aerophagia after 2 years of APAP

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and hoping for some words of encouragement. I suffer from anxiety and lately have been afraid to go to sleep due to my recent issues.

About 60 days ago I started to notice gas at night and when I woke up. Then 15 days later I started noticing air pressure on my left side, bloating and burping all day long. This continued and I even started experiencing constipation within the last week. I thought maybe I was becoming lactose intolerant but my wife told me about this forum. I think my issues could be from aerophagia after a few searches.

My pressure settings were set at 7 and 15 which has worked great for two years. This winter I lost 25 pounds and I wonder if this is why I’m now having issues. 215 to 185 pounds.

I called my sleep therapist who said they never had a patient complain of aerophagia which worried me. She changed my settings to 5 min and left the max at 15.

I slept without my machine last night due to anxiety, my bloating was slightly improved but still present. Am wondering if I should sleep a few nights without the machine to know it’s cauing my issues for sure but always feel like crap if I don’t use it.

Does anyone with more experience with this think these new settings this will fix my issues?

I use a ResMed 10 APAP and have pressure relief on an set to 3.

I could tell immediately that a min setting of 5 took too much effort to breath. I tried 6 and it seemed okay. I woke up in the night when I noticed the machine kick into high gear, I attempted to swallow as a test and swallowed air both times I tried to swallow. The machine was at 11.4 when I did it.

Shouldn’t my therapist be lowing the max number instead?

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:47 pm

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and hoping for some words of encouragement. I suffer from anxiety and lately have been afraid to go to sleep due to my recent issues.

About 60 days ago I started to notice gas at night and when I woke up. Then 15 days later I started noticing air pressure on my left side, bloating and burping all day long. This continued and I even started experiencing constipation within the last week. I thought maybe I was becoming lactose intolerant but my wife told me about this forum. I think my issues could be from aerophagia after a few searches.

My pressure settings were set at 7 and 15 which has worked great for two years. This winter I lost 25 pounds and I wonder if this is why I’m now having issues.

I called my sleep therapist who said they never had a patient complain of aerophagia which worried me. She changed my settings to 5 min and left the max at 15.

I slept without my machine last night due to anxiety, my bloating was slightly improved but still present. Am wondering if I should sleep a few nights without the machine to know it’s cauing my issues for sure but always feel like crap if I don’t use it.

Does anyone with more experience with this think these new settings this will fix my issues?

I use a ResMed 10 APAP and have pressure relief on an set to 3.

If you do a forum search on the word "aerophagia", you will have lots of reading.
Some people need to use straight pressure and some can use ranges. But, it's something that needs some experimenting to find out what works for them.......including various settings of exhale relief.
I can speak with some experience with regard to this as in the last couple of years I've developed it in varying degrees myself......after about 12 years of CPAP therapy with no previous problems.

Good luck.

Den

.

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:53 am

I could tell immediately that a min setting of 5 took too much effort to breath. I tried 6 and it seemed okay. I woke up in the night when I noticed the machine kick into high gear, I attempted to swallow as a test and swallowed air both times I tried to swallow. The machine was at 11.4 when I did it.

Shouldn’t my therapist be lowing the max number instead?

YOU need to take control of YOUR own therapy to see improvements. Learn how to change your own settings and it will save LOTS of time and hassle with the RT/DME/Doctor.


Den

.

Thank you for your feedback! I was able to get a hold of the supervisory sleep therapist at my clinic who was more helpful. He agreed with me and recommended trying 6min and 10 max for a while to see if it makes a difference.

I was able to try these settings for an hour nap today. I did a swallow test when the machine was at 9.8 and noticed a little air was swallowed. Should I lower my max even more?

Am assuming you should not be able to swallow air at any pressure when your mouth is closed.


I also felt like my exhale wanted to go deeper but was met with resistance at the end of exhale. But I don’t think the pressure relief can go beyond 3. Will start using this full time tonight.

Thank you again for the words of encouragement. Hoping to be a normal person again without issues ingesting air.

