purpose, there isn't enough space to breathe through. When I try to breathe in, a 'vacuum effect' is created which blocks the airway even more.

If my nose is blocked and I am relaxed, my breathing is noisy and laboured.

I don't have any problems like snoring or sleep apnea, and I haven't had any facial injury or deformity. I think my face is normal.

Unfortunately I have had chronic nasal congestion all my life. Most of the time it is at an acceptable level, but when I have a cold or flu, the problem gets out of control.

I am so glad to at least have worked out what the problem is. It is such a relief to know what is happening, after so many years. I thought it was just me being too stubborn to breathe through my mouth.

I think it should be a lot better when I leave the city.

Lucia