Straining to complete yawn, yawning all day, feel i just need a deep breath.

[Cloefish]

I have had this problem for a long time, but in the last year it has gotten worse and I cant stand it.  I regularly go through periods where I feel the need to yawn or get a deep breath and I just cant. I try and try over and over to yawn (causing me to get head aches), and finally accomplish it just to need  to yawn again. I am a sleepy person all the time,  but  the  straining  to yawn thing  makes me  crazy! I also have increasingly bad short term memory problems (at only 25), could this be connected to the yawning, and lack of oxygen to the  brain? could I  have asthma?  thank you so much for any help you can give me.

[Valm82]

Kennedy, I had a similar problem recently.  Everyone insisted it was anxiety, or just in my head  :/  It turns out I had a minor neck injury (slept wrong on it) and my occipital nerve became swollen.  It was causing me to strain for air.  After a while, the area under my shoulder blades began to feel sore/tired. I can go on and on about the Dr.s that continuously misdiagnosed me and how, but I'd rather tell you about the doc that helped.  In a nutshell, I pinpointed the problem, and he recommended that I take a medicine called methylprenisolone.  I believe it's a type of steroid.  I had to take it for 6 days. First day was a 6 pill dose, next day was a 5 pill dose, then 4, 3, 2, and 1.  You're very young so your Dr. might either recommend something else, or a smaller amount.  I feel much better, and can now breathe. There are other issues that might cause this problem.  This is what I found: Aortic Dissection, Obesity, Head Injury, and Sleep Apnea.  Have your parent or gaurdian help you research these terms, that way when you go to the Dr, you'll have someone to help you describe your symptoms and what you think might be the problem.  Good luck, I hope this helps.

[arq_prot]

I am 30 years old now, I have had this problem since I can remember. It goes adn come back. The more attention I pay to it the worst it gets. I have had my lungs, heart, tyroids, stomach check. I did had at some moment weird level or my tiroid hormones, but the other times they were not there. i have had gastristis and esofagitis several times, but they also went away. I have had heart problem, and it turns out it was overtraining. I am a elite swimmer and a triathlets, so not being able to breath properly is just killing me. After having the same answer always:  Is just Anxiety, you are probably under stress, I decided to never go to the doctor again. I was also check for allergys but they say I have no allergies, even though the doctor prescribe Antiallergics, like Allegra or Zyrtec and Floxonase. The more I breathe through my nose the less symphtoms I have. And usually when I have a free nose I don't even remember this problem. I can't honestly remember when is started but my first memory was when I was around 6 years old, and my mother keep asking me why I was yawning so much, and I just told her that I needed to get some air. Everything that you have posted here I have had. Not so much the headaches.
The gastro problems don't seem to me to be the problem because I was taking nexium and I still had troubles.
Only the antiallergics help. My twin sister develop the same problem 5 years ago, and a doctor told her that by breathing through the mouth she was stressing her bronchious. I have no idea what is right or wrong anymore. I am trying to not take pills because at the end it may turn out to be something lese and you were just getting the worng substances in your body. All I can say is that having a really free nose help me a lot. Even when I don't feel like my nose is the problem.
I hope my post will help some of you. Your post certainly help me feel like I'm not alone in this and that I should just try to cope with it the best I can until someone finally get's a treatment for this.
PS: Stresss and anxiety do make it all worst, but that is just the laziest answer any doctor could give,..it's actually equivalent to: I have no idea what is wrong with you.

[hi755]

I've got the same thing too. I yawn and yawn but I can't get enough air. So I tried a breathing technique My docter said. Take average breaths every 3 seconds, the feeling will go away. It sort of helped. Turns out my dad has it too.

[hava]

The pranayam described in my  June 18, 2010 post will help you with your problems. First expel the old air with kapalbhati pranayam, and then do anulom vilom pranayam for more than 20 minutes, twice a day, with eyes closed. One of the first few benefits will be better sleep, and the body will do its maintenance much better, when you sleep well. So keep up the daily pranayam and post the benefits you experience.So many people on this thread have benefited with pranayam - just look back and read their feedback.
February 23 ,2012

[Bobbitz]

I have the same problem, the inability to complete a yawn.  I have a form of manic illness that manifests itself in protracted insomnia.  I have gone almost two weeks without sleep, I mean ZERO.  Most people don't believe this because it would kill a normal person. I am now in about the 6th day of very little sleep and can't complete a yawn, so definitely associate it with stress and anxiety.  My diaphragm seems "stuck" in that it can't relax enough to allow the deep and satisfying breath.  The more overtired I get (like now), the more anxiety, the less ability to yawn.  Pills don't seem to help, some make it worse.   My problem started when I was 2 (1946).  My mother had TB, had to be taken to a sanitorium, my father, an MD, had a "nervous breakdown."  Later in life, my Grandmother told me that when I cried, my father gave me "those little white pills."  Phenobarbitol, which is a barbiturate.  I feel I never "learned" how to sleep, which is now referred to as "self-soothing."  This period are unbearable, and I long for sleep.  My feeling about Michael Jackson, borne out by his tape saying he "just wanted to sleep" and now Whitney Houston and so many others is that no matter how much money you have, you can't buy sleep.  It's awful and more needs to be said.

I, too, am grateful for this forum to find that many of us are suffering in silence.  I am normally a pretty happy, high-functioning person. But after a week or more of little or not sleep, my thoughts turn to suicide.  So sad.  I wish you all good yawning and let's stick together.  Not enough is written about the yawning subject -- nor is there really good work on "sleep training."  

[Bo97]

Hi, Im also 14. Im having the exact samee problem. Its like i cant breathe and I either have to take short, shallow breaths ir long yawning brreathes. I dont know what to do, the more I think about it, the worse it gets. I take claritan, chloratabs, cingulair, & decongestant. I end up staying up until 5-6am and sleeping until 11or so the next day. My mom is making me go to the doctor today to get it checked out. I'll let you know what they say, just in case it helps you, too. But my mom thinks its allergies and anxiety. When im out in town and not thinking about it, it doesnt bother me. but when im riding in the car ir at home, it acts up--- especially when im trying to go to sleep.
Its seriously effecting my life; but im glad to know its not just me. I actually get light headed because i cant breathe sometimes. Im so scared sometimes. so, anything anyone finds out would be amazing.

stay strong you guys- we'll figure something out.