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tomjax2 wrote:...He even said they could predice the severity of OSA based on their smell.

That's quite interesting! I have noticed, as I progress with my treatment, that the smell is not as strong as it once was (this morning, in fact, I didn't notice it at all.) I just thought I was getting used to it, but maybe it's a sign my health is improving!

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.

I have Celiac disease, thus don't eat anything with gluten in it. Could that be the cause of the sweet smell?

parastino49 wrote:do you think the smell is Almonds?

Why do you suggest "almonds"?

GumbyCT wrote:

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?

Guess I should give up the "soup" and try soap instead!

Cosette wrote:

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.

I have Celiac disease, thus don't eat anything with gluten in it. Could that be the cause of the sweet smell?

Gluten is a protein rather than a carbohydrate, so, strictly speaking, a gluten-free diet wouldn't cause ketosis like a low-carb diet would. I only had ketosis when I did the first week of the South Beach Diet during which time I didn't eat any carbs (bread, rice, crackers, etc.). timbalionguy's post is pretty informative. I don't know if a sweet smell could come from just a gluten-free diet unless the diet was low in gluten breads as well as all other carbs in general.

Ha! My wife thinks I'm crazy for smelling that right away in the morning. It reminds me of a cross between a space heater turning on for the first time of the season and soggy clothes being ironed.

Been on the machine for about a month.

(first post. hi there)

I remembered seeing this post a month ago and had to look it up.

To me that "sweet smell" is the ONE thing I look forward to (other than taking the mask off in the first place). My wife always thought that it was strange that I could tell right away when she changed the sheets on the bed and it became sort of a game she would play to try and fool me.

This smell to me is like warm soft linens. That smell combined with removing the mask and rolling on my other side gives me the best 1 hour of sleep for the night, right before I get up.

unityco wrote: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!

Maybe we had something sweet to eat before retiring? I find the first few breaths of 'fresh air' are just that. Fresh air, after having humidified, filtered 'mask air' blown in all night.

Hey, check out how good it feels coming off almost a month of life support air/oxygen (hope you never do). NOT! Every wee smell nauseates. I could not stand the smell of vanilla, peaches, pears or applesauce (and a few others) for quite a while after coming off life support air/oxygen and I have no idea as I was in a coma for half the time and alarms rang LOUDLY if my mask broke seal while I was on a mask and after having the tube removed (tubes). It was totally bizarre. They kept bringing me canned peaches and pears with my meals, which I could not eat as they had hauled out some caps in the process of intubating me and I couldn't chew... one whiff and I was done eating for the day. My first two meals after life support? CHEESE omelette and Macaroni and CHEESE. Fed to me by spoon as I was too weak to lift my hand.

I am brand new to CPAP and I thought I'd bump this topic because I have noticed a similar phenomenon. The smell is more like a very floral perfume, but I don't wear floral perfumes, and rarely do I wear perfumes at all. I guess it could be my linens? But I don't think my detergent has an odor...

It's possible whoever used the machine before used something like Pur-Sleep (aromatic oil) on the filter, or just behind the machine, or even in the humidifier (a definite no-no!), but to be 100% sure, you might want to check with your MD re the remote chance of kidney trouble, because it does often show up first as an odor (have you been on a no-carb diet?). You yourself wouldn't necessarily be aware of the smell otherwise, but overnight it could have concentrated in the mask.

Julie wrote:It's possible whoever used the machine before used something like Pur-Sleep (aromatic oil) on the filter, or just behind the machine, or even in the humidifier (a definite no-no!), but to be 100% sure, you might want to check with your MD re the remote chance of kidney trouble, because it does often show up first as an odor (have you been on a no-carb diet?). You yourself wouldn't necessarily be aware of the smell otherwise, but overnight it could have concentrated in the mask.

they're talking about a smell when taking the mask off...

if I had to guess, I'd say it's something that's on the bed/pillows, shampoo, and having the cpap on, they're breathing air that's coming from a distance. when they take the mask off, they get different air, that in the immediate vicinity of their head... and so it's a 'new' smell to their nose for a few seconds, till the brain blanks it out.

You're probably right, but just in case...

Julie wrote:You're probably right, but just in case...

yeah, like I said, just a wild guess, because I've never had that sensation,

might be becuase I've got a ceiling fan always stirring the air up.... ? (if there's anything to my guess at all )

I think it is the result of breathing finely filtered air for 5,6,7, or ever how many hours the brain gets used to not smelling any impurities. When you take the mask of you start breathing dust, right away.

In any case, this phenomenon seems to go away in time.

Then again, dogs have been trained to detect seizures by scent, and there is more:
http://io9.com/5959395/these-diseases-c ... d-by-smell