Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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Cereal Killer
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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by Cereal Killer » Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:48 am

palerider wrote: you didn't come in and tell other people to do the same thing without any regard as to what might work best for them
Oh really?
Laurora wrote: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose.

Emphasis: Laurora.

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by ChicagoGranny » Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:11 am

Y'all need to drop it. You too PailRider.

Anyone getting advice from a forum should know to be wary. The same for anyone getting advice from a doctor.

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Chevie
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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by Chevie » Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:21 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:Y'all need to drop it.
I'm wary of this advice.

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saltydawg2
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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by saltydawg2 » Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:25 pm

Actually, I am really encouraged by your post. I have used a FFM, (Quattro FX), since I settled on it in Sept. There were a few times I could not open my mouth due to dryness. Use a chinstrap, now, and still get dry mouth, but not as bad, and not as often. A couple of very detailed directions on how to position the tongue to stop leaks, helped too. I figured since I had to have chinstrap, anyway, try pillows, again. Tried a Mirage Liberty, first out, and truly believed I knew how a basketball felt while being inflated! A little more adapted to this malady we have, I just ordered a Pilairo Q today. Thanks for all the help deciding on what type on separate post. With a 30 Day Return, hope I can handle it. Still like my FFM; very few leaks, just ready to try another solution. Thanks, again.

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Sir NoddinOff
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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by Sir NoddinOff » Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:15 pm

Even tho I use a FFM I prefer to breathe thru my nose for all the usual reasons. Over the last several months my nose training seems to be working and I usually breath thru my nose. That being said, I do like to have the mouth breathing option available when my sinuses get stuffed up.

For me stuffed sinuses can happen any time of year but especially in the springtime... I guess I'll find out in a couple of months how my nose training holds up when the allergens drift in the window from the nearby fields.

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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by Noctuary » Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:48 pm

Ha ha, don't be so sure! I had a nasal mask and I did keep my mouth closed and my tongue positioned to block air; yet air would still seep out with a rather noisy hiss and other strange sounds. It was bizarre to say the least.

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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by Pugsy » Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:46 pm

Laurora wrote:Sigh. I think I've learned my lesson not to post about my experience in the hopes of helping others. In my very first post I said "I post this in the hopes that someone else with the same issue might see this and give the nasal mask a try, or at the very least, use a chin strap/taping with a FFM.". Never did I imply that this would work for everyone. I feel like I should edit the subject to "Turns out that I can learn to breathe through my nose", but I don't think it's good form to edit things after people have commented on them.

Yes, I do get dry mouth during the day. And I didn't mean I thought my doctor would know more about my sleeping habits than I do, just am curious if she will think that my leak rate is acceptable and will agree that the switch to a nasal mask was a good move.

Don't let the naysayers get you down. I understand what you were trying to convey. Tis no different than someone here who is touting their positive experience with their full face masks and they don't realize that they are doing the very thing they are blasting you for.
Just ignore them.

FWIW...you might eventually get lucky and the mouth stay shut without the chin strap. Early on in my therapy I also had to do something to keep the mouth shut and I elected to tape my mouth. I did that for about 2 to 3 months and then I got lazy and started to "forget" until lights out and started blowing off doing the tape. Come to find out the leak graphs were greatly improved over the first nights when I just started cpap therapy. I seemed to have broke the mouth opening habit for the most part.
For the record the mouth breathing was never out of a physical necessity...my nose is almost always totally open but it was more out of habit likely made worse by years of gasping for breath because of untreated apneas.
Not everyone can ditch the mouth support but you might get lucky with some time.

Dry mouth...doesn't always mean prolonged massive mouth breathing. It all depends on the person and how easily their mouth gets dried out. There are other causes for dry mouth besides mouth breathing.
I have woke up with my mouth horribly dry but when I look at the reports for that time frame often the leak was maybe evident for 5 minutes and sometimes the leak wasn't even that big to start with.

I still mouth breathe on occasion...at least for short periods of time because I wake up with mouth open but it rarely seems to have been going on for very long and sometimes it doesn't even result in a significant leak and I choose to not do anything about 5 or 10 minutes of big leak anyway......using tape or a chin strap was more detrimental to my sleep quality over the entire night than 5 or 10 minutes of big leak that I slept quite well right through it.

We all have our preferences and options and choices..up to each of us to set the priorities. For me good quality sleep is much more important than a perfectly flat 0.0 leak line if that means I don't sleep so good in the process. I will give up a few minutes to leaks if it means the bulk of the night I sleep soundly. It's simply a compromise I am willing to make...if others don't wish to to make that choice.....well, that's okay too. I doubt I will ever be using a full face mask and I have many reasons as to why I choose not to....and it doesn't matter if my reasons seem valid to someone else or not....it only matters that I think that they are valid for me. I try not to convey my dislike for full face masks because I know that people are all different but I do think that people should try any mask that interests them and make an informed decision for their own personal use. If the nose is working properly and a person has an interest in some sort of nasal mask...then by all means at least try it and see if it will work or not.
Same thing goes for someone using a nasal mask and wondering about using a FFM...try it...I just can't help much with them. since I have never used one.

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Re: Turns Out You CAN Learn to Breathe Through Your Nose

Post by CowFish » Fri Jan 30, 2015 8:46 am

I tried nasal pillows and that did not work. I tried three different chin straps and that did not work. I taped my mouth for six months and that worked but it got very tiresome. I tried a FFM and that worked pretty well but left a red place on the bridge of my nose and sometimes leaked.

Then finally I got advice from here about the Innomed Hybrid mask. Now it gives me the best of both worlds - 1) nasal pillows which allow me to breathe through my nose most of the night and 2) a mouth piece which takes care of me the few times my mouth leaks during the night. Plus, no taping, no uncomfortable chin straps!