Aerophagia Puns

Hi All,

Hope everyone’s doing well! Forgive me for posting here, as I’ve turned towards this sub as a last resort for some symptoms I’ve struggled with.

I was diagnosed with central sleep apnea and started on ASV 6 weeks ago. AHIs are great and minimal leakage (nasal mask).

However, 4 weeks ago I started burping non stop. I burp when I wake up, before I eat and after I eat from day to night.

Initial research points to Aerophagia but most cases show belching only in the mornings…mine lasts the entire day (and don’t have regurgitation or any taste). Went to a GI and they said I seemed find given my only symptom is burping…

My question to you all is: do you know if Aerophagia can cause burping the entire day? How can you tell if its aerophagia or something else?

Perhaps I need a pressure adjustment?

I think I have fewer clear airway apneas with my EPR off, but I wake up several times in pain because of aerophagia. Even though my ahi is always under 5 with the cpap, I notice a significant difference in my fatigue levels and mood when I can get my ahi under 1, which is rare. I usually have more clear airway apneas than anything else.

I use a nasal mask (bleep dreamway) and I tape my mouth shut. My leak data has shown 0 L/min since I got the bleep mask, so I know it’s not a leak and I know I’m not gulping air. Turning my pressure down somewhat on my apap doesn’t help either (and my obstructive apneas went up).

Has anyone tried a wedge pillow to help with aerophagia? Or, has anyone tried reducing the pressure significantly and slowly increasing it? I don’t know if the body adjusts to the air and gets better at routing it to the lungs rather than the stomach.

My 95% pressure on OSCAR is about 12.

Any advice would be appreciated!

So the past week or two I've been woken up by back pain due to pressure from Aerophagia. I have a disk that is slightly out of place to where I don't get bothered by it most times but now I wake up early in crazy pain and have problems breathing until the gas moves on.

What are my options? I feel like fixing the back is a no brainer but if i can't fix it with stretching/cracking I'm worried that surgery is the only option.

Hey Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well! Recently, I’ve started burping NON-STOP. I burp after I wake up, after I drink water, and after I eat throughout the ENTIRE day.

This has been going on for about a month and Im not sure how to differentiate symptoms of GERD or just Aerophagia. Full disclosure, I started on CPAP for sleep apnea treatment 6 weeks ago.

Most cases of CPAP aerophagia have people only burp after they wake up, which is why I’m concerned. Also had a case of heartburn last week…

Do you guys think the burping is indicative of GERD? How can I tell the diff vs Aerophagia? Thank you!

TLDR: Started CPAP a month ago but am burping non stop throughout the entire day. How can you differentiate between aerophagia and GERD symptoms? Should I see a GI?

Hey guys for my bipap I have noticed I get the best sleep at around 7.5 epap and a ps of 2 but when I set it at that level I wake up with pain in my stomach from too much air. Anything I am doing wrong?

Hi everyone, I've been practicing mewing for a couple of months and I've had a breakthrough in the technique: to let my tongue lay relaxed on the roof of my mouth, I had to let all the air out! And I don't mean just the lungs, but the stomach and the tension in the organism, too!
I've had experiences with breathing techniques so I know very well how to let go of tension, and I've noticed that I hold tension in my pelvic floor, shoulders, and jaw. A couple of days ago I tried to relax the tongue and body while breathing, and I noticed these areas loosening and my tongue and jaw fitting perfectly... for like one second because there was an excessive amount of saliva that accumulated insanely fast. I had to swallow like every 3 seconds, and sometimes I just swallowed air. And it was NOT the appropriate swallow, it was a hard, almost instinctive swallow. The air went directly into the areas before mentioned (and others, but mainly those), and thus I had to start the whole relaxation thing again. But it became stressful to the body, I was soon sweating trying to relax, and getting to that salivating state.
Do you have experience with this? What kind of specialists would you see?
I was thinking about going to an experimented physical therapist and /or chiropractor. I think there might be some misalignment in my body. Maybe even neurological, according to the research I've done, but I would love to hear some opinions before spending too much (there aren't many health professionals in my area, so I would have to travel to get treatment...).

Thanks for reading!

I have a problem with aerophagia after switching to Airsense 10 from DS.

Can’t lower min pressure because treatment won’t be optimal.

I use dreamwear nasal mask and it fits well. Problem is I open my mouth when sleeping and I’m using tape. Tape is not working as it should anymore as I tend to exhale through my mouth anyway.

