Throat closing at night still

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
AnotherMe
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Throat closing at night still

Post by AnotherMe » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:56 am

Hello everyone,
I am a CPAP user. However, I have lost 20 pounds and got down to 18.5% body fat. My sleep apnea has improved. I'm still using the CPAP.
My concern, is, even though I lost the fat around my neck, I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself. It's really horrible.
Might it be something else, or does my age contribute to the issue. I am in my 50s.
I really have to stop smoking.
Thanks.

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LSAT
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by LSAT » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:59 am

AnotherMe wrote:Hello everyone,
I am a CPAP user. However, I have lost 20 pounds and got down to 18.5% body fat. My sleep apnea has improved. I'm still using the CPAP.
My concern, is, even though I lost the fat around my neck, I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself. It's really horrible.
Might it be something else, or does my age contribute to the issue. I am in my 50s.
I really have to stop smoking.
Thanks.


I think this is an issue that should be directed to your doctor. Possible a sleep study would be in order. Age is not a factor.

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englandsf
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by englandsf » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:03 am

What started you on CPAP? What is your equipment and pressure/humidity setting?

How much do you smoke?

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ski1999
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by ski1999 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:29 am

Amen about seeing a Dr. My dad had throat issues and it became a much bigger medical event.

herefishy
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by herefishy » Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:27 am

I get that feeling when I'm sleeping without my CPAP, maybe your therapy isn't working correctly. Do you use sleepyhead, and get graphs of your therapy?

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Sleeprider
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by Sleeprider » Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:08 am

AnotherMe wrote:Hello everyone,
I am a CPAP user. However, I have lost 20 pounds and got down to 18.5% body fat. My sleep apnea has improved. I'm still using the CPAP.
My concern, is, even though I lost the fat around my neck, I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself. It's really horrible.
Might it be something else, or does my age contribute to the issue. I am in my 50s.
I really have to stop smoking.
Thanks.
If you thought weight loss would be the end of sleep apnea, that might be unrealistic. The sensation of your throat closing at night is probably inadequate CPAP pressure to stent the tissues open. Increase your pressure. Quit smoking!

List your equipment and settings and the "collective" can be more helpful. If your machine is capable of data, it would help to review it to see if your apnea is adequately treated. I suspect if you are waking with a tight throat sensation that you need to experiment with higher pressures, a little at a time, until that doesn't occur.

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Sclark08
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by Sclark08 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 1:43 pm

Throat closing at night is age related. As we age the muscles in our throat just like the muscles in our bodies lose tone and therefore dont always perform ad they should.
Throat muscles as we age collapse at night sometimes too much
Take it from one who suffers from the same enigma

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cathyf
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by cathyf » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:05 pm

Has a doctor checked you for an enlarged thyroid? What about asthma? These are things that should be ruled out...

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Wulfman...
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by Wulfman... » Sat Jan 03, 2015 3:39 pm

AnotherMe wrote:Hello everyone,
I am a CPAP user. However, I have lost 20 pounds and got down to 18.5% body fat. My sleep apnea has improved. I'm still using the CPAP.
My concern, is, even though I lost the fat around my neck, I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself. It's really horrible.
Might it be something else, or does my age contribute to the issue. I am in my 50s.
I really have to stop smoking.
Thanks.
Since I don't see where anyone else has asked this question..............

Do you sleep on your back? (supine)


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VVV
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by VVV » Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:20 pm

AnotherMe wrote:I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself.
Well yes, that is obstructive sleep apnea. Except for a few who have central sleep apnea, that is why all of us depend on CPAP to keep the throat open while we are awake.

Sounds like your CPAP pressure might not be set high enough. Get some help from forum members.
.....................................V

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ShelaghDB
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by ShelaghDB » Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:06 pm

AnotherMe wrote:Hello everyone,
I am a CPAP user. However, I have lost 20 pounds and got down to 18.5% body fat. My sleep apnea has improved. I'm still using the CPAP.
My concern, is, even though I lost the fat around my neck, I still wake up at night with a throat that feels it's closing in on itself. It's really horrible.
Might it be something else, or does my age contribute to the issue. I am in my 50s.
I really have to stop smoking.
Thanks.
I usually prefer not to offer any advice but seeing as your post sounds similar to what i experienced, I shall type that out a bit and hopefully it might help you.
For those reading this with attention deficit disorder, the short answer is STOP SMOKING and STOP USING PILLOWS and roll on by to shorter posts
(I sleep on my back. Perhaps you do as well?)

