Looking for Aerophagia Advice

I'm just starting week three on a BiPAP, and while my first week seemed to be fairly uneventful, as I've gotten better at sleeping with it, and staying asleep longer, I'm finding I'm waking up at least once or twice a night from swallowing massive amounts of air. Not really painful, but it is uncomfortable, and I have to sit up and burp out all the air I'm taking in for a few minutes (or let it out by some other route).

So I'm brainstorming options a bit, and wondered if anyone has any advice on what works.

My pressure alternates between 17 and 12 cm, and I've been getting around 3-7 AHI usually, with a mix of obstructives and centrals. I had a couple fairly long nights (6-7 hours), but as the burping has gotten worse, I'll sometimes wake up and take the mask off to burp, but fall back asleep before putting it back on.

I've thought about turning the pressures down a bit and see if that helps me swallow less air, but I think the higher pressure is helping me breathe through my nose easier, since I tend to just be generally congested. I have had my ears pop from trying to swallow or exhale quickly through my nose sometimes while wearing the mask though, so the pressure might be a bit high.

I'm still only two weeks into trying this mask, so I'm sure I can go exchange it, but I'm wondering what type of mask might help, or if any change would.

I've read here about possibly propping up my head, or the head of my bed some. For anyone that's done that, did you just use more pillows, or actually prop up the mattress at an angle?

Thanks for any help. I'm really enjoying browsing through all the knowledge contained here, and it's a wonderful resource for new CPAP users.

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I'm kinda in the same boat, and other than burping and farting, that's my advice. I'm sure there is a better plan, so I look forward to finding some advice too.

I had aerophagia in the beginning. I am 2 months in now and don't have it anymore. I didn't adjust pressure. I am on continuous pressure of 14. I would have gone the way of buying 6 inch blocks to place under the bed frame head of bed if needed.

My doctor told me to elevate the head of my bed by 7-10 inches and to take a proton pump inhibitor an hour before dinner. Neither worked for me, which is not to say they wouldn't work for you. I'm starting bipap to see if that will work for me. I hope it will, but at the same time, I'm not betting the ranch on it. Reducing the pressure absolutely would help, but, yeah, you wouldn't be getting the pressure you need. That's basically what I've been doing--using 4cm less pressure than I really need, leading to sub-optimal results for my EDS.

apneawho wrote:I had aerophagia in the beginning. I am 2 months in now and don't have it anymore. I didn't adjust pressure. I am on continuous pressure of 14. I would have gone the way of buying 6 inch blocks to place under the bed frame head of bed if needed.

This is my question... If I end up with aerophagia, and sometimes it's severe--burping, nearly vomiting, stomach hurting--I can't just put the mask on for the rest of the night. My night with CPAP ends right there. So based on anyone's experience, if I can only log a few hours before the aerophagia gets too bad and I have to terminate that night with CPAP, is there some chance that I'll slowly log more and more hours and will acclimate to it WITHOUT LOWERING THE PRESSURE? Apneawho, I assume when you say you never adjusted the pressure, your aerophagia wasn't severe enough to terminate CPAP for that night, correct?

[quote="SleepingUgly" Apneawho, I assume when you say you never adjusted the pressure, your aerophagia wasn't severe enough to terminate CPAP for that night, correct?[/quote]

Don't get me wrong it was bad. It was so bad that my abdomen was tight as a drum in the morning. I never took my mask off, I went through the night every night and did not drop my pressure. I called the doctor and RT a couple of times and they were of no help. It just abated after about 3-4 weeks. I did stop using a chin strap and started taping my mouth and I keep my tongue against the roof of my mouth as much as I can train myself to do. I think all of this helped and I think in my case the aerophagia just went away with time as I became acclimated to the therapy.