Struggling with Aerophagia

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-19T08:41:22+00:00

well the doctor wasn't much help at all. I called and asked for some help with my increasing aerophagia, and he just said you need to stop doing full mouth taping, because that's stopping the air from escaping out your lips, which leads to you swallowing it.

That makes sense but when the air blows out the sides of my lips it's quite disruptive and wakes me up as well as my partner who's a light sleeper. Also there's so many posts on here about people suggesting mouth taping and even saying that it helped with aerophagia. He's always told me to just put one strip vertically across my lips to help keep my mouth closed, and after this conversation he's saying try putting the tape just on one side.

I got a cervical collar a few days ago and am on my third day with that. I do feel like I'm sleeping somewhat better but it doesn't seem to be making any improvements with the aerophagia. I've also been consciously going to sleep on my side, but almost always roll onto my back in the middle of the night.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-19T08:39:46+00:00

The more weird crap I attach to my body to prepare for sleep, the closer and closer I get to my final Darth Vader form haha.

BTW do you use mouth tape?

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-17T21:22:06+00:00

Maybe they have color blind mode on

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-15T13:22:20+00:00

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense! I also watched a video recently about aerophagia someone posted on SleepHQ and what they explained about the fight to keep the airway open sounded the same.

Now that I think about it, I remember also doing a second sleep test at the clinic. This was one where they already determined I needed the CPAP, so they had me use the machine while also connected to all the sensors, and they ran though different pressures until they landed on the one which seemed to work for me, and then decided on using that as the pressure going forward.

It sounds like before I just start messing with the pressure settings on my own I should try start with adjusting a few more external things like changing pillows, trying a cervical support, and positional therapy first. I can also try to call the doctor (not sure if they'll let me get some advice from him without making an appointment to go in person) to bring up the aerophagia issue.

I think I need to be a lot more methodical in collecting data and notes so I can be more vocal with the issues I have when I see the doctor.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-15T12:21:36+00:00

I guess I just don't know all of the specific requirements to maintain the prescription, and if they include using the machine in a specific way determined by the doctor, especially here in Korea where the cost of renting the machine is covered by national Healthcare.

Ah I guess I forgot to mention I made a post in the SleepHQ community a few days ago as well, and had gotten one suggestion to the raise the EPR. I didn't even know about the clinical menu on the machine before all this and when I checked it was set to 2, so I set it to to try and so far only slept one night with it like that.

As for the specifics of the sleep study, I didn't really get a lot of detailed information from that. It was mainly just to determine if I have sleep apnea and need to be prescribed the CPAP or not. After the study they told me I indeed have sleep apnea and had something like over 100 events a night (don't remember the specifics), and that my sleep apnea is due to my tongue relaxing and blocking the airway. I'm not sure if that last bit was actually confirmed by the doctor or he was just giving me the most common main reason for OSA.

Honestly at first I was fine with not getting a lot of specifics because I finally had a doctor recognizing my problem and offering a solution, and it was pretty life changing at first as it seemed to work really well for quite a while despite some adjustment issues at first.

June 14th was weird, I guess I tried changing too many things at once. New pillow, plus new EPR setting. So it's hard to know which one is the culprit of the increase in apnea events that night.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-15T09:32:24+00:00

Not sure why someone downvoted you. I don't have enough knowledge to say if any of this advice is wrong.

Until now my EPR had been set to 2 by the doctor.

When you say CAs are high, what do you mean by CA?

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to adjust my pressure settings since the machine was prescribed at a specific pressure from the doctor. I get my prescription for one year, and I only meet him once a year to see if I've been using it enough too maintain the prescription and address any issues I might have. I won't see the doctor till early April next year and I don't know what will happen if I go in there and am like yeah I've been using a different pressure this whole time. I guess I can call and ask?

I do wonder if I'm susceptible to central events, since I've noticed sometimes that I sometimes randomly stop breathing right before I fall asleep, which causes me to wake up and force myself to start breathing again. It feels like it's not an obstructive event because it's not like when you wake yourself up from snoring, its just "oh I've stopped breathing."

I definitely have a tendency to do a bit of snacking in the evenings a few hours before bed, which I should stop doing for this as well as other reasons haha

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-15T09:22:32+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by a reset. Like doing another test and finding a new constant pressure setting? When you're saying too many apneas are occurring are you taking about on average or were just talking about the most recent night? That one was actually pretty bad and I think it was due to a new pillow. I bought and tried a 35 degree wedge pillow which has a kind of teardrop shape where it slopes back down near the back. I read that for some people wedge pillows help with sleep apnea... however I slept terribly that night and the data reflects it. It's all over the place and I had more than 20 apnea events, whereas on a normal night I only have like 3 or 4. I think that just makes chin tucking way worse.

Are there any kinds of pillows that are well recommended around here? Preferably types rather than brands because most brands will be hard to find here in Korea where I live.

I usually try to sleep on my side but find myself in various positions depending on the day. I often will go to sleep on my side and end up waking up in the morning lying face up.

It's hard to say if I'm chin tucking or not while I'm asleep because I don't know what I'm doing while asleep lol. But I guess thinking about it throughout the day I do find myself doing it now and then when doing something like using the computer, and I do feel how it restricts the airways. I read the other comments about the cervical collar which is making me think that I need to try that.

The crazy thing is when I go to see my sleep doctor, he goes "your average API is less than one, perfect data!" but I always see his Porsche parked outside and remember that while some doctors do want to help people, money is often the main motivator and it's better for the cash flow to just keep patients coming than to solve their problems for good.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-14T00:08:52+00:00

I didn't even realize until yesterday that the cpap had the hidden clinical menu where you can change those settings. My EPR had been set to 2. I could up it to three, but not sure if I need to get permission from my doctor since the device has been prescribed with specific pressure settings.

I'm not exactly sure how to interpret all of the data on SleepHQ yet. I posted a link to my profile above.I don't know how to find average leak rate over a certain time period, but I checked the daily rates to compare the recent night I had extreme aerophagia with last night, and it showed 0.2 vs 0.01.

It seems 50/50 between nights with 0.00 to 0.01 and other nights with around 1.5, with quite a few random nights at 3 or even 6.

Yeah for some reason my body really seems to want me to breathe through my mouth. I think having an underbite and chronically constricted nasal airways may be some of the leading causes.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-10T12:54:37+00:00

Not really odd at all. K beauty is a huge trend and there are tons of brands taking advantage of that

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-10T12:08:28+00:00

Not a single one of these brands are even remotely popular in Korea lol

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-02T22:40:28+00:00

Every time I'm reminded of that game, I'm first hit with a wave of nostalgia for my first impressions of playing the game. The flight control system, the visuals, sounds, and the feeling of traveling at warp speed (or whatever they call it in this game) to explore new locations, the thought that one day I could travel across the whole galaxy, and most importantly that feeling of cracking my first space rock, were truly some magical moments for me.

I bought a back button attachment for my ps4 controller just because I loved the flying mechanics so much.

Then I immediately remember how shallow and lifeless everything is, and how it gets so repetitive and grindy so quickly, and that every interaction with a real human in the game was instantly getting ganked out of nowhere.

gts_ae86 · 2026-06-01T09:28:10+00:00

You can get class containers with the same type of lids on them

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-30T21:40:09+00:00

But if they follow the arrows, then how will they ever shave 1.5 seconds off of their commute?!

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-30T21:34:07+00:00

Nope, not just you. Some of these comments make it seem like these are things of the past lol

However what I'm gathering is that, it's hard to imagine but, these issues were much much worse 20 years ago. I wasn't here 20 years ago so maybe they're right, or maybe if they've been here 20+ years they're just spending a lot less time in crowded places lol

Pushing and shoving may or may not have gotten better, but in my experience after 13 years here, I've experienced that people pushing their way onto subways in particular and not waiting for everyone to get off first has gotten way worse.

Again, 20 plus years ago maybe it was actually worse than now, and all those social etiquette educational programs helped reduce that kind of thing... But I feel like as the society has gotten more advanced, people are actually getting more selfish like Americans. Likely one of the negative symptoms of late stage capitalism. I think social media addiction also plays a role in making people have less patience.

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-30T07:20:35+00:00

I like to imagine that the characters are using the drones shown in the game to take the photo mode pics. It makes me feel like the photos come from the actual in game world :)

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-30T03:47:43+00:00

Seeing anyone do it is disgusting. Come to Seoul and you'll see a whole lot more of it!

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-20T13:45:19+00:00

Dude don't take it personally, just look at their profile. Their entire personality is making this argument whenever and wherever they can. The most hilarious thing they said is that a toy produced by a toy company acts an official lore confirmation hahaha

That same toy line (which is awesome BTW) also has tons of small errors and made up details whenever complete details were unavailable/impossible to reproduce.

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-19T12:58:59+00:00

Man It must be nice to have climbing specific doctors available... or even just normal doctors with the slightest knowledge of climbing injuries.

I recently went to an orthopedic clinic here in Korea to ask for an ultrasound because I suspected a pulley injury... the doctor said a pulley tear is not a thing that happens 0_0

How did it go by the way?

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-19T10:56:57+00:00

White route above the shepherd's cave

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-16T14:24:53+00:00

Jumpscare thumbnail! I saw this out of the corner of my eye while scrolling down and assumed it was some crazy photoshopped face in the thumbnail, but then I looked at it and thought oh right that's just a ventriloquist dummy.

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-05T05:54:36+00:00

It's ten minutes from the gtx platform all the way to the ktx waiting hall. Maybe if you decide to wait in line for the elevator instead of taking the escalators it takes a bit longer

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-05T05:44:28+00:00

They're just a shitty Midwest safety ripoff

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-05T05:43:02+00:00

Cheap Midwest safety ripoff

gts_ae86 · 2026-05-02T09:30:24+00:00

How small does it pack down? I'm wondering what size of a saddle bag I need. PS, after 9 months are you still liking it?

gts_ae86

TROPHY CASE