I realised that if I tape is done correctly I don’t have aerophagia but it’s difficult to achieve. So I tried full face mask, and guess what. No aerophagia so far.

That would confirm problem with incorrectly applied tape.

Do you have similar problems? How did you solve it?

So, I've been on a 9-15 cmH2O with 2 cmH2O epr for a while and I feel quite bloated. When looking at the pressures I get during the night, I rarely get to 15, but I do on a occasion. As far as I can understand, the APAP algorithm is not supposed to over pressurize the airway to the point of air going through the esophagus, but I definitely feel like I am swallowing air. I have a lot of reflux and my stomach aches most of the day. Is my understanding of the APAP wrong? should I still lower my max pressure? Has anyone here had aerophagia with an APAP that's not bottoming out?

It’s 5 am and I have been awake for about an hour and a half. Been having great results on my cpap at home, but sleeping on the couch at my parents’ place, not so much! Woke up with aerophagia and now I feel like I can’t catch my breath (with my mask off)! Also heartburn! What a miserable experience.

It's a rare withdrawal symptom, but I have this symptom, and it's fucking hell. So bad that I can barley eay anything due to my gag reflexes.

Incase you don't know, aerophagia is where you constantly breathe in excessive air, so you keep burping.

Did anyone else have this problem? How long till it goes away? I was only taking 1mg of xanax a day for a few weeks. I don't even have any other withdrawal side effects. Just this one.

Does anyone else think their gerd is caused by air swallowing (aerophagia)? I feel like I gulp air subconsciously which maybe puts pressure on my LES? Going to try sleeping wearing nasal strips to see if that helps.

That is all. I can't use my CPAP because of aerophagia, and my MAD doesn't help enough.

And somehow I can't get the doctor to understand those facts...

One of my most annoying / hard to conceal anxiety symptoms rn is aerophagia. When I’m stressed (mostly when I’m doing uni work) I almost forget how to breathe and start to breathe too shallow and gulp air in I guess? For most this means constant burping, but I can’t burp so it’s a different, weird sound of me releasing air bubbles.

It also is really distracting, I end up focusing more on trying to breathe properly than actually doing my work, but as soon as I go back to work it starts again. I also can get very lightheaded from this.

Anyone have any tips on how to combat this? I can’t just not do my school work, and I genuinely don’t know how to reduce stress without just dropping my obligations.

Like I said, I’ve tried guided breathing, which works until I go back to breathing on my own aka focusing back on school.

Thanks!

~ the nervous burper

5'2", 230lbs, female. Hey, I was wondering if I had some sort of swallowing disorder such as Aerophagia. I've been having trouble lately, over a few weeks I'd say, and I have developed a strange habit and my brain tells me to swallow an excessive amount and it makes it very troubling for me to breathe during the day and night. Is there a good explanation or reason why I could be having this issue? Also whenever I eat something and try to swallow things my breathing stopped then I freak out then I swallow which is so annoying I used to love to eat but not anymore

So thanks to my therapist, I finally understood why I always burp so much. The more I feel anxious the more I do. I really don’t know how to stop. When I am home or at school I burp so so much and it makes me feel gross and disgusting. My mom yells at me and shouts that I do everything to be disgusting and ugly. She doesn’t want to believe me when I tell her that I don’t do it on purpose. Does anyone else have this or have tips ?

I was googling my problem but the google says that Aerophagia is relieved or alleviated with the use of an APAP but I have an APAP and it’s on the lowest setting because my apnea is very mild almost untreatable but doctor is treating since I suffer insurmountable exhaustion and daytime sleepiness. I score pretty high on that sleepiness test they give you at the office every time. I think I suck at adjusting my mask or something idk because I keep having gas and sour stomach only when using my machine. The searches keep saying APAP is good to prevent it so it must be a user error. I’ve tried adjusting and readjusting the straps and using a different type of mask and size mask etc and nothing works. Any advice? I can’t sleep with this thing and get the treatment if it’s gonna cause me pain and frustration.

Edit/Update: I think I had the wrong size mask so I found the other one and it seems to be less hurty. Sorry about my ramble folks!

Hey guys, it’s my 3rd night using a CPAP. 1st night I noticed myself passing a lot of gas during the night, and burping a lot the next morning.

Second night same thing, except I also woke up in the morning with a stomach ache.

Third night, tonight, I woke up just 2.5 hours in with an extreme sharp pain in my stomach. Took off the mask and I’m currently sitting in the living room at 2:30am typing this and trying to relieve the pressure enough that I can go back to sleep.

