The Hassles of Sleep Apnea

I’ve mentioned before that since I broke my back, I’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea. My husband says it sounds like I’m gasping for air during the night. And he’s exactly right; that’s what I am doing throughout the night. I tend to ignore it, but sleep apnea is serious and can be worse taking opioids for pain.

Friday morning I woke up doubled over in pain from air in my stomach. Besides the hassles of wearing a mask and a tube getting in the way and the noise of the machine and the need for regular cleaning and … you get the picture, my biggest problem is air in my stomach. It’s not supposed to happen.

The glory of the Internet where you can search for answers on any topic. Here’s what I found when I Googled “air in stomach CPAP.”

1. Get an APAP machine instead of a CPAP. The CPAP machine forces a (C for continuous) preset amount of air through the nose all night. Perhaps the setting is too high. The APAP machine forces an (A for automatic) varying amount of air depending on what part of sleep you are in and how much you need. Sounds good, right? I already have an APAP machine.
2. Breathe through your nose and the mask; keep your mouth closed. How do you keep your mouth closed when you are sleeping? If I was awake I could pay attention and make sure my mouth was closed and I was always breathing through my nose; but this is sleep time. And, I have a chin strap on my mask and headgear to keep my mouth closed.
3. Sleep with your head inclined. That sounds like a good idea, but if I sleep on my back with my head high, the pain in my back increases. I will try the sleep on an incline idea, but only for short periods of time.
4. Sleep with your head and spine aligned. If you have your head tilted forward or bent, it closes off the airway in your throat area. That makes perfect sense; but again, how do I know where my head is when I’m sleeping? I imagine this is a big issue for me. I do tend to carry my head forward and sleep bent.

It’s a catch-22. Increase the pain in my back and reduce the air in the stomach or forget the APAP and sleep with sleep apnea or use the APAP the best I can and learn to live with air in the stomach. I will continue to experiment. I need to. I am always so exhausted. I really need to sleep.