Let's find out. Let's keep it simple for now and just understand the word. Hyperventilation is too much breathing. Now we can start to think about " Too much of what?
What does "too much" refer to? When we ask people in our courses why they breathe, the first answer is pretty much always "Because I need Oxygen" or derivatives thereof. So let's see if we can create a useful definition based on that answer. This is a relatively easy one to test.
After all, that's why rescue breaths work. What does this tell us? This tells us that we exhale the majority of the oxygen we breathe in, even though it would still be useful for us! Now, if - according to the definition we are testing - hyperventilation is breathing more oxygen than we need, then reality tells us that we are hyperventilating almost always!
Would you intuitively say you are hyperventilating? Probably not, right? So, while this definition of hyperventilation is possible, it does not seem to make a lot of sense, as it defines breathing normally as breathing too much. That just doesn't seem very helpful, s o, let's throw this one out of the window. Thinking of oxygen when defining hyperventilation isn't helping.
What other definitions could we test? We know that all the nitrogen we breathe is effectively too much anyway as we are not making use of it. So it is an easy one to discard. So, more CO2 you make — deeper or faster you breathe. For example, when you are sleeping, you are not producing that much CO2, and your breath is shallow and quiet. But in contrast, if you are running, you create much more CO2, which dramatically affects your breathing rate and depth. Back to Freediving.
Remember, how breath-hold looks like? Relaxations breathing, breath-hold itself, and recovery breathing after. Relaxation breathing can vary among freedivers, and we like to experiment with it. And some freedivers intentionally or unintentionally can do hyperventilation instead of relaxation breathing. Why would someone do it intentionally? Is it an attempt to bring more O2?
Unlikely, since the vast majority of O2 in your body is already connected with hemoglobin, this will not be affected by manipulation with breathing. The answer is that someone does hyperventilation to decrease CO2 in the blood and delay the urge to breathe. And what about unintentional hyperventilation? It's the very act of hyperventilating that can be deadly. When you hyperventilate before underwater swimming, you push more CO2 out of your lungs than with normal breathing, which diminishes the urge to breathe.
Once the oxygen in your bloodstream is used up, your brain stops functioning properly, and without warning you can lose consciousness. At that point your system automatically forces you to take a breath, and water fills your lungs. Unless rescue is immediate, brain damage and death are likely. Training with instructors and with a skilled free-diving or swimming club will help reduce your risk of tragic accidents.
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