Aerophagia? Pressure too low? (Graphs)

[Ricoh]

In the past 2-3 weeks, I've been waking up with very significant lower abdominal pain. My belly's physically distended, rock hard, and my day now usually starts by going into the bathroom and fffffffffffaaaaaaarting for about 20 minutes. No belching. I slept 10 hours without the machine last night, and, though I was tired, no gas at all. I'll probably gather more data.

In reading up on aerophagia, most sources agree that it can happen when the pressure is too high, but a couple of sources mentioned it can also occur when the pressure is too low (among other causes like sleep posture, mask fit, congestion, incline, etc.) I took a look at my SleepyHead data and noticed my AHI has indeed gone up (from about ~0.3 to 1.5, with several nights over 5.0). Here are the graphs:



The gap in Nov/Dec is due to sinus surgery. The weird sleep schedule is thanks to severe DSPD (chronotherapy).

My machine's a ResMed S9 Elite, CPAP@8.0. No leaks to speak of. Ramp and pressure relief both off (I've heard those might help). What do you think?

[Pugsy]

I would be using EPR if it were me.
I sure wouldn't be increasing the pressure expecting more pressure to cause less air in the belly. I can't think of any scenario where that would ease the aerophagia.

Using EPR sometimes reduces the exhale pressure to the point that a few events slip past the defenses. Looks like overall your numbers have some room for compromise should that happen (it doesn't always happen).

If it were me I go with the median 2 EPR setting Full Time and see what happens.

Ramp disn't last long enough to help.

[mon]

I had the same problem for a short time.
I was told to turn the humidification up, that perhaps I was gulping air because my throat was dry.
It worked! I haven't experienced the problem since.