Aerophagia disturbing my sleep

[SarahB]

The last couple of nights I've been aware throughout the night that I'm constantly trying to burp up lots of air and in the morning I'm still quite full of air. I'm even trying to get rid of excess air in my dreams! I feel that I'm fighting to get the extra air back out faster than it's coming in.

I'm using an auto CPAP (ResMed Airsense 10) and a nasal mask. I tape my mouth shut and there are no problems with leaks. My pressures haven't changed (max is around 13), my AHI is fine (0.00 last night, generally below 0.5) and my sleep position is the same. I've been using CPAP for seven months. I can't work out why this should now start to be a problem.

[Julie]

Can you try lowering the min. pressure by .5 for a couple of nights each to see if it helps (often does) and you can 'afford' it with your very low AHI. Also, you could raise the head end of your bed on some kind of 4-5" blocks which also apparently helps.

[nicholasjh1]

I get issues with aerophagia unless I use my chin strap and the strap has to be tight enough. Not only do I get aerophagia if my mouth opens too much, but I get a lot of mouth leak (so chip munk cheeks since I tape). So if everything else fails you might want to try that.

[palerider]

I get issues with aerophagia unless I use my chin strap and the strap has to be tight enough. Not only do I get aerophagia if my mouth opens too much, but I get a lot of mouth leak (so chip munk cheeks since I tape). So if everything else fails you might want to try that.

I don't understand how you can have air forced into your stomach at the same time it's venting out your mouth...

[chunkyfrog]

When I get gas, it would be easy to blame it on cpap.
But I know better.
It is what I EAT.
It is as simple as that.
"Aerophagia" isn't always what we think it is.

[SarahB]

Can you try lowering the min. pressure by .5 for a couple of nights each to see if it helps (often does) and you can 'afford' it with your very low AHI. Also, you could raise the head end of your bed on some kind of 4-5" blocks which also apparently helps.

Minimum pressure is 4 but I set it to 6 because I feel a bit short of air at 4. I could try playing around with it. Interesting idea about raising the head of the bed, thanks.

[SarahB]

When I get gas, it would be easy to blame it on cpap.
But I know better.
It is what I EAT.
It is as simple as that.
"Aerophagia" isn't always what we think it is.

[SarahB]

I get issues with aerophagia unless I use my chin strap and the strap has to be tight enough. Not only do I get aerophagia if my mouth opens too much, but I get a lot of mouth leak (so chip munk cheeks since I tape). So if everything else fails you might want to try that.

I already tape so it's not getting in that way.

[Julie]

Had no idea you were at such a low pressure - do you have no effort inhaling (as so many do at that setting)?

Better to look at your diet as has been suggested, and maybe try to raise the bed.

[SarahB]

Had no idea you were at such a low pressure - do you have no effort inhaling (as so many do at that setting)?

Better to look at your diet as has been suggested, and maybe try to raise the bed.

The pressure range on the machine is 4-20 by default but I got into the clinician's settings and altered that to 6-20 as 4 was uncomfortably low. The moment I fall asleep the pressure shoots up and my average is around 9 or 10, going up to a maximum of about 13. Occasionally it goes higher but anything over about 17 wakes me up.