Aerophagia

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
robot_head

Aerophagia

Post by robot_head » Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:09 pm

Hi everyone, I've been running into a bout of trouble sleeping recently. I've been a CPAP user for about 3 years now, diagnosed AHI of 95.

My prescribed pressure is 13 cwp, I use a ResMed s8 with Swift FX nasal pillows, hose cozy, moisture setting of 1.75. EPR turned off.
I sleep on an wedge pillow at an incline.
I use a hose holder that attaches to my bed.

I've been waking up for reasons I can't figure out, but what I have noticed:

* When I wake up I feel like I have lots of air in my stomach and intestines. I've read this is called aerophagia. Before I wake up I experience vivid dreams that I can clearly remember, and have difficulty falling back asleep. I don't tear my mask off. This usually starts around 3am, and then continues to happen until the sun comes up and I can't convince myself to get back to sleep.

* I have pretty bad nasal congestion, and take a nasal antihistamine that sometimes helps.

* I have IBS and take Bentyl

Has anyone else experienced this issue and have any tips? Should I try turning EPR on? My sleep doctors want to try BiPap therapy next.

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Julie
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Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:58 pm

Re: Aerophagia

Post by Julie » Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:51 pm

How do you know you're not mouth breathing with your congestion (which can be caused by too much humidity) and losing therapy air that way? Have you tried taping to see if it makes a difference? Have you tried lowering your pressure just a bit to see if it helps the aerophagia without affecting treatment?