Is there a mask I won't snore with?

I tried a total face mask last night, thinking it would force air into my mouth as well and help stop the apneas and snoring and, though it was comfortable and didn't leak, I was snoring and was asked to switch back to my nasal mask, which I'm also snoring with. I never found a chin strap that didn't make my head feel like it was in a vise so that isn't an option. I'm getting really frustrated. What can I do besides move out of the bedroom?

For at least 40 years I was the worst snorer on the planet. The day I began using a nasal pillow my snoring stopped and has not returned.

I don't remember what else was discussed in your other posts (it's best to use one thread we can refer to in future) but if your low pressure's not set high enough for effective therapy, then it needs to be raised a bit - the mask is not the problem (whatever other problems you might have with it.

I'm starting to think the problem isn't just one thing. I've been under an incredible amount of stress lately - severe illness on my part in December, my daughter attempted suicide and was in the hospital for three weeks in January, and I'm in the process of trying to change mask and machine while being woken up due to waking up my partner with my snoring or mask leaks. My sleep is really suffering. I haven't found the right pressures for the machine yet, I'm trying to find a better mask, and I'm having trouble remembering it all because I had 8 rounds of ECT last year and now suffer from severe memory problems. (I have CRS - can't remember sh!t syndrome).

I will try raising the minimum pressure to 7 and see if that helps.

KatyDidAgain wrote:I'm starting to think the problem isn't just one thing. I've been under an incredible amount of stress lately - severe illness on my part in December, my daughter attempted suicide and was in the hospital for three weeks in January, and I'm in the process of trying to change mask and machine while being woken up due to waking up my partner with my snoring or mask leaks. My sleep is really suffering. I haven't found the right pressures for the machine yet, I'm trying to find a better mask, and I'm having trouble remembering it all because I had 8 rounds of ECT last year and now suffer from severