ASK APRIA

Today's Clinician

Lacey Penn

Lacey, who lives in North Carolina, has been a Registered Respiratory Therapist for 13 years and has worked in a variety of settings including a level 1 trauma center and the ICU (among others). Her favorite part of working at Apria is getting to help patients in their homes and building a relationship with them that's more personal than you get to develop at the hospital. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her two children at the lake.

Q. My headgear at night keeps sliding around on my hair and waking me up, what can be done about that?

A. If you have long hair, you can tie it back through the gap in your headgear, this will help anchor your hair so that it won't move around as much. Additionally, a good option is to wear a bonnet or sleeping cap, these will both protect your hair and help keep your mask straps from moving. Lastly, there is padding you can place over your CPAP mask straps which prevents the mask from sliding around and prevents friction from pulling your hair.

For more information: Help Protect Your Hair while on CPAP Therapy

Q. How do I adjust the pressure setting? I’ve been on CPAP for 10 years and I’m starting to wake up throughout the night and I feel tired during the day again.

A. The pressure(s) set on your CPAP therapy are ordered by your physician. If you are beginning to wake up throughout the night again and feeling tired during the day, let us know. We would need to reach out to your physician with your concerns to see if they want to do a titration study (a sleep study that will determine the appropriate CPAP pressure to set for you) or see how they would want to move forward with adjusting the pressures on your machine.

Q. When I wake up in the middle of the night for a quick bathroom break and put my mask back on, the air pressure feels too high all of a sudden and I get anxiety. What can help with that?

A. That's common for people to need to work back up to the air pressure if they take a break from their CPAP therapy, even for a few minutes. The easiest way to handle this (especially in the middle of the night when you're tired) is to just turn the machine off and then on again. By doing that, you will restart the ramp feature of the machine which starts with lower air pressure and slowly, gradually increases the pressure until you reach your prescribed amount.

Q. Why do I wake up full of pain in my stomach? It feels like I’m full of air.

A. This feeling of being full of air is a condition called aerophagia, or sometimes called CPAP belly, and it is commonly caused by swallowing air from your CPAP therapy. If you are using a full face mask, you can try switching to a nasal mask. If you already use a nasal mask, try using a chin strap to keep your mouth closed during sleep.

You can also talk to your doctor about decreasing the pressure of your CPAP or changing to auto CPAP if you are currently on CPAP with a set pressure.

Another tip to prevent aerophagia is to change your sleeping position so that you are sleeping on your side. Side sleeping has been found to reduce the risk of aerophagia best. Sleeping on your back generally increases your risk of aerophagia.

For more information: How to Prevent CPAP Belly

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