Rapid Breathing and hyperventilating

[Judy1843]

I’m not sure why this is happening however sometimes I have rapid breathing and a feeling of not getting enough air while using my cpap. It feels like I’m hyperventilating. I try to relax and breath slow however sometimes I just have to take off my mask until it goes away. Has this ever happened to anyone? My numbers are all good and it does eventually go away.
Thanks in advance!

[Sleeprider]

As I recall you have a history of afib. The feeling of breathlessness and anxiety go hand in hand with that. I think you should discuss with your doctor and perhaps consider getting a Kardia or even the new Apple Watch that allows for EKG monitoring. At least you can verify or eliminate that concern when this happens.

You can post Sleepyhead data. If you have either hyperventilation or tachypnea it will show up.

[Judy1843]

Yes I do have afib! It does not feel like I’m in afib however anxiety may be part of it!
I had my loop recorder removed and also think an Apple Watch would be good.
Thank you!

[RNeil]

As I understand it, our urge to breathe is not from lack of oxygen, it is from high CO2. With CPAP, we exhale into the mask and hose. We are inhaling some of our exhaled air. If not enough air is going out the vent, you will get too much CO2 and you will want to breathe more. I once washed the mask before bed and got the mesh wet and had that problem. You also want to make sure you are relaxed and not breathing hard before you put on the mask.

[Judy1843]

Yes I think maybe that is part of my problem. I live in a 2 story home and run up the stairs jump in bed and put on my mask. 
Thanks!

[CB91710]

The positive flow does a pretty good job of flushing the CO2. Keep in mind that while you are inhaling, even with EPR enabled, the blower will increase and I can feel that MORE air is blowing through the vent than when I am exhaling.
I think some similar events that I experienced were actually "hypocapnia"... not enough CO2, so while I wasn't encountering Central Apnea events, I felt as if I wasn't breathing enough. This would push a small amount of anxiety, which would increase my pulse rate, and the whole mess would feed off of itself.
I actually ended up in the ER twice. All blood tests, BUN, EKG, and O2 sat were normal, even though my pulse (and thus, BP) were extremely elevated.
I knew it wasn't a *direct* result of the CPAP, as the same thing had happened shortly before my sleep study. At the time I wrote it off to being related to my apnea.

Similarly, mask leaks and mouth leaks can tend to trigger Central events, as the high flow can tend to flush too much CO2 from the exhaled breath, while normally, our "dead space" includes out mouth and nasal cavities, an extremely high flow can reduce that.