Thread: What would happen if you held your breath in a dream

Would you die

I've read that when you hold your breath in your dream you actually hold your breath in real life. I don't think that you can kill yourself doing it because it's not possible to kill yourself by holding your brath. Try it you'll see.

I haven't tried to hold my breath in a lucid yet...but I will give it a shot. Though, I CAN breath underwater in lucids so I would imagine that breathing isn't so important. If anything, it would just wake you up. You wouldn't DIE!! You can't die from holding your breath anyway guys, you would just pass out.

Well ive never heard of anyone killing themselfs over holding their breathe, fainting yeh. Actually doesnt suffercation work the same way?? someone???...

You do control your actual breathing while in a dream though, especially if your lucid, i wondered why i could control my breathing while lucid, since i'd read that your breathing goes into an auto mode. oh well, i suggest not trying it since it'll probably ruin your dream anyway, lol.

Well, if you hold your nose in your dream, and try to continue breathing - you do in fact still breathe.
But of course this is a little different

So...
1) You either hold your breath in real life, and eventually lose consciousness - and continue breathing again
2) You do not hold your breath in real life, and will still feel your breath on your upper lip in the dream (even though trying not to breath)

My thoughts

Maybe some people dont control their actual breathing in a dream and some people do? i cant say for sure, but the reason ud still breathe if you held your nose in a dream is because you werent picking up ur physical arm and holding ur physical nose, its basically like visualising yourself holding your nose, oh and look? you can still breathe.



Edit: i also just realised your post made complete sense, lol, oops!
and wtf LOL!!!! YOUR AVATOR!!!!

LaBerge conducted many experiments in which subjects consiously moved their eyes during a lucid dream. I suspect that you should be able to control your breathing as well.

When you have a nightmare, your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure all increase. I see no reason why it shoud be different in an LD.

Anyone out there with a partner want to experiment with this? Or perhaps someone with a video camera?

Lucidnina wrote:

You can't die from holding your breath anyway guys, you would just pass out.[/b]

Not unless you had Sleep Apnea - but I think that's more of a physical condition.


I've noticed many times that if I have to pee really bad in a dream, I go to the bathroom (in the dream) and once I'm done I feel fine. But then after a few seconds I have to go again, so I go, then the whole process repeats itself until I wake up and finally do go ... in the bathroom, of course!

Why this relates? Well, I'm guessing that my mind knows the feeling of bladder relief so it puts it in my dream making me THINK that I'm fine. Then my body signals again to the brain saying "dude, ya gotta go!". So something similar is probably happening with breathing. You know what holding your breath feels like so that memory kicks in through your dream. But you're probably breathing the whole time.

That being said, I have noticed a couple times dreaming that I was suffocating and waking up trying to breathe through a really stuffed up nose. So physical can effect mental, but not vice versa?

Originally Posted by Tornado Joe

Lucidnina wrote:


Not unless you had Sleep Apnea - but I think that's more of a physical condition.


I've noticed many times that if I have to pee really bad in a dream, I go to the bathroom (in the dream) and once I'm done I feel fine. But then after a few seconds I have to go again, so I go, then the whole process repeats itself until I wake up and finally do go ... in the bathroom, of course!

Why this relates? Well, I'm guessing that my mind knows the feeling of bladder relief so it puts it in my dream making me THINK that I'm fine. Then my body signals again to the brain saying "dude, ya gotta go!". So something similar is probably happening with breathing. You know what holding your breath feels like so that memory kicks in through your dream. But you're probably breathing the whole time.

That being said, I have noticed a couple times dreaming that I was suffocating and waking up trying to breathe through a really stuffed up nose. So physical can effect mental, but not vice versa?

Huh, Happened once. I had to go pee too in the dream but then when I woke up in RL I had to go... Again. But that only happened once It never pop back up again this time.


