Why can excessive ventilation reduce the drive to breathe?

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A pine grosbeak with pink and gray plumage perches on a branch, eating red berries among autumn foliage. — Chemoreception Animals, such as this pine grosbeak, use chemoreception to respond to chemicals that can be tasted and smelled in their environments. Many of these chemicals affect behaviors such as food preference and defense.

Excessive ventilation, or hyperventilation, reduces the drive to breathe primarily by lowering the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the arterial blood.12

Because carbon dioxide is one of the most powerful stimulants of breathing, the body’s chemoreceptors—both arterial and central—monitor its levels to regulate ventilation. When ventilation levels are too high, the resulting decrease in carbon dioxide levels leads to a reduction in chemoreceptor activity. This diminished activity causes a corresponding decrease in the drive to breathe. In some cases, such as during sleep or anesthesia, a sufficient drop in carbon dioxide levels can even lead to a total cessation of breathing, known as apnea.13