Does anyone else hold their breath at night and during the day?

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Since having my last child I have noticed that I am constantly holding my breath during the day and I have to consciously remind myself to relax and breath. Due to this I can get out of breath if walking fast etc as I will need to take in deep breaths every now and then.

The worst part is I do this at night too and wake up with a sore neck, shoulders and back. My chest feels weird like I've been holding my breath all night and it takes a couple of hours to feel "normal" again. My sleep is affected my this and I feel rubbish when I wake up.

Has anyone else had anything similar?
I have been referred to a sleep clinic to find out if I have sleep apnea but I don't understand why I am always holding my breath during the day too. It's become my default breathing pattern. It's like sleep apnea but during the day!

Do you think some sort of breathing exercises might help?! I'm at a loss as to why this has happened.

Yes, I regularly do this during the day but not, as far as I know, at night. It seems to happen most when I'm walking somewhere and I'm quickly breathless - my grandson says 'Granny forgot to breathe again!'. When I'm relaxing I sometimes do some really deep diaphragm breathing as I feel as though I only use a little bit of my lungs now. With me it's definitely not a physical thing but more of a mental block.

Billandben444 yes I feel my lungs have "forgotten" how to breathe. I'm worried it will only get worse. Do you feel your diaphragmatic breathing is helping?

Yes I think so. I build up slowly to a lung full though! I hope you sort out the nights cos that sounds a bit worrying x

i do it when im tired and stressed. Funnily enough I actually googled it the other day. Its a stress response, from times when we would have held our breath when hunting or hiding