Brian

Hi - it's probably all about what they said, however when someone sees decent sized changes without much having changed in every night therapy, it might be a good idea to see your GP as a sleep doctor is looking for sleep/Cpap related stuff but may miss completely unrelated problems... something to think about?

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:41 pm

Thank you for your feedback! I was able to get a hold of the supervisory sleep therapist at my clinic who was more helpful. He agreed with me and recommended trying 6min and 10 max for a while to see if it makes a difference.

I was able to try these settings for an hour nap today. I did a swallow test when the machine was at 9.8 and noticed a little air was swallowed. Should I lower my max even more?

If you want more events, sure... with aerophagia, it's a balancing act.

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:41 pm

Am assuming you should not be able to swallow air at any pressure when your mouth is closed.

Well, that depends on whether you block off your nasal passages with your soft palate, so you don't still have pressurized air in your mouth. Not sure why you're TRYING to swallow air...

Thank you Julie, I’m hoping I am just in the same boat as some others who began experiencing this as a result of weight loss (30 pounds). I saw a doctor for bloating but at the time I had yet make the connection sleep therapy.

I will be watching this very closely for sure. Hopefully there not any additional underlying issues.

Unfortunately most of my issues are secondary to anxiety. When I first did my sleep study 2 years ago they said I really don’t have obstructive apnea but more so shallow breathing which I believe is from anxiety.

palerider wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:33 pm

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:41 pm

Thank you for your feedback! I was able to get a hold of the supervisory sleep therapist at my clinic who was more helpful. He agreed with me and recommended trying 6min and 10 max for a while to see if it makes a difference.

I was able to try these settings for an hour nap today. I did a swallow test when the machine was at 9.8 and noticed a little air was swallowed. Should I lower my max even more?

If you want more events, sure... with aerophagia, it's a balancing act.

Bdmski wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:41 pm

Am assuming you should not be able to swallow air at any pressure when your mouth is closed.

Well, that depends on whether you block off your nasal passages with your soft palate, so you don't still have pressurized air in your mouth. Not sure why you're TRYING to swallow air...

I guess I am just simulating what I may do in the middle of the night. I remember having that control with a nose only mask (when awake) but don’t feel like I have that control with a full face mask. I’ll have to practice blocking my nose when I need to swallow. It sounds like this may be a part of the problem if not the entire problem.

PS - remember that the machine will adjust to your breathing pattern, so don't feel you have to 'breathe' in sync with it somehow!

this morning I woke up with a loud burp, gas, and a stomach full of air followed by hours of burping. I also had dry mouth the second half of the night. I noticed dry mouth began the last three hours of sleep.

As crazy as it sounds I ended up setting my numbers back to how they used to be (7min and 15 max) because I don’t think this is a pressure issue.

I noticed my nose was clogged when I woke up. Then I remember I used to wake up with a stuffy nose if my humidity was set too high.

My new theory is my humidity is set too high causing a stuffy nose. Then to breath I start using my mouth to breath and breath some air every time I swallow through the night.

I think this may have all started because I woke up one morning with dry mouth. Thinking I did not have enough humidity I cranked it up when in reality I had too much causing a stuffy nose and consequently was mouth breathing.

I live in the Pacific Northwest and had my humitity set to 7 with heated tube set to 71 degrees. Am excited to test my new theory and solve this mystery once and for all.

Also took a zertec to see if allergy related.

Thank you all for your support!

Have you tried Nasal saleine wash before you go to bed?

Spray let it do its thing then blow your nose... Helps me alot.

I have started having air in my stomach in the morning and needing to burp when I wake up. I started taking Xanax before bed and have been sleeping so good. I noticed my AHI went up after this, probably because I'm getting such a deep sleep, and needed to increase my pressure (it's currently at 15-20). So far, it doesn't hurt. I just burp a little, then I'm good to go. I read on this forum to try increasing my exhale pressure relief to the highest it will go (I think it's 2 on my machine). I noticed that this did help. I had it at 1 before and noticed more air than what I have at 2. My AHI is the lowest that it's ever been and my sleep is WONDERFUL.