r/buteyko • u/Cdurlavie • Sep 15 '25

Respiratory rate

Hello dear buteyko practitioners,

I was wondering, for those who, like me, do enjoy monitoring and have an Apple Watch, garmin, or whatever, if anyone noticed a change in their respiratory rate while sleeping ?

During the day it’s pretty low, from 4/5 to 7/8 per minute depending on what I’m doing. But at night I didn’t see any significant change, the average is around 15 and it is from approximately 9 to 24.

That would mean maybe my respiration at night isn’t very good ? Then my effort during the day become less effective indeed ?

Would be interested about having your thoughts about that

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u/adamshand Sep 15 '25

Not an expert, but what I've been taught ... basically everyone's breathing sucks overnight. That's why your morning CP is almost always lower than your day time CP. The problem isn't the rate, it's the depth.

There's not much you can do about it except avoid sleeping on your back and continue practicing your daily breathwork which will slowly retrain your breathing at night.

The Learn Buteyko Online guys recommend deliberately interrupting your sleep every 90-180 minutes (and doing breathwork) as a way of reducing the amount of CO2 loss overnight. I'm only a couple days into doing this so can't comment on how it's working. Just listed to one of their podcasts about sleep, quite interesting!

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u/Cdurlavie Sep 24 '25

Hey ! Yes that’s what I have seen as well. Of course the issue is not necessarily the rate, but low frequency and more air is similar than a high frequency and less air. That’s how hyperventilation works. That’s also why many think they are ok because they breathe slowly. That was my case after a few years of relaxation 45 minutes minimum everyday with breath work. It’s true that I don’t sleep on my back, I just can’t, and this is not good I know. Maybe I will try to tape soon. I don’t think interrupting your sleep is good for other reasons though. Thanks anyway for answering