I feel like I might explode! Please tell me there’s something I can do to fix this so I don’t have to deal with this each night.

I have an issue where im not gulping air, but rather the air pressure forces its way down my throat rather than down my airway. Obviously this reduces the quality of my sleep because of the discomfort and also the air pressure isn't working as well as intended if it is going down the wrong passage. I'm wondering if you guys have any good solutions.

Ive tried different masks, pressures, comfort mode and positions, and it seems like the only thing which really works for me is losing weight, which has proven to be nearly impossible for me.

I burp excessively sometimes and I've gone to doctors and they haven't been able to find anything. I believe I may have supragastic belching but there is very little information on treating it. Is there anyone who knows about these conditions and or has treated them?

Hi all! I am wondering if anyone has ever been diagnosed with aerophagia? I have never been able to burp and have always had pretty consistent throat gurgles. Since I was little I've had every test in the book done, multiple endoscopes (they actually thought in x-rays the pockets of air in my stomach were ulcers) nasopharyngoscopes, swallowing tests, went to speech therapy to learn how not to swallow air, and I even had my adenoids removed as a desperate attempt to help me. I think doctors were always most concerned about the gurgles in my throat as opposed to the fact that I couldn't burp. It was dismissed as aerophagia caused by anxiety, which is pretty much just where you have a problem swallowing too much air.

Reading all of your posts literally makes me emotional, because I always thought it was my fault that my stomach is constantly painfully bloated. I blamed myself for the embarrassing gurgles I give myself that are always giving me extreme anxiety in social situations. I genuinely thought I just did not have the capability to control my air swallowing like a normal person.

I was constantly out of school as a kid for anxiety over my gurgles, or going to the hospital for tests. I remember my doctor told me to wear a rubber band on my wrist and hit myself with it when i felt the gurgles coming to distract my brain from making them happen. This traumatized me so much as a kid. Wondering if anyone had a similar experience?

Looking to take the next steps to resolve this issue. I am close to Toronto so I am hoping to get a referral to see the botox doctor you talk about!

Ok so I am 32 years old and on a cpap. It helps tremendously. Last October I worked my usual night shift. It was the first one back from the weekend. I awoke around 10 am. Horrible heartburn and gas. I do have reflux occasionally. It was the worst pain of my life. Went to emergency room in fear of it being a heart attack. They did there test and sent me on my way with some heartburn meds. This happened again this morning. Exact same scenario. I'm actually 30 pounds lighter than I was last year so diet is much better. Woke at 10 am on the dot terrible heartburn and gas. Toughed it out and sleep on the recliner. Is this a mixture of my reflux allowing cpap to push air into my stomach. Please help if you have similar experience. Thanks guys.

lit. the title : I realize I’m confusing them. I suffered from anorexia nervosa for 12 years (I did not vomit) and in remission I was faced with this 'extreme hunger' of which we speak. My weight is healthy and stable for 5 years, I’m even heavier than I’ve ever been. I know that I am an emotional eater but I realize that I have more and more crises where I eat a lot of food, in a short time, having the feeling of losing control. I feel uncomfortable after BUT I am not sick and I do not vomit. I have never taken laxatives either.
I wanted to know if it was bulimia, binge eating or something else?
I do not want to generalize or minimize the behavioural disorders of certain patients - That’s why I want to be sure.

I’m working with a TMJ and sleep dentist in hopes to cure my TMJ and my sleep apnea. He started me out with a bite splint which un-trapped my retruded mandible and joints. As a result, my lower jaw is a few millimeters further forward than it used to be.

Several months into his treatment, I started occasionally experiencing something i’d never had happen before after 2 years of CPAP. Occasionally I would be suddenly awakened with a feeling of nausea - as if I was about to vomit - and I’d sit up in bed and take the mask off, breathe for a minute, and then it would pass. I’m assuming that compressed air was getting down my throat. I’d put the mask back on and go back to sleep, and it might not happen again for a couple weeks or months.

But lately, it’s been happening a little more frequently and is making me scared that this TMJ guy may have screwed me up in a really bad way with what he did.

Normally when I see people talk about aerophagia with CPAP ... it’s usually more of a gassy/bloated feeling when waking. I don’t usually see the symptoms the way I am experiencing them.

Has anyone had anything like this happen to them? I’m afraid I’m going to have to either stop CPAP or talk to my sleep docs and beg for a tracheal tube ....

