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I cannot yawn!
For the past few weeks I have been having this annoying problem where I cannot yawn. I can take deep breaths just fine, but I always feel the need to yawn, and when I attempt to, it "won't come out" so to speak. It is really starting to get irritating,and quite uncomfortable. I am starting to get worried that maybe there is something wrong, or something that I should have checked out. Any ideas as to what this might be?
It's related to your bed. It happenned to me... I had a Temperpedic type that makes a dent when you sleep in it... It prevents your intercostal muscles from freely yawning!
I have this problem, I have low B-12 so I think it's a lack of oxygen due to low red blood cells....which can also cause anxiety...when I get my B-12 I feel like I can breathe.....
I seem to be having the same problem. For the past couple days I have had to yawn constantly. But I rarely fully complete a yawn. I can't seem to figure out the cause. Yes I do smoke cigarettes but I also ride my bike 10+ miles daily back and forth from work with non-stop pedaling. During my time of riding my bike I feel no need to yawn or a shortness or breath. I only feel the need to yawn constantly when I get home from work and want to relax. Could this be because of stress? My sleeping habits have changed drastically in the last month going from 10pm-9am to 8am-6pm due to working night shift from 7pm-4am. I get home around 4am and stay up til around 8am. Could this sudden change in sleeping habits be the cause of this yawning issue? Is there any way to solve this issue? Please help me find a way to stop this. This constant yawning is making sleeping difficult. What would you guys recommend to help me?
Why is this?!! I was under extreme stress, early last year, for a few weeks. As a result, I noticed I couldn't yawn....Two months later, I had stress so great, I ended up in the hospital, in emergency....The hospital event, made the inability to yawn WORST! So for the past year, I can't yawn. can't hiccup, can't sneeze, can't breath in deep, can't burp, and can't laugh. Who do you suggest I see? Any SPECIFIC kind of specialist? Do people usually get back to a normal life, physically, or is the pain (sneezing, yawning, ect) forever?
1 Comments
I am going through the same thing and I've lost all hope that it will go away. I've been like this for 9 months everyday straight. Almost 10 months. Sometimes I have good days sometimes bad ones. I'm just scared if it never goes away. I don't like taking benzos nor any other prescription medicine because they make me feel worse and I don't want to rely on them to make me feel better all the time. I want to feel better on my own without any medication whatsoever. Most of the time I just feel like commiting suicide because I can't go on feeling like this any longer. Someone please help.
For all those who found this while looking for help with this problem:
I found some information that has helped me immensely. I am pregnant and suffering from terrible congestion. I began to have the sensation of needing to yawn, yet being unable to pretty recently. Naturally, the inclination is to breathe deeper and more. I figured I felt this way because my congestion was stifling my breathing and therefore my blood oxygen.
After some browsing, I realized that there may be some anxiety contributing to this. I am not willing to take anxiety medication at this time, so I figured I just had to manage, knowing that when I get this way I just need to relax somehow.
That helped, but not much. Today, I began to feel it coming on again, but this time I realized that I was kind of breathing like I was having a panic attack. I thought maybe the anxiety is more serious than I initially suspected. I am dealing with a particularly large set of stressors at this time.
I searched the web for "hyperventilation and yawning" and found a page called "Hyperventilation - makes you feel as if you can't get your breath" which had the very information that I needed in order to understand how to fix the suffocating feeling. (I am not posting the link because I don't want this to seem spammy. But you can find it easily.)
Here is the bit of info that made me understand what to do:
"We inhale most of our recently exhaled air, which to me seemed nonsense... Lungs are necessary to keep carbon dioxide levels high in inhaled air and therefore in the blood. The blood is very efficient at gathering oxygen and all arterial blood is 100% saturated with oxygen. But here comes the crunch! Oxygen is only readily released from red blood cells to supply oxygen to the tissues in the presence of high levels of carbon dioxide. So what does this mean in practice?
"Short of breath? Breathe less! Many patients, particularly asthma patients, but also CFS patients, have a sensation that they are not getting enough oxygen to their tissues. Their response to this is to breathe more deeply. However blood cannot become more than 100% saturated with oxygen. All that happens is that more carbon dioxide is washed out of the blood. This makes oxygen cling more fiercely to haemoglobin in red blood cells and therefore oxygen delivery to the tissues is made worse! Paradoxically, to improve oxygen supply to the tissues you have to breathe less! Breathing less increases carbon dioxide levels and improves oxygen delivery.
"Lowering carbon dioxide levels in the blood has other dire effects. It upsets the acidity of the blood and causes what is known in medical jargon as a respiratory alkalosis. This causes all sorts of awful symptoms such as panic attacks, pain, fatigue, feeling spaced out and dizzy, brain fag, brain fog and so on."
...Understanding this, I tried to increase the carbon dioxide in my system by simply cupping my two hands over my mouth and nose, and breathing in and out of my cupped hands (calmly, not deeply - just normally) for about 30 seconds.
I took my hands away from my face, and took a nice, slow, deep breath. The feeling of suffocation was GONE! The deep breath finally "went over the top" and I was satisfied.
Of course, this doesn't address the cause of the anxiety that brought it on, but getting past that feeling of dying for a breath is the first step to getting out of that mild panic attack. Knowing all this, hopefully these episodes will become less and less.