For me I had not held my breath in a dream before, I rarely even do checks while lucid dreaming, But I guess I can try it next time. I just never noticed I am breathing just know I can see and feel and move but that's it.

holding your breath in a dream? that sounds kinda cool, ill try to do that

that is if i ever LD again sheeeesh

Depending on how intrusive your consciousness is, you'll probably just induce a new or different dream. If you were to hold your breath physically while dreaming, your autonomic nervous system would most likely take over and you would end up bringing yourself to a higher level of consciousness and then back down, or a different stage of sleep. But that's just my guess!

How about hyper-ventilating? You know, when you get all light-headed from breathing too hard? That would likely produce some F&$#ed up effects in a dream!!! Maybe like psychedelic drugs... :-)

Originally posted by lucid dream god
Would you die

No. Breathing is involuntary - you don't think "I'll take a breath now" all the time. I'm no expert on the human body, but I wouldn't be surprised if while you sleep, the brain denies access to changing your breathing. Like if you stand up in a dream, you don't stand up in real life - you could argue this is because of sleep paralysis, but I expect it is the same with holding your breath. You'll just be holding your breath in the dream and while it could feel pretty convincing (as dreams are), you won't be holding your breath in real life. You might even fall unconscious - or, at least dream you've become unconscious, but as lucidnina and some others had said, even if you can control your breathing in a dream, it would be the same as real life, you will become unconscious if you hold your breath for too long, and the second you knock yourself out, you'll start breathing again.

That said, it isn't healthy.

Yep, that's what I said only in one sentence.
Excluding the bit about being denied access

I would imagine that you cannot control your breathing
Which is why that reality check of closing your nose is so effective - because you still have sensation in your face when dreaming

Originally posted by Placebo
Yep, that's what I said only in one sentence.

Two.

Originally posted by Kaniaz+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kaniaz)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Placebo

Yep, that's what I said only in one sentence.

Two.[/b]

Fine, it wasn't one sentence. Sue me

Of all the physiological functions, why would only breath transcend as to influence the physical body during sleep?

I think it's difficult to pinpoint. I believe it's possible to hold breath in a dream without it affecting your real body. As long as you're in the dream, you only have access to your "Dream" body, unless you have really talented LD skills.

LOL, I think you can get high in a dream without hyperventilating...

eyes do that too. If you look to your left in yoru dream then you move your eyes to yoru left in real life.

Sometimes when I'm doing something physical in a dream (running, skiing fast), I start to breath more just like I would in real life. Then I notice my breathing, wake up and notice that I'm actually breathing like that.

I don't know about consciously controlling your breathing, but regarding to my experiences it seems like breathing in dream could affect breathing in real life.

I held my breath in a lucid before because i was in bed in the dream and couldnt move and decide to do a lucid and when i got out of bed in the lucid since i could see nohting i decided to increase my lucidity i would do a RC so i held my breath and in the lucid i couldnt breath so i opend my mouth and breathed again and decided to wake up and try a new lucid so i opend my eyes and i was back in my dream trying to lucid again.

I dont think you would die usually wehn you hold you breath in a dream you dont experence nothing the same way you would experence holding your breath in real life and you know its just a illusion

I have held my breath while underwater in a dream... I didn't die. However I don't know if I was holding my breath in real life. I know that in the dream it was a long time but you never know what the real time is doing.

Sometimes I don't even breathe in a LD, & I don't even notice.....And when I do, I don't even care. I don't even think breathing is essential in one..you can be w/o it.......BTW, I never breathe in a S____, no matter how hard I try!......

your a lucid dream god that doesnt know this already

Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, page 27: "When lucid dreamers hold their breaths or breathe fast in a dream, they really do hold their breaths of pant"

So yes, you would hold your breath in real life too. Anyhow, you can't kill yourself by holding your breath because, as already said in this thread, you would only go unconscious and start breathing again - just as in real life.

I hold my breath in dreams all the time, because I have this stupid way of levitating when I'm semi-lucid and dumb enough not to fly properly.
Anyway, eventually you really feel that you are running out of breath, and I suspect the reason is as mentioned - you really do hold your breath in real life when you do this.

And as mentioned, if you hold your breath indefinitely, you would pass out and start breathing again. I reckon it's a kind of defence mechanism to prevent stupid or immature creatures from wiping themselves out too quickly