Feeling full of wind in the morning

[Steino]

I have just registered and this is my first post so any help with this problem would be very gratefully received.

Does anyone else feel bloated and full of wind in the mornings?

I have been using my CPAP machine for nearly two years now but for the last six months I have been waking up in the mornings feeling very bloated and wondered if it was the machine literally pumping me up during the night!! I do have a hiatus hernia which means that the valve at the top of by stomach doesn't close very well.

Has anyone else experienced this and what was the cure?

Thanks

[ElleCee]

Hiya,
I had that but only in the first few months, not had it since.
Have you changed your mask or pressure since it started happening?

Lorraine

[Steino]

Hi Lorraine

No I haven't changed anything. The pressure is controlled automatically so I have never set it myself! Am I missing a trick here?

John

[ElleCee]

No missed tricks, what pressure do you have the machine set at?
Have you lost weight in the last 6 months?

[Tigers Fan]

How does one usually get rid of wind? Wht have you stopped doing that?

TF

[dravidio]

if you are being blown up (and it happened to me) then the pressure of your CPAP machine must be too high right now. You say it is two years old - is it working OK? Has the setting been altered by accident? Can you check it?

Tiger usually gets rid of hot air by posting on this board...

[Tigers Fan]

Ohhhh!!!!!!! Cut to the quick!!!!!!!!

[Berneta]

Wind

Hi, I had that problem for the first two months of using my CPAP but bought some Gas-X pills at the store and that helped a lot. I no longer take the pills as I no longer have the problem. For me--I guess I was swallowing air when I first got my machine. xx Berneta

[deadhead02]

I have had my machine for 6 months and suffered badly - some mornings I could barely walk. It has improved but I still get some bad days .
I did wonder if I have bad days after bad nights as sometimes I wake in a hurricane - is that when I have had an episode of not breathing?

[Tigers Fan]

Waking in a hurricane often means a badly set up APAP but yes, you've probably just had an episode.

[Tom @ Intus]

I have had my machine for 6 months and suffered badly - some mornings I could barely walk. It has improved but I still get some bad days .
I did wonder if I have bad days after bad nights as sometimes I wake in a hurricane - is that when I have had an episode of not breathing?

As TF said, yes, or you at least had one within the last 20 minutes.

Most (but not all) automatic machines will stay at a raised pressure for about 20 minutes before reducing again. So if an event is detected, the pressure goes up, and stays there for at least 20 minutes, even if the danger has passed. So if you do wake up with high pressures then it may not have been during an apnoea itself but shortly after.

[deadhead02]

Badly set up? So what to do? Its not always like it...

[Tigers Fan]

Do you know what your 90% Pressure is? If you don't, explain your problem abouit gales to your clinic. If you do, do you know how to set the pressures in your machine?

[Aspasia]

I hope it's OK to jump in here. I didn't want to start a whole new thread as my problem is similar.

I've only been using this therapy for 19 days (still wet behind the ears!), and it is still a loan machine from the hospital. I'm pretty certain it's an APAP, as the pressure does vary throughout the night. My mask is a Respironics Profile Lite Nasal Gel Mask.

For the first 10 days, I had various to-be-expected problems, but no issues with wind. Day 11, I started waking in the night really bloated and burping. In itself, this is not so great with a nasal mask, as I try to keep my mouth closed to avoid the hurricane-through-a-cave sound effect and the disturbing sensation of my head being a wind tunnel. But I also just cannot understand why it should suddenly become - and remain - a problem.

A couple of times I have woken in the night not breathing, and with the strong impression that the air from the machine is bypassing (or blocked from) my trachea, and is pumping directly into my stomach. When I breathe out strongly, it unblocks the trachea and I can start breathing again - but it still feels as though air is being pumped into my stomach as well.

In all fairness, its a lot less disturbing than when I used to wake with an apnoea before the machine, as I'm not quite as oxygen-starved: it's more of an 'Oh, I'm not breathing: better sort that out,' than a desperate gasp for air. So I'm basically pretty happy with it, and feel I've been very fortunate compared with many people on the forum: it just would be nice to figure out how to avoid being blown up like a balloon (and a couple of other minor problems).

The CPAP nurse is absolutely certain that I must have my mouth open and be gulping air. It's possible that I do, in the time before I wake up, but I don't wake with my mouth open: rather, I wake with my cheeks ballooned with air from the machine. And the nurse is so brusque and cast-iron sure of herself that (all due respect to her doubtless extensive education and experience) I can't help but wonder whether she's answering by the book, rather than listening to my experience. I'm pretty sure she's adding it together with the fact that I have a very dry throat, which she is also certain is a result of breathing through my mouth. Again, it may be, for the part of the night I am asleep. But the dry throat actually starts pretty soon after I turn the machine on, well before I am asleep, and when I *definitely* have not been breathing through my mouth. At that point, I do end up swallowing a lot, to try to ease my throat, so perhaps I might be swallowing air then?

