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1318483 tn?1318347182

The heavy sigh?

I just saw a post about this and it really caught my attention.  I started noticing this a couple of months ago.  I went in for a pulmonary function test and it came back good.  I think that was about the time that I started having swallowing issues, too.

I didn't realize other people do this, too.  Can others tell me their experiences with it?  

Addi
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1318483 tn?1318347182

Too funny!  I sleep alone, well except for one of my Yorkie furbabies.  She will look up at me sometimes when I do it, like "how dare you disturb my beauty sleep?"....does that count?  ;0)

RF - I don't do the yawns.  Just when I am tired.  lol

Addi
Helpful - 0
405614 tn?1329144114
Hmm, I think I'll pass this along to a friend that was concerned about her deep sighs.  And remember to take some deeper breaths myself now and then...
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1312898 tn?1314568133
I have always wondered about the yawning.  I thought it was an emotional thing like when you are depressed.  It makes so much sense though that you have to hyper-inflate.  Very interesting

Thanks for the info.

lois
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1253197 tn?1331209110
I know that when I am just drifting off to sleep at night-time, I sometimes wake myself up (or my hubbie) by doing a really heavy noisy sigh. I am not sure it anything MS related but who knows....

Sarah
Helpful - 0
1318483 tn?1318347182
Thanks, JJ.  Mine are nothing like that.  I am sorry that you experience it.  Mine is just a normal heavy sigh...but I have been having some wheezing, coughing, swallowing issues.  

The sigh I do is just like it comes on real quick and it is a big one and then it is gone.  lol  I just noticed it a couple months ago and was wondering where it came from.  I thought by having a pulmonary function test, I would get some answers....but I didn't.  Not even for the wheezing and coughing.

Then I saw something posted here and went hmmm.  I think I will ask about that.  ~grin~

Addi

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987762 tn?1671273328
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hi Addi,

I do a weird sigh thing, i only started doing it in 08 when i had a bad case of intercostal muscle spasms (HUG?) and i have noted it happens more when i'm having back spasms over a long period of time, which sounds like it fits in with what Quix is saying.

Unlike a normal sigh, i do a jerky 5 or 6 intakes and exhale of air, like my lungs are not expanding right, once the jerky inhale/exhale stops, i then get the rush of expended air (sigh), its like getting that breath was an effort. I can do this quite a few times in an hour, then not have it happen again for days or weeks.

I dont think i notice the normal sighs, there's nothing that memorable about them, these type are some what strange and stand out as something being not quite right.

Cheers.....JJ

  
Helpful - 0
1318483 tn?1318347182
Perfect!  Thanks Quix.  I love when I ask a question on this site and it is answered in laymens terms and makes complete sense.  ;0)

Hope you are feeling a bit better...

Addi
Helpful - 0
147426 tn?1317265632
I want to do an FYI on this topic so people can put sighing into a context.

The normal person sighs about once every 20 minutes in the normal state.  For the most part we don't notice it.

The purpose of the sigh is to briefly hyperinflate the lungs to keep them maximally open.  As we breath normally, the lungs to not fully inflate and small areas of them, in the alveoli, collapse and the walls stick together.  This is called atelectasis.  The sigh pops these areas open.

If a person is breathing shallowly from habit (most of us are lousy breathers), posture, pain, restriction (the HUG), etc, we may get a lot of atelectasis and require more frequent sighing.  Sighing can also be a sign of air hunger from low O2 in the blood.

This was all discovered when they built the first ventilators.  People were all ending up with severe atelectasis and collapsed lungs.  They discover that they had to incorporate periodic sighs into the rhythm of the breathing to keep the lungs fully open.  It's also why they hound you to breathe deeply after surgery or anesthesia.

FYI.

Quix
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