air noise

why do you hear air when you're trying to get to sleep?

Hi,

Where do you hear the air? Is this from the hose from the machine? From the exhaust vents in front of the mask? From the seal where it meets your face? Or in your ears?

Air coming out of the exhaust vents is normal. You have to have that to avoid having CO2 build up. Air from the seal along the face is not normal. That means that your mask isn't adjusted right, or it doesn't fit you. If you hear it from the hose, try rerouting the hose, and make sure the machine is below the level of your bed. I route the hose between two pillows to help dampen out the noise. If you are hearing it inside of your ears, that can be a problem. For example, some people have air blow back through their tear ducts, and others have air blow through their eustachian tubes. If that is the case, see your doctor. High leak rates can cause your machine to build up too high of pressure, which can make these issues that much worse. Please do check your machine to see what your leak rate is. If you don't know how to read that, then take your machine back to your DME and have them do a data download.

-john-

I have found that adjusting the hose angle at the mask can make the air noise quieter. It seems that putting the hose coming in from up above is best. I guess that's about a 90 degree angle compared to hose lining up with my chin. Does that make sense? I don't feel like I'm describing this well.

Different things work for different people an different set ups. So, keep trying different things to see if you can find a way to lessen the air noise. When I switched from a nasal pillow to a nasal mask, both Hubby and I noticed a significant drop in air noise.

Good luck in finding a solution.

Guest wrote:why do you hear air when you're trying to get to sleep?

Because your CPAP machine blows air.

This could be a legitimate question, but real hoseheads having a problem usually post more details. My guess is that a spammer is wasting our time in hopes of sneaking in a link to his used golf ball porn site.