unable to breathe

I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe. I have the nasal mask and I couldn't breathe through my nose at all, so I took the mask off for the night. I was so tired all day. I wore mask when I took a nap. My alarm went off 45 minutes after I fell asleep. I was VERY disoriented. I couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. All evening I feel I am coming down with a cold. I am not sure how I will sleep tonight since I do feel a cold coming on. This is the only mask I have.
I normally sleep elevated (since mask) last night I did lay flat. Maybe this is why I couldn't breathe.
I would love advice on this!

Auntie

Saw one of your earlier posts saying that you have nasal problems and you are a mouth breather. You might want to try a Ultra Mirage Full Face Mask. This covers both your mouth and your nose and is a good solution for times when you have a cold and such...

The disoriented feeling is more than likely a combination of a) sleeping without therapy, and b) coming down with something...

Feel Better!

I have a few thoughts...

First, when you say you couldn't breathe, do you mean your sinuses were completely clogged, or did you *FEEL* like you couldn't breathe?

I ask because they're two very different things. If you ACTUALLY couldn't breathe, obviously that's going to be a problem. You'll need try something. Heated Humidification (something I am *NOT* a fan of for full face masks, but am for nose-only masks) can help a lot, especially if you get some sort of hose cover so that you can turn the H/H up pretty high without rainout. Alternately, you could try a Full Face mask (like the Mirage Ultra, suggested by Mikesus. Best FF mask I've tried.), or even the Oracle (mouth only interface).

On the other hand if you woke up FEELING like you couldn't breathe... I've run into that one a lot. I'm trying to remember what caused it, but I definitely remember some times waking up and feeling like I had to breathe through my mouth because I wasn't getting enough from the CPAP. I think (memory is faulty, though) that it was a combination of sinus swelling and central apneas.

A Central Apnea is when your brain "forgets" to breathe, and is quite different from an obstructive apnea. The thing is, the pressure of a CPAP (especially at higher levels) can actually INDUCE central apneas, and this is one of the reasons why an Auto is good. I'm told (although I've not tried one) that at least some of them are pretty good at detecting the difference between a central and an obstructive apnea, and drop the pressure for a central.

Anyway, I hope that helps some.

Liam, tired from hiking all day.

I slept much better last night. I used Zicam for a cold I was coming down with every hour or two before I put the mask on. I slept from 2am to 7am and woke up rested, ready for the day. I elevated my head this time.

Liam, I see the differences you are talking about. This was unable to breathe through my nose, even after I removed the mask (due to a head cold)

Thanks.

Auntie