Confused In The Islands

[Sparticus]

The months I spent trying to solve this one, for me it was the worse symptom of cpap, the pain in the morning was terrible until I deflated like an over filled balloon. This problem is caused by sleeping position and after a few adjustments I didn't suffer anymore. heres a post that explains the problem.

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Over the last eight years we've heard plenty of complaints from CPAP users regarding various side-effects of CPAP therapy. All too often we hear people complaining of a bloated feeling, like their stomachs have filled with air. Generally these people are awakened during the night and they can't get restful sleep. The CPAP therapy may be working for them inasmuch as it's addressing the issue of obstructive sleep apnea, but it's creating a new, significant problem: aerophagia. While it's not clear how many CPAP users suffer from aerophagia, we can say for sure it's a problem we hear about quite frequently, and it's certainly an issue that needs to be addressed in order to achieve positive results from CPAP therapy.

First let's define aerophagia, and then we'll explore why it might occur and what can be done to mitigate it or to altogether prevent the phenomenon from occurring during CPAP therapy. Remember, I'm not a doctor, so this isn't medical advice. If you've got medical issues which need immediate attention, I'm not your guy. Call your doctor, make an appointment, and go in and have a nice conversation with him. If you suspect he might not know anything about aerophagia vis-a-vis CPAP therapy, you can print out this article and bring it in for a little show-and-tell.
Aerophagia is defined very simply as the condition in which a person swallows too much air into the stomach. Aerophagia can cause bloating and discomfort, and can result in excessive burping. Everyone has experienced aerophagia to a certain extent, and when it happens and enough air is swallowed it's often expelled through burping. Aerophagia can be caused by eating foods that produce gas in the stomach - like bran, vegetables, beer or soda - or by excessive salivation. Eating quickly, eating with your mouth open, and drinking while eating are also said to contribute to aerophagia. So, at the dinner table you can try to avoid aerophagia by having good manners! In bed, though, with a CPAP machine pumping air up your nose or into your mouth, good manners aren't enough.
To the casual observer it seems obvious enough. If air is pumped into your nose and mouth then you're going to swallow it. But wait. It's not so simple. Why would the air go down your esophagus and into your stomach, rather than going down your trachea and into your lungs? There are a couple of potential reasons.

First on the list is the position of the head, and how the position affects the trachea. If the trachea is not fully opened and is not able to accomodate the amount of pressure being delivered by the CPAP machine, then the overflow is going to get pushed into the esophagus. Did you ever take a CPR class? The key to blowing air into someone's lungs is to properly align the neck and head. If you don't do this - that is, if you don't fully open the airway - then you'll be blowing air into the esophagus and stomach. The same principle applies to other non-invasive ventilation techniques, including CPAP therapy.

Second on the list of reasons also has to do with basic fluid dynamics. The CPAP machine might be delivering too much air for your trachea and lungs to handle. This is very closely related to the head position, but it's a little different because the problem could potentially occur when the head and neck are properly aligned and when the trachea is wide open. Remember the last traffic jam you were in? Cars started to leave the jammed up street to take a different route. The same thing happens with gases like air. If the air doesn't fit in the trachea, it's going to go somewhere else. Too much air can cause you to swallow involuntarily (like an uncontrollable gag, really), opening the epiglottis. If you have a high pressure setting, this could be an issue.
Third on the list of reasons is air leaks. No matter your level of CPAP pressure, if air is going in through your nose and is leaking out of your mouth, you will undoubtedly swallow involuntarily. If the leaks are bad enough you'll probably end up ripping your mask off your face during the night without even knowing it. Leaks out the mouth when using a nasal mask are very uncomfortable and bascially intolerable, and can definitely contribute to aerophagia.
If you're experiencing the symptoms of aerophagia, you can try to address the issues accordingly:

• Adjust the position of your head so that it's not tilting forward while you sleep - keep the airway wide open
• Talk to your prescribing doctor about reducing the pressure setting on your CPAP machine
• Consider an automatic CPAP machine - they generally deliver much less than prescribed pressure
• Consider a machine with exhalation pressure relief - this will help prevent involuntary swallowing; in conjunction with an automatic machine your aerophagia days may be over rather quickly

Spart.