Hope this helps someone out there.
I found some information that has helped me immensely. I am pregnant and suffering from terrible congestion. I began to have the sensation of needing to yawn, yet being unable to pretty recently. Naturally, the inclination is to breathe deeper and more. I figured I felt this way because my congestion was stifling my breathing and therefore my blood oxygen.
After some browsing, I realized that there may be some anxiety contributing to this. I am not willing to take anxiety medication at this time, so I figured I just had to manage, knowing that when I get this way I just need to relax somehow.
That helped, but not much. Today, I began to feel it coming on again, but this time I realized that I was kind of breathing like I was having a panic attack. I thought maybe the anxiety is more serious than I initially suspected. I am dealing with a particularly large set of stressors at this time.
I searched the web for "hyperventilation and yawning" and found a page called "Hyperventilation - makes you feel as if you can't get your breath" which had the very information that I needed in order to understand how to fix the suffocating feeling. (I am not posting the link because I don't want this to seem spammy. But you can find it easily.)
Here is the bit of info that made me understand what to do:
"We inhale most of our recently exhaled air, which to me seemed nonsense... Lungs are necessary to keep carbon dioxide levels high in inhaled air and therefore in the blood. The blood is very efficient at gathering oxygen and all arterial blood is 100% saturated with oxygen. But here comes the crunch! Oxygen is only readily released from red blood cells to supply oxygen to the tissues in the presence of high levels of carbon dioxide. So what does this mean in practice?
"Short of breath? Breathe less! Many patients, particularly asthma patients, but also CFS patients, have a sensation that they are not getting enough oxygen to their tissues. Their response to this is to breathe more deeply. However blood cannot become more than 100% saturated with oxygen. All that happens is that more carbon dioxide is washed out of the blood. This makes oxygen cling more fiercely to haemoglobin in red blood cells and therefore oxygen delivery to the tissues is made worse! Paradoxically, to improve oxygen supply to the tissues you have to breathe less! Breathing less increases carbon dioxide levels and improves oxygen delivery.
"Lowering carbon dioxide levels in the blood has other dire effects. It upsets the acidity of the blood and causes what is known in medical jargon as a respiratory alkalosis. This causes all sorts of awful symptoms such as panic attacks, pain, fatigue, feeling spaced out and dizzy, brain fag, brain fog and so on."
...Understanding this, I tried to increase the carbon dioxide in my system by simply cupping my two hands over my mouth and nose, and breathing in and out of my cupped hands (calmly, not deeply - just normally) for about 30 seconds.
I took my hands away from my face, and took a nice, slow, deep breath. The feeling of suffocation was GONE! The deep breath finally "went over the top" and I was satisfied.
Of course, this doesn't address the cause of the anxiety that brought it on, but getting past that feeling of dying for a breath is the first step to getting out of that mild panic attack. Knowing all this, hopefully these episodes will become less and less.
Hope this helps someone out there.
1 Comments
Thanks for your detailed information, it makes sense. I'll do some more research on the topics you suggested. I've been plagued for 2 yrs with this problem.
I had that problem for a couple of weeks after moving and looking for a job. Even after I started working and had a place to live, I still had the attacks.
It's mostly anxiety related, there aren't any medications that I found to deal with it. I had to just calm down and understand it had to do with anxiety, and after a few weeks it has gone away. One thing that helped me de stress and relax was to take melatonin pills before going to bed. It helped me to sleep much better and alleviated any stress in the morning, therefor making the day much better.
I read in a site that sometimes this happens when people are under stress, and muscles around your rib cage tense up so much that you are unable to breathe in deep enough. I'm not sure how true that is... but it makes sense to me!
Good luck!!!
It's mostly anxiety related, there aren't any medications that I found to deal with it. I had to just calm down and understand it had to do with anxiety, and after a few weeks it has gone away. One thing that helped me de stress and relax was to take melatonin pills before going to bed. It helped me to sleep much better and alleviated any stress in the morning, therefor making the day much better.
I read in a site that sometimes this happens when people are under stress, and muscles around your rib cage tense up so much that you are unable to breathe in deep enough. I'm not sure how true that is... but it makes sense to me!
Good luck!!!
I had the same problem, I went to the Er about 3 wks ago cause i kept yawning, then I felt like i was have a heart attack, here it was a severe panic attack, They put me on Lexapro, but it dosen't seem to help cause I am having the yawning attacks as i call it now.. for the past 2 days, and its really annoying. So I bet that is the what the problem is panic/anxiety or chronic hyperventilation syndrome
1 Comments
That's definitely panic attack or anxiety or can also be a serious heart condition
I'm experiencing the same thing! It's like I constantly need to yawn and I try but I just can't finish one! Did you ever find a solution?
1 Comments
Hold mouth open in the same way you start to yawn and wait a littel then you can start to feel the urge to yawn then go with might take several try but i found a way to yawn ....
Could be that you are just hyperventolating, I know the feeling though, because it has happened to me, it is like you can't finish a yawn and it makes you feel tired and breathless. I found breathing into a brown paper bag for about 6 breaths helped me. If you are worried though, go to a doctor and ask to get a Pulmonary Function Test, just to check for asthma in case. This is just a breathing exam and not invasive.
Regards
J
Regards
J
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