I would say about 8/10 nights I wake up in the middle of the night with stomach pain and have to get up and try to relieve some pressure before I can go back to sleep.

My pressure is set at 18, but I think I need this high pressure. At 15 I was still getting AHI above 20, so they switched it to 18 and now I’m below 10 most nights (started at 145).

Is aerophagia dangerous, or just uncomfortable? I absolutely love my CPAP and don’t know how I ever slept without it, but waking up almost every night for a good half hour sucks.

How come I can't find anything about this online?

I've been struggling with aerophagia/gastric insufflation for years now and it's only getting worse. I am already at a lower than required minimum EPAP setting at 6 cmH2O which isn't even high. I use a full face mask and a cervical collar.

Whenever I am about to fall asleep, air would flap through my UES and awaken me every night multiple times. I used to be able to sleep on my right side without this problem but not anymore and it's horrifying.

I don't get any sunlight at all as I have severe DSPD but I supplement Vitamin D daily and my last blood test result for it was normal.

Would Shaker exercises help to strengthen the UES to prevent insufflating air at night? I am desperate.

I stumbled upon aerophagia, and wikipedia states it "may also refer to an unusual condition where the primary symptom is excessive flatus, belching is not present, and the actual mechanism by which air enters the gut is obscure." Sounds familiar to me. I've heard this could be caused by anxiety, among other things. Perhaps this noburp condition is a symptom of something else, and maybe, just maybe, if we used the term "aerophagia" with doctors, they wouldn't be so hesitant to believe us.

34M 145LB

North America

I burp excessively sometimes and I've gone to doctors and they haven't been able to find anything yet. I believe I may have supragastic belching but there is very little information on treating it. My condition comes and goes, I'll be fine for weeks or months at a time and then I'll go through periods of days or even weeks where I'm burping often. I think it maybe due to anxiety and possibly swallowing air as a nervous habit but im not sure. I've tried almost every over the counter stomach medicine I could and a couple prescription PPI's. Is there anyone who knows about these conditions and or has treated them?

So last night I finally realized what one of the problems sensations I have is when using the CPAP. sometimes I’m swallowing air. Besides the obvious burping and bloating, I think this also causes longer, uncomfortable inhalations. Which are also pretty loud sometimes, which is stressful itself.

then after that I realized I was having a similar sensation during the day today. First time for that, and I haven’t had much more than mild occasional bloating up until a few days ago, but the long uncomfortable inhale has bothered me the whole time I’ve been trying to get CPAP to work.

(I also have Aspergers, which makes self awareness/listen to your body pretty low for me. Hence taking longer to figure out what’s happening.)

Then, today I did some reading to try to understand aerophagia, throat anatomy and so on. and I stumbled upon some journal articles and studies saying that, yes, Gerd and swallowing air often coexist especially with CPAP thrown in the mix.

So anyway... Now I understand the problem a bit more, but I have no clue what I can do about it??? last night after I realized what was going on, I seriously couldn’t bring myself to put the mask back on to try. Predictably I slept poorly and had a bad day today. Not that CPAP gives me predictable good days, maybe once a week but it’s enough for me to keep trying.

Sooo... Any ideas? Thanks in advance!!

Hi, I’ve long has this thing where I swallow air because it feels good. I’ve also had really bad issues with my stomach/bloating for years. It wasn’t until recently, when I stopped swallowing air for a few weeks and then started again that I realized that the two might be linked. The internet suggests it might be linked to anxiety/depression (both of which I’ve been diagnosed with and used to struggle with quite a bit in the past). I haven’t heard of aerophagia before other than what the internet tells me, so I’d really love to hear other experiences. Sorry this is rambly!

So somewhere i developed a lax tongue posture, this i believe has led to chronically swallowing air with water and food as i burp during meals/ drinking water. Complain of "not a normal swallow" to doctor and dentist who never did anything. Chewing food for > hour with my meals to eat a 1LB steak etc wife takes <30 min, oral anxiety. Digestive issues tmj etc. I have a tongue tie i believe, but torn between having that done to relieve shoulder neck tension and chronic forward head posture and a SLP " Orofacial Myofunctional Therapist" i believe is correct? the back half of my tongue does not sit properly on roof of mouth nor do i swallow correctly chewing food seems to be off as well not using " rotary chewing" more " mashing/ up and down" Am i on the right track with this?

So I have a resmed airsense 10 and a P10 nasal pillows mask. I recently tried the N20 nasal mask for a few nights since my leak with the P10 is ridiculously high. But the N20 didn't work either, the headgear and mask are just not the right shape for my face and even with the straps tight enough to leave marks I was waking up to leaks blowing into my eyes every few minutes. So I'm back on the P10 while I wait to see my DME supplier.

Today I woke up having swallowed so much air that tapping my abdomen sounded like smacking a yoga ball and I've had excruciating cramps/reflux/diarrhea since. Most of the air seems to be gone now but I don't know what to do tonight since I really don't want this to happen again. I've tried everything with adjusting and cleaning the mask but as soon as I put it on I feel like I'm suffocating and swallowing air (which wasn't an issue like this before). I'm going to try lowering the pressure since it's pretty high but the last time I did that my AHI spiked again.

Aside from getting a new mask, which I can't do til Monday at the earliest (and then I'll have to wait forever for insurance to approve it), what should I do? I have no support from doctors on this - the sleep specialist who dx'd me literally cut me off mid-sentence to say "I don't know, talk to the vendor" the last time I tried to ask him about my therapy.

So yeah, I'd really appreciate any suggestions!

I believe I have supragastric belching as the doctors have not been able to find a medical reason for my problem. I read that speech therapy may help and was wondering if most therapist know of this issue and are familiar with treating it.

I've tried CPAP several times but I always have the same problem: Wake up after an hour feeling like a balloon, spend the whole day farting. Has anyone suffered this problem and figured out how to deal with it? I've heard BiPAP or ASV can help, anyone have experience?

Just hoping for any advice really. My 8 year old has had symptoms of chronic bloating and pain with constipation for 5 years. The doctors say its all due to aerophagia. This is obviously learnt behaviour he has had since he was very small (as his mum i think it started when we were weaning), apart from learning new breathing techniques what else can we do to retrain him not to swallow air? Any advice or help greatly appreciate. We are under our regional childrens hospital.

Pretty much since starting APAP, the aerophagia has been prevalent and pretty uncomfortable - bloating, distension, some pain from the pressure.

Does anyone have breathing tips/tricks to avoid it or at least reduce it? Or have you had experience with it being a pressure issue?

Note: I only, so far, use nasal masks. I don’t yet use a full face although may try soon due to nasal congestion issues.

My doctor told me um suffering from aerophagia and suggested me to release burp through my nose instead of mouth. Can someone suggest an effective way to do that? I keep my mouth closed but um not sure if the burp gets released through my nose I feel like the air gets back inside... Suffering from this aerophagia for quite some time now :(

hi guys!!

i make this post in order to find if someone else here have the same issues that i have or try to help us each other.

Im 24 and im from Argentina. As the title says, i suffer from aerophagia. Since I can remember i have this problem... and its really, really annoying.

I fart all day (most cases with bad smell) so its really difficult to live with someone else, or even have meetings. Also i have burps (but not traditional burps, its more like a sound that comes from my throat). I cannot control them.

I cannot drink soda, beer, even "mate" (our traditional drink) give me problems.

I found meditation as a way to relax and kind of "empty" my stomach from gases, it works sometimes.

Do you have the same symptoms that i have? Did you find any solution to this problem? something that helps ?

Thanks and stay safe!

It seems like sometimes when I’m falling asleep, I get this feeling deep in my neck (where my epiglottis is) that something is flopping around. It’s not my soft palate cause I can tell when that is causing apneas, but this feels like it flops around and I swallow air & wake up.

It seems like this is aerophagia but I’ve never heard of it actually waking someone up or someone being aware of it the second it happens.

Anyone got any idea what this is?

I burp excessively sometimes and I've gone to doctors and they haven't been able to find anything. I believe I may have supragastic belching but there is very little information on treating it. Is there anyone who knows about these conditions and or has treated them?

So somewhere i developed a lax tongue posture, this i believe has led to chronically swallowing air with water and food as i burp during meals/ drinking water. Complain of "not a normal swallow" to doctor and dentist who never did anything. Chewing food for > hour with my meals to eat a 1LB steak etc wife takes <30 min, oral anxiety. Digestive issues tmj etc. I have a tongue tie i believe, but torn between having that done to relieve shoulder neck tension and chronic forward head posture and a SLP " Orofacial Myofunctional Therapist" i believe is correct? the back half of my tongue does not sit properly on roof of mouth nor do i swallow correctly chewing food seems to be off as well not using " rotary chewing" more " mashing/ up and down" Am i on the right track with this? Like wise would any device other than mouthguard help this? I've seen devices for tongue posture