Here is my preferred long answer: (short answers don't resonate as well with someone that has that same problem-details resonate better)

Like you my husband I were both smokers.
We both tried everything, NOTHING worked in order to quit.
However, there is now a way around that.

The secret to quitting is wanting to quit, not quitting because you feel you must.
Thats why I always failed for i really enjoyed smoking.

Two years ago I tried a drug here in Canada called Champix which helps to quit smoking. It might be called that in the US as well. Your insurance likely pays for it for you.
I cannot take anti depressants as they tend to give me a bad result. Paranoia sets in. I discovered this quite by accident a few years earlier when given Wellbutrin to try and quit smoking then.
Didn't think that this Champix would help but it did but I do understand that some people have bad results but I never did nor did my husband.
Champix removes ALL physical withdrawal symptoms.
Yup, even for a heavy smoker such as i was, I did not suffer from any withdrawal, physically that is.
Mentally, well, I wanted that damn cigarette still and found it hard to not be doing something with my hands.
We both failed at quitting.

2 years later, this past May, we began the Champix again.
You take a pill daily and after about a week or so you just quit one day. its in your system by that time so you won't have the withdrawal symptoms.
BUT THIS TIME, we got smart

We invested in new electronic cigarettes.
I won't go into it all here but suffice to say, there is much on the internet about how dangerous they are and i say BULLSHIT.
The governments are losing tons of money in previously made cigarette taxes, combined with the anti-smoking lobby desire to remove all vestiges of smoking from our lifestyles and they are terrified this new form of "Vaping" will encourage new smokers as it has become so trendy amongst the younger set.
The only point I do agree with is that I agree that the government need to take control of it. Whenever a governess does take control of anything, they have a brilliant way of screwing it all up BUT, without control, there will always be a risk of it being dangerous for no one will be 100% sure whats being put in the liquid one Vapes.
But for now, its the Wild West.

Before I go further, let me explain that my hubby had to have an operation 2 years ago. Day surgery for a hernia while he was a smoker.
He went though a horrible time and I was stressed for something went wrong in the operation and he was not breathing when he came to nor could they get much oxygen into him but it was worked out and he stayed overnight while they watched him carefully. At the same time, he had a Torn Meniscus in his knee and was unable to walk.
Long story short, his health nosedived in a matter of months although he was only 51. He began to lose his breath with short walks. Basically the smoking suddenly became much more detrimental to his health than 2 years earlier when he'd been a heavy cyclist in great shape etc.
So, it was time for him to give up smoking.

Within months of having done so, he can breathe again. He can walk without losing breath. His first hernia operation had a complication in that they basically screwed it up and he had to redo it in November. This time, as a non smoker, the differences in how he came to after the operation were remarkable. he is so much healthier in just under 8 -9 months, or rather, was like this by abut the 2nd - 3rd month.
He who gets bronchial infections yearly has not had one cold this year, all the while everyone around us has a flu. Not him, nor i, but I was always healthier in that sense than he was anyhow.
So anyone that attempts to tell us that e-cigarettes are unhealthy, I just cut them off and tell them to preach elsewhere.
No, they may not be perfect, for common sense dictates that inhaling anything other than Oxygen will be detrimental to ones health but I rather it be this, than the thousands of chemicals that are in cigarettes that aren't in the electric kind. And with Vaping, one should aim to walk away from it a few months later anyhow once you feel strong enough. And keep the kit should you ever hit a stressful period so you can use it again rather than pick up a real cigarette IF that time happens.


Anyhow, for a hard core smoker If you can handle the Champix, I would suggest both at the same time. Theres no reason to fail doing it that way. Many can do it with just switching over to e-cigarettes on their own and who knows, maybe we might have as well but i didn't want to take any chances. I wanted to quit, ONLY because I knew we would die within 10 years or so if we didn't. But I always enjoyed my cigarettes
The liquid comes in 3-4 strengths.
The first has, I think, 18mg of nicotine in it so i started with that.
A week later I went down to 12mg, then 6mg and then eventually 0mg. I never noticed the difference but obviously there would be some IF i were to light up with the 18mg today,This is another reason it works for you wean off of the nicotine but perhaps because i was on the Champix pill for a month, I never noticed and never felt the need for nicotine anyhow. I just enjoyed inhaling the vapour which is the more or less the same stuff those with asthma inhale with those blue inhalers.
And it gave me something to do with my hands and IF i hit a stressful period, I reached for the electronic cigarette rather than real ones. It was a GOD send.

BUT you mention your throat.
I too had that same feeling and had it start about a year ago.
It was in fact the ONLY sign I was aware of that I had sleep apnea.
Which I had severely until I was able to get the right mask/machine and my numbers down to almost zero nightly (to which I will eternally be grateful to a poster here, whose name i can't recall right this moment but she's a Mathematician

But once I got into it, if I had a night whereby I took the mask off for being stuffed up, or forgot it all together, i got that very same feeling you speak of.
I seep on my back. Even now but i have managed to get my numbers to zero and/or close to it so i am not concerned. Its just comfy that way.
So I can't say if this would work if you are a side sleeper for i am not but perhaps it would as well to go without pillows??!! Only you will know if so.

I quickly determined that i could no l longer sleep using two pillows as I had always done as that made it worse. Naturally my throat was being constricted,
Now I rarely even sleep with a pillow at all.
As soon as i hit the bed, I am out like a light so fortunately for me I am not one of the ones with insomnia but if you too aren't, just take away the pillows and see how you feel.
You may well be like me in that doing so, letting my airway be less constricted it feels better. Perhaps it will be the same for you?

I now find as long as I wear my mask and have my numbers low, obviously so its working and i don't use a pillow or at the very worst just one but better with none, I DONT get that feeling u speak o and as long as I don't smoke.
IF i smoke, use a few pillows and if I don't use the mask at all, then yes, natural I do get that same feeling.


Anyhow, if you manage to quit smoking it will help for when you hit your 50s and smoke, it also makes your sinuses to "run". Even if you aren't aware of it during the day, at night time they tend to run back into your throat as a smoker so you are aways swallowing its a natural instinct but I noticed that that went away once I quit.
I wasn't really aware of what it was until I did quit and noticed it was gone. Thats the problem with smoking. The damage all comes on so slowly after years of smoking so you don't really notice that you feel poorly. You just know one day that you do.
Quit and you really will be amazed within a very short time how q quickly you do fee years younger. Again and i stress this, while smoking, I never felt old.....i felt fine or so i thought...again, its only once you quit that you realize how well you DIDNT feel but how much better you do feel smoke free.

Take Note:
IF you do decide at some point to look into the electric cigarette, please understand I am NOT talking about the $10 version that look like a cigarette for those are crap. I am talking about a unit that will cost you about $50 on an average for the e=cigarette itself, including battery, tank, etc and then you buy the liquid to Vape with which costs roughly about $20 for a bottle that can last 3-4 weeks or so. The cheaper ones I doubt work.

Sorry if this was too long but i have found when concerning situations I can relate to, too many people do not give enough of a story or details and it doesn't resonate with me as well as a more detailed explanation does and IF this does not sound or feel like your situation than just scroll on by....it only takes a second to scroll-on buy.

Good Luck whatever you do BUT if you do decide to take up E-Cigarettes, I would advise you to either ask me about it for advice on what to get OR join an E-Cigeratte group or a "VAPE" group for more information. I say this ONLY because I bought what i did the first day which worked but had I had researched it better I would have saved us some money for we would have bought a better brand etc and cut out some of the crap we did buy not having researched it all first. And you don't buy tobacco tasting liquid, YUCK but buy the sweet candy type ones or ones like banana. Capn Crunch is my favourite one. Like the cereal. May not make sense unless you try it BUT never go for the tobacco tasting liquid. YUCK.
But ALSO look at the pillow situation and see if you can sleep without one if you do sleep on your back especially.

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by ChicagoGranny » Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:13 pm

ShelaghDB wrote:the short answer is STOP SMOKING
'nuff said.

But you already knew that didn't you.

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chunkyfrog
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by chunkyfrog » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:02 pm

+100
And have an ENT look at your throat, just in case smoking has already damaged that.

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Lukie
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by Lukie » Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:25 am

No one has mentioned the 'C" word. Smokers should have regular mouth and throat exams to check for this. Go to a doctor, now!

AnotherMe
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Re: Throat closing at night still

Post by AnotherMe » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:14 am

Thank you all for your replies. I will read each one of them.
Yes, I do have to stop smoking.