Best pillow with a FFM?

Hello! I'm new to the forum and to using a CPAP. I'm 26 years old, and I am having some problems sleeping with my new Mirage Quattro full face mask. I am a side sleeper, so my face gets smooshed against my pillow at night, and I think it moves the mask around. My CPAP data says that I'm having 0-0.2 AHI, which is great, but the actual smooshiness is waking me up (by being uncomfortable, I guess).

In addition, I wake up with an extremely dry mouth, throat, etc. Are dry mouth/throat problems caused by little leaks, or something else? What type of pillow is the best for a side sleeper with a full face mask? I know there are pillows designed specifically for CPAP users, but I've also heard that contour pillows from Bed, Bath, and Beyond can work?

Please let me know what you use and whether you like it or not. Thanks!

My bed pillow is in my profile. It's the Chiroflow water-based pillow (also known as the Mediflow water-based pillow).
You can adjust the height by varying the amount of water in it. I was using mine long before I started this therapy in 2005 and it worked perfectly for me with CPAP therapy. Soft enough but doesn't push my FFM out of alignment.

There are also quite a few other pillows that people use. They may be along to let you know what works for them.


Den

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In the end, you have to try them for yourself as no two people are alike, and neither are their beds or sleeping habits. It'll probably cost you something to experiment, but the end result will be worth it. You may be drying out because you sleep with your mouth open (isn't that why you have a FF mask?) or because you're not using the humidifier, but if my first guess is correct, you can buy things like Biotene at the pharmacy to help.

Dry mouth can be from meds...or some people just have less saliva production than others...or in the case of cpap users maybe a combination of the first two with mouth breathing thrown in. For some people their dry mouths are simply harder to prevent even with the humidifier cranking out max humidity. These humidifiers were really designed to help keep the nasal mucosa hydrated and that's a much smaller area to try to maintain than the oral cavity is...so it's at a drawback to start with even if meds, saliva production and/or mouth breathing isn't involved.

Are you using the ClimateLine hose with your machine?
What is humidifier setting and/or temperature setting?
Depending on hose used and humidifier setting ...there might be some room to add more moisture to the air but there's no guarantee that it will add enough to make much of a difference is your dry mouth. Helps some but doesn't help others.
It's a crap shoot but might be worth checking out if humidity settings are low and if more humidity doesn't cause congestion..that's another thing that varies widely among cpap users..humidity needs.
Some people like all the water they can get and others find that the added moisture above a modest level causes congestion which of course defeats the purpose and makes mouth breathing worse.

If you can keep your mouth closed more..the dryness may reduce but again not guaranteed especially if meds or saliva product play a big part.

Bed pillow preference...another one of those YMMV things that comes with cpap use. What works for one person doesn't work so great for another. One man's treasure is another man's trash.
Also what we don't know when talking about bed pillows is the physical stature of a person and that can make a huge difference in what feels the best. I am not quite 5 ft tall and small in stature and small shoulders. I can't comfortably use the bed pillow that my husband uses due to it's overall height.. He's 6ft 2in and a big man with big bones and huge shoulders. It's a nice memory foam pillow..I love the comfort but the height of it puts my neck sort of in a bind. Short term it doesn't hurt but long term that bend in my spine causes headaches and neck pain.

So when I tell you that I use a buckwheat low profile bed pillow you have to realize that it works best for me and my stature...if you are like my husband it might not work so great for you but the nice thing about the buckwheat pillow (and the Chiroflow pillow that Den uses) is we can add more hulls or water to change the profile a bit.
The hulls can be positioned to get the right height and support. They can also be moved to make a little nest for the cpap mask when side sleeping.

If the bed pillow with the side cut outs look interesting to you then I usually suggest that a person go to Walmart and get one of their cheap memory foam pillows and cut out your own spaces for the mask to rest. Electric kitchen knife works great for cutting the foam. This way you can try out the "cut out" idea without spending a truckload of money and not even know if it ends up fixing your problem.

I use the buckwheat hull pillow from Pur-Sleep. Look for recent discussions about it and some reviews on the main page (and maybe second page) or posts from form member SleepGuy.
My neck is in sad shape and it has to be happy with my bed pillow even if I didn't use a cpap machine. I would use that pillow even if I didn't have neck issues.

I use a regular memory foam pillow, the expensive Tempurpedic brand. Used it before CPAP, and haven't changed anything. I'm 5'3" and use a FF mask. I find that the way the pillow conforms to my shape also works for the mask, and doesn't push the mask out of place, which is surprising since I'm a side sleeper . In fact, if a leak wakes me up (rarely happens) I can push my face into the pillow where the leak is and the leak stops, then I go right back to sleep. Like the other posters said, everybody is different, and you may have to try many things to find the right pillow and sleeping position.

I like Pur-Sleep's buckwheat hull pillow. It is well made and the buckwheat hulls are fairly mold-able into any shape you want. It is rather firm plus it lets one's face and head ride a bit higher than a normal pillow, IOW, you don't sink down into the pillow as much. If the mask is touching the pillow you simply use your hand to push those areas of the pillow away - the shape stays the way you manipulate it all night long. Full disclosure: I was part of the recent free prototype test for this pillow but that free pillow aspect doesn't influence my opinion... I recommend it because I like it.
http://pur-sleep.com/shop/cpap-bed-pillow.html

Julie wrote: You may be drying out because you sleep with your mouth open (isn't that why you have a FF mask?) or because you're not using the humidifier, but if my first guess is correct, you can buy things like Biotene at the pharmacy to help.

I'm not a big fan of Biotene gel, I'd recommend Orajel mouth moisturizer gel. It lasts all night (unlike Biotene), costs the same and has a pleasant taste.