# Why does your breathing change when you're asleep?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-your-breathing-change-when-youre-asleep/330399>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-your-breathing-change-when-youre-asleep/330399 "2005-11-10T15:10:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-your-breathing-change-when-youre-asleep/330399/1 "2005-11-10T15:10:11Z")

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When you fall asleep your breathing gets deeper, heavier, and more regular. Not to mention noisy. Although you have the ability to consciously control your breathing when awake, you usually don’t, and let autonomic systems take over. But breathing while awake is usually quiet.

So is autonomic breathing while asleep so different that autonomic breathing while awake?