Effect of sleep and sighing on upper airway resistance in mongrel dogs.

We investigated the effect of sleep and sighing on supratracheal resistance in unrestrained mongrel dogs breathing through the nose by comparing within-breath changes in upper airway pressure-flow relationship in control, sigh, and five postsigh breaths recorded during wakefulness and during non-rapid-eye-movement and rapid-eye-movement sleep. A sigh breath was characterized by a high tidal volume and was typically followed by an apnea of a variable duration. Sleep had little or no effect on supratracheal resistance, measured at peak flow rates, during quiet breathing (awake 7.3 +/- 0.4, non-rapid eye movement 8.3 +/- 0.4, and rapid eye movement 6.8 +/- 0.4 cmH2O.l-1.s). The resistance was identical in the early part of inspiration in control and sigh breaths but increased during the augmented phase of sigh breaths. Resistance at peak inspiratory flow was higher in sigh breaths than in control breaths in all sleep states. The flow-pressure profile of postsigh breaths was identical to that of control breaths in all sleep states. We conclude that upper airway resistance is essentially unaffected by sleep state in the mongrel dog and that sighing increases upper airway resistance regardless of sleep state.