My second night on nasal APAP therapy for my mild sleep apnea. The pressure was releasing out of my mouth, so I have a mouthpiece designed for snorers. It positions the tongue to create a seal, which coincidentally is used by CPAP’ers with my exact problem.
Anyways, the seal this thing creates is rock solid, as I was feeling, even with my relatively low pressure settings (5-10). Only thing was, I began to get a headache as I was lying there waiting to go to sleep. I felt like an “airhead”, like my head was pumped up with air. I took it off to get some rest.
Question: Can the pressure differential between the oropharynx and the rest of my head causes the gases in my blood or tissues to do weird things such as with diving and airplane accidents?
What if I sit here and create a suction in my mouth by myself for an extended period of time… will this pressure differential have any effect on my head or body?
I used to wear a CPAP to bed (and still need to, but that’s another story).
I’m unclear on why you are wearing an anti-snoring mouthpiece along with your CPAP. May I ask a few questions?
What kind of mask do you have? Nasal pillows (in nostrils), or something that covers the entire nose?
Does your mask release any air pressure on its own? The hose clamp connected to my mask has a little hole that vents some air, and seems to help prevent the problem you’re describing.
Do you have a Velcro elastic bandage wrapped around your head to keep your mouth shut? If so, this would seem to obviate the need for an anti-snoring mouthpiece. If not, you might want to try a Velcro bandage in lieu of the mouthpiece. You can still open your mouth when alert, but it won’t open when you’re out.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at, but I’ll give it a try. The pressures used for CPAP are on the order of 5 to 10 cm of water. One atmosphere of pressure is about 1033 cm of water. At altitudes near sea level, a 1% change in atmospheric pressure corresponds to a change in altitude of a few hundred feet. Atmospheric pressure changes due to the weather are far greater than this. This slightly elevated pressure is not going to significantly alter the solubility of gasses in your blood.
Airplane accidents due to sudden pressure changes occur at high altitudes where the atmospheric pressure outside the aircraft is much lower than pressure on the ground. With CPAP, no matter whether your mask leaks or pops off suddenly, the pressure can decrease no more than 1% and no further than the ambient atmospheric pressure.
Diving accidents are the result of spending time at such depths (pressures) that the solubility of nitrogen in the blood is greatly increased. If a diver returns to lower pressures too quickly, the nitrogen forms comes out of solution so fast that it forms bubbles – this is known as the bends. But remember that CPAP pressures are 5 to 10 cm of water. No one ever got the bends snorkling at a depth of a foot or less.
On a more personal note, I have been using CPAP for many years now (at least 7 – I’ve lost track). At first I had similar feelings of having my head full of air. Work yourself up to weaing the mask a little more each night. I eventually got used to it. For me, the increased quality of sleep has bee well worth the initial discomfort. Now it’s such a habit that it’s hard to get to sleep without the reassuring sounds of the machine.
Thanks for your thought out reply. I am realizing that this vacuum is MOSTLY a function of how I position my cheeks and tongue with the moutpiece. THe machine’s pressure, however, seems to make this suction involuntarily stay.
Let’s say I just sit here and create the most intense vacuum in my mouth as I possibly can, without the CPAP, just a little positioning of my cheeks and tongue. How strong is this vacuum? How many cm of water can I suck through a straw? Now, is said cm of water anywhere near diving pressures?
So, zagloba, since you have felt this “airhead” feeling, using your knowledge of science, how do you explain the “airhead” feeling?