06-A-Causes of Poor Sleep, Insomnia, Brain Oxygen Levels and Breathing

What are the causes of poor sleep quality? What is the cause of insomnia on a cell level? Why do sick people have worse sleep for virtually all health conditions? We need to connect sleep with automatic breathing during sleep. In fact, your breathing is the main factor that defines your quality of sleep.

Sleeping problems are present in normal people. About 10% of Western people suffer from chronic insomnia (Roth T, Roehrs, 2003; Pigeon, 2010) and many more have mild sleeping problems. What are their causes?

Over 90% of modern normal people are heavy breathers (see the links with dozens of studies below). Sick people breathe even more, as over 50 medical studies testify. This relates to people with heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, asthma, COPD, and many other chronic disorders.

Deep and fast breathing causes low CO2 levels in the body cells. This makes the brain over-excited (since CO2 is a natural sedative of nervous cells) and body muscles tense (since carbon dioxide is a strong relaxant of muscles). For example, medical research suggests that hyperventilation "leads to spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons" (Huttunen et al, 1999 - published in a journal devoted to neurology). These spontaneous and asynchronous signals or thoughts create insomnia and other problems with sleep, including sleep disordered breathing.

In addition, low brain oxygen content worsen sleep due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by tissue hypoxia. This generates free radicals and suppresses the immune system.

As a result, people with different breathing patterns have different quality and duration of sleep. Those who breathe slower and lighter, have better sleep and no problems with insomnia.

Buteyko and his medical colleagues developed main rules for good sleep hygiene. Their lifestyle ideas are provided on this page: Good Sleep Hygiene and How to Sleep -
http://www.normalbreathing.com/how-to-sleep.php
http://www.normalbreathing.com/how-to-sleep-less.php

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• sleep
• poor sleep
• how to sleep
• insomnia
• insomnia cause
• causes of poor sleep
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• good sleep hygiene
• sleep hygiene
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• alternative medicine

[surfinthetao]

So what hours of the morning are these problems noted to appear? Would a often shifting sleep schedule where you may some times get up at night instead of the morning cause one to possibly experiencing symptoms as they woke up at night, or regardless if they woke up at night, we they be more likely to have a symptom the next morning after they've been up for hours?

[artour2006]

@surfinthetao

Yes. You one wakes up at around 3 am and does some breath work or goes for a brisk walk for 15-20 min, the effects of morning hyperventilation could disappear. More info in Sleep Hygiene web page and Buteyko Lecture on the website NormalBreathing.

[cwegemer]

The physiology and living habits of Gorillas is much different that of humans to the point general comparison is impossibly complex. If you specify exact mechanisms, maybe some parallels can be drawn.

'Peaceful' is a relative term; they have the full range of animal tendencies. Watching 'Gorillas in the Mist' romanticizes their nature.

Vegetarianism is irrelevant here too.

[merlijnsilvester]

I don't understand this. Gorilla's sleep

13 hours on a soft bed of grass. They are

very relaxed and peaceful animals, they

are even vegetarians. How you square this with your theory? They are strong and healthy

[trypojay]

Site is intellegent and passionate...a rare combination..the true effects of CO2 really got my mind working... as possible scientific explanation for the dramatic negative changes 10 years ago when the left phrenic nerve was destroyed in a very rare manifestion of "shingles" named Parsonage Turner Syndrome...over a 3 day period my life changed from health to hell...8-26 suboccipital migraines/mo, awakened by pain 2-6 /nite, severe fatique, panic attacks, poor conc. +breathing pattern changed!!