Air rushes suddenly into my mouth

I've had success lately sleeping the whole night with my mask on. This is quite an accomplishment for me, but I still wake up many times during the night (even though I still feel better than without the hose). One thing in particular that I've noticed is that air periodically rushes into my mouth. I tape my mouth, so it goes from being empty to being filled like a balloon. This is an uncomfortable feeling, since in my semiconscious state, I'm trying to decide whether to try to keep my mouth closed or just accept the air rushing in and let it open (still with the tape on). The air seems to come and go quickly.

Has anyone experienced this? Does it imply anything about my pressure being too low or too high? I'm trying to get a handle on this, but am finding it difficult even to put into words.

Thanks in advance for your replies

I'm not a mouth breather, but I do have the problem of air rushing into my mouth sometimes. Used to be really, really bad last fall.

Near as I can tell, it's where my tongue is located and how lax my jaw is that related to whether this happens.

As long as my tongue is touching the back of my top front teeth and the roof of my mouth (in the front of my mouth) little or no air gets into my mouth. But if I move my tongue down off the roof of my mouth and/or back from my front teeth, the air comes whooshing in like a gale. Fortunately this doesn't happen too often to me since it bady aggravates my aerophagia.

If my jaw relaxes just a bit too much, my tongue moves off that position touching the roof of my mouth, and the air comes wooshing in like a gale.

Obviously when I'm awake, I'm sure to not relax my jaw and not move my tongue. But when I am very sound asleep, my jaw does sometimes relax just that extra bit and occasionally enough air comes wooshing into my mouth to trigger some leaking from my mouth. Again, I'm fortunate this doesn't happen too often to me since it causes me to wake up with badly chaped lips and it also aggravates my aerophagia.

Sounds like your pressure is going up to high and you're getting mouth-leaking.

You might need a chin strap etc, or a full-face mask.

I don't agree that your pressure is necessarily too high. However, do look at the display on your unit and note the pressure when it happens. Even though you're taping, you might want to use a chin strap if you're not already doing so.

I agree with Robysue 100%.

Chipmunk cheeks. Air goes up the nose, down the airway till it gets to where mouth and throat connect and then attempts to exit out the mouth instead of continuing on down the airway.

Follow Robysue's suggestion about tongue placement. With time it can become a habit and chipmunk cheeks will stop. The tongue blocks the attempted exit of air through mouth. A few people may need external pressure on cheeks to prevent the ballooning. Snug chin strap of sorts applying pressure to cheeks might help.

If my tongue's in the wrong spot, my cheeks inflate faster than gas prices. The other night, it popped my mouth open and blew through for about 10 minutes... two words: bone dry. Things described by those two words: mouth, tongue, sinuses, nose, throat.

If it happens rarely, it's one thing, but if this is becoming common, you might want to consider a full-face mask so you can open your mouth and still get that positive air pressure goodness.