Sweet Smell after taking mask off?

I'm fairly new to the whole CPAP thing (only been using just over a month.) One weird thing I've noticed is a 'sweet' smell for the first few breaths after I take my mask off in the morning. Is that common? Does anyone else experience something like that?

Thanks!

I used to smell dust. I think it is because of breathing "clean" - filtered air all nite then the nose has to adjust to contaminants. My nose also runs for about an hour. Now I take a generic Claritin from Walmart every morning.

I et thaat small sweet smell. I have been using the same mask for the past 6 months I always thought it might be from the mask but who knows.

If you're using a humidifier maybe your sense of smell is better when your nasal passages are moist. I don't know if that's true or not, but I notice the same thing when I use my humidifier.

EDIT: Also, when I'm using my CPAP I'm not congested -- no allergy symptoms -- so my sense of smell is in good shape until all the allergens get me.

It was one of the first things I noticed - that for the first few minutes the world smells more intense, especially when they were doing the renovations ont he walls out side my bedroom. There was such a complex layer of smells then.

I notice a smell also, rather like freshly ironed laundry. When I had my sleep study last week I asked the techs about it and they had never heard of it. They thought it might be the soap I use to wash the equipment, but I smelled the same thing when I took the mask off at the sleep lab. Guess I'm not crazy after all

Cosette wrote:I notice a smell also, rather like freshly ironed laundry. When I had my sleep study last week I asked the techs about it and they had never heard of it. They thought it might be the soup I use to wash the equipment, but I smelled the same thing when I took the mask off at the sleep lab. Guess I'm not crazy after all

Could they be using the very same soup?

do you think the smell is Almonds?

Thanks for sharing your experiences, everyone.

parastino49 wrote:do you think the smell is Almonds?

No, it's a 'bodily' smell. I sometimes smell the same scent after I sneeze. I also smelled it after my night at the lab, Cosette.

After you mentioned it's a bodily sweet smell and you smell it when you sneeze, I had another idea. When your body converts fat to energy that process is called ketosis. (I think there's more to it.) Those who don't eat a lot of carbs experience this more often. One of the effects is a sweet smelling odor.

scotty wrote: When your body converts fat to energy that process is called ketosis.

Diabetes?? Do you have it?

scotty wrote:After you mentioned it's a bodily sweet smell and you smell it when you sneeze, I had another idea. When your body converts fat to energy that process is called ketosis. (I think there's more to it.) Those who don't eat a lot of carbs experience this more often. One of the effects is a sweet smelling odor.

Ketosis only happens when dietary carbohydrates are restricted to the point where the body is forced to manufacture the small amount of carbohydrate it needs, from fat. Under ordinary circumstances, when there are plenty of carbs in the diet, ketosis does not happen. (Ketosis also happens when your blood sugar gets dangerously low in (especially) type 1 diabetes.) I frequently practice a very low carb diet, and I find that the ketones actually produce an odd, kind of bitter taste, more than a smell. But everyone's perception of smell is different.

What you may be smelling actually may be small amounts of decomposition products constantly given off by your body. Even when you are alive, there are parts of your skin and other tissues that are constantly decomposing in the normal process of renewal. Some of the products of decomposition, when in low concentrations, actually have kind of a pleasant, but bodily smell to them. In high enough concentrations though, like you would get from something dead, the smell is no longer pleasant. Ozone is another substance like that. In very low concentrations, it has a clean, fresh smell to it. At higher concentrations, it has a stifling, electric smell to it.

GumbyCT wrote:Diabetes?? Do you have it?

Thankfully not (yet.)

timbalionguy wrote:What you may be smelling actually may be small amounts of decomposition products constantly given off by your body.

Interesting, thanks! That seems to me to be the likely culprit. Any idea why the smell would be prominent after taking off the mask?

unityco wrote:

timbalionguy wrote:What you may be smelling actually may be small amounts of decomposition products constantly given off by your body.

Interesting, thanks! That seems to me to be the likely culprit. Any idea why the smell would be prominent after taking off the mask?

Did you sweat under the mask? Have nite Sweats? Use a humidifier?

Ps. Not yet is exactly how I always answer the diabetes question

Although I do not post over there anymore, I have monitored sleepnet.com for many years.
It has less than 2 posts per day and is operated by Sandman with very rigid posting rules, maybe explaining the number of posts.

A few years ago he was writing a book about his life as a sleep tech and had a chapter on the OSA smell.

He said it was common for the himself and techs at Sanford to be able to detect patients based on their smell.

He even said they could predice the severity of OSA based on their smell

I have not seen this discussed much anywhere else, but have been interested in it.
I clearly remember this smell in myselp prior to using Pap and it went away when I started treatment.

It is a sweel almond kind of a sweet dirty sock odor.

I also remember several customers at the pharmacy that I suspected due to this odor.

Maybe it is metabolic, but I firmly believe it is real.