How to control breathing while descending?

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"but i need to be able to calm my breathing. Any tips?"
Zen. Yoga. Meditation. Biofeedback. Look into ways to consciously control your breathing and your panic, they're two sides of the same coin. And we won't even mention things like Xanax or Valium, anti-anxiety drugs shouldn't be necessary for recreational sports and no doubt the dive medicine folks would get upset about possible complications. Perhaps a few drops of Valerian extract (an herbal anti-anxiety med) might do.

First dive of the year, many folks feel a whiff of claustrophobia and anxiety as the water closes over them. It isn't unusual. Driving in a winter blizzard, I find I have to unclench my hands from the steering wheel too.(G)
 
one thing I've noticed, and this may just be my experience. Depending on how easily the regs breath, they may contribute to "air hunger" and anxiety. I had one dive to 100ft on rental regs and had to consciously take slow deep exhales and inhales because I started to feel panicked, I had been breathing shallowly and had some CO2 build up I'm sure, but the sensation of having to suck for air made me anxious. A well tuned (for me) reg delivered air with minimal effort in comparison and made me feel much more comfortable on later similar deep dives. Anxiety may be all your problem is, but maybe pay attention to whether you feel you can easily initiate and complete a breath cycle on your next dive if using rental or new gear. Even now, I can try 5-6 friends regs and 1 or 2 breath appreciably easier to me, and just feel comfortable. The perception of air hunger can be a huge barrier to relaxing and enjoying the dive. Other tip is focus on something other than your breathing, even if it is just watching a buddy descend or the first sight of the bottom. Slow and steady, you will get there.
 
And that is why I really dislike that kind of diving. I hate being rushed.
Maybe other divers hate waiting for you? Just a guess...
 
Sounds entirely like a CO2 retention issue to me..

Cut down your exertion
getting kitted, entering the water and at the surface...

Don't hang about at the surface... it labors your breathing workload and, often, inexperienced divers expose themselves to unnecessary workload through involuntary stress and movements.

Contrary to 'popular' advice... get in, get down to 5-10ft depth... get neutral, get horizontal... and then relax yourself.


DevonDiver has forgotten more about diving than I'll ever know, but I like to get in early and take my time on the surface. I don't like the added pressure of feeling like I'm holding people up if everyone is already down and waiting on me. I also don't like burning up air under the boat if I'm just going to be waiting on a group downstairs. Unless the water is rough, I'm not really expending much energy on the surface, and usually it's less energy than it took to waddle my gear around the boat. Also, even in warm water burping my wet suit takes my breath away, and I sink better after taking time to flush some water up each limb as well as down the neck, getting used to the new temperature, and letting my breath settle. I also like to go through my checklist (a third time) if I feel any apprehension. "Taking my time" on the surface is a relative term. My first dives I really wanted a couple of minutes of pre-dive float time if not more, but it wasn't long before the time dropped to less than 30 seconds.
 
Folks..

CO2 retention = "air hunger + anxiety"

It also causes rapid-onset CO2 narcosis on/after descent.

If your respiration is elevated due to increased physical demand, you need to ease the workload of, and resistance to, respiration.

Assuming properly functioning regulators, there should be far more respiration workload from the pressure differential between mouth and lungs when vertical at the surface, compared to breathing from a regulator when submerged horizontally.

The lungs are submerged >40cm below the surface and your diaphragm has to work harder to compensate for overcoming that hyperbaric pressure.

Don't believe me? Try going down 40cm and breathing from a hose pipe to the surface..

Your heart also has to work harder to pump blood down to the lower extremities. Don't under-estimate that added demand...

The physiological demands are much harder than having to work to inhale against the crack-pressure of a regulator if fully submerged and horizontal.

While at the surface in a vertical position, swimmers lungs are at a greater pressure than surface air, and they must breathe against negative pressure caused by their immersion. While this is occurring, their heart is additionally stressed due to a shift of blood from the extremities, to their chest cavity, also caused by immersion.
DAN - Advances in Immersion Pulmonary Edema Studies 2017
(That article is also WELL worth reading for an understanding of IPE.. an increasingly critical concern for divers..)

Also, at the surface, most (nearly all?) novice divers make a lot of involuntary movements (especially needless finning and sculling) that markedly increase exertion and, thus, respiratory demand.

If you're relaxed.. and still.. and not getting swamped, splashed or fighting current... at the surface... then it's acceptable to rest and relax.. to normalise breathing, before descent.

It also pays dividends to 'lay back' when relaxing on the surface. .. as this raises the submerged depth of the lungs and reduces breathing workload.

Nonetheless, any perceived 'ease' of breathing at the surface with the regulator removed is more of a psychological than physiological benefit.

More often than not the underlying issue is physiological... so addressing the psychological niceties (which demand an entirely opposing course of action) is demonstrably counter-productive in achieving a desirable resolution.

If surface conditions aren't optimal... or if you find yourself exerted for any reason.. and not recovering a relaxed respiration... then it can pay dividends to get down a few feet and chill out there.

The emphasis is on being neutrally buoyant, to cut out exertion; and being in horizontal trim to reduce the effect of mouth-lungs pressure differential on respiratory demand.

I accept that this advice is, indeed, counter-intuitive to what most people might expect.. but I've seen it 1000 times... and seen it benefit divers as many times.

Needless to say... it assumes the individual is capable of getting down a few feet.. getting neutral and horizontal... and that competency is woefully lacking after many OW courses, and beyond.
 
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I have all of 15 dives under my belt so I bring questions, and not answers. I was reading a thread on SB earlier today about drinking energy drinks and caffeine in general when diving. If you're doing that I wonder if stopping would help, in addition to the seasoned advice already given, at least until you get more experience.
 
Folks..

CO2 retention = "air hunger + anxiety"

It also causes rapid-onset CO2 narcosis on/after descent.

If your respiration is elevated due to increased physical demand, you need to ease the workload of, and resistance to, respiration.

Assuming properly functioning regulators, there should be far more respiration workload from the pressure differential between mouth and lungs when vertical at the surface, compared to breathing from a regulator when submerged horizontally.

The lungs are submerged >40cm below the surface and your diaphragm has to work harder to compensate for overcoming that hyperbaric pressure.

Don't believe me? Try going down 40cm and breathing from a hose pipe to the surface..

Your heart also has to work harder to pump blood down to the lower extremities. Don't under-estimate that added demand...

The physiological demands are much harder than having to work to inhale against the crack-pressure of a regulator if fully submerged and horizontal.

While at the surface in a vertical position, swimmers lungs are at a greater pressure than surface air, and they must breathe against negative pressure caused by their immersion. While this is occurring, their heart is additionally stressed due to a shift of blood from the extremities, to their chest cavity, also caused by immersion.
DAN - Advances in Immersion Pulmonary Edema Studies 2017
(That article is also WELL worth reading for an understanding of IPE.. an increasingly critical concern for divers..)

Also, at the surface, most (nearly all?) novice divers make a lot of involuntary movements (especially needless finning and sculling) that markedly increase exertion and, thus, respiratory demand.

If you're relaxed.. and still.. and not getting swamped, splashed or fighting current... at the surface... then it's acceptable to rest and relax.. to normalise breathing, before descent.

It also pays dividends to 'lay back' when relaxing on the surface. .. as this raises the submerged depth of the lungs and reduces breathing workload.

Nonetheless, any perceived 'ease' of breathing at the surface with the regulator removed is more of a psychological than physiological benefit.

More often than not the underlying issue is physiological... so addressing the psychological niceties (which demand an entirely opposing course of action) is demonstrably counter-productive in achieving a desirable resolution.

If surface conditions aren't optimal... or if you find yourself exerted for any reason.. and not recovering a relaxed respiration... then it can pay dividends to get down a few feet and chill out there.

The emphasis is on being neutrally buoyant, to cut out exertion; and being in horizontal trim to reduce the effect of mouth-lungs pressure differential on respiratory demand.

I accept that this advice is, indeed, counter-intuitive to what most people might expect.. but I've seen it 1000 times... and seen it benefit divers as many times.

Needless to say... it assumes the individual is capable of getting down a few feet.. getting neutral and horizontal... and that competency is woefully lacking after many OW courses, and beyond.

I need to start to listen, 'cause it sounds right...

I don't have that many dives but it feels like too many to admit this: Same problem as OP. My SAC rate easily varies by factor 2. It always starts very high and is notably lower 10 minutes into the dive... Sometimes I even get it into the .5 range towards the middle to end of a dive. Sometimes....
Never yet figured out how to not have that sky high consumption early on.

Better start seriously trying to figure this out and conciously head some of the advise here. It rings true.

BTW, after a long swim, trying to not get beat by my son, when going like a locomotive and needing to calm out a bit, I do notice that doing that floating on my back is easier on the breathing than upright. And when I stay upright at the surface, I do notice easier breathing when I finally level out descending. Now, translating that into slower breathing earlier on, that's the neat trick...

I can lay down and watch TV and breathe quite faster than 4 ... 5 second cycles... no problem at all... slowing down and staying there is a trick to me even just watching TV.
And my lung volume, while not great is in the ballpark. Did a check up when I got sufficiently worried. I am one of those people that aparrently just needs to work quite hard on calming down...
 
You don't have to speed up; just start gearing up earlier.
Maybe. I don't know if some dive ops would like people moving about before told to do so. But maybe it would be OK--I never thought about it or seen that happen on any charter I've taken.
 
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