AHI AND MASK LEAKAGE.

Does opening your mouth at night cause ahi to increase? I know this sounds like a dumb question but I don't know the answer. I go to a chin strap coming in the mail, so I should get less opening my mouth at night.

Answer..............Yes. You are losing therapy when your mouth is open.

It could cause an increase in AHI and it also could cause a decrease if the mouth breathing is so bad that the leak is so big the machine couldn't even sense the apnea events.

It all depends on how much mouth opening/breathing/leaking a person is doing...so how big of a leak and how long does it last.

15 minutes of really big leak out of 7 or 8 hours of sleep isn't the end of the world by any means. Now 3 or 4 hours of those 7 or 8 hours being spent in big leak is a significant problem.

My mouth comes open sometimes and sometimes I mouth breathe. Sometimes it actually goes into large leak territory but even if it goes there it doesn't stay there long so I don't worry about it. It isn't enough to really be a big negative and most of the time I don't even go to large leak territory. I have done the tape and chin strap thing. It's more disturbing to my sleep quality than 15 minutes of maybe big leak every now and then.

So...it all depends on how big the leak is (and mouth breathing/opening can create a big leak) and how long it lasts if it makes it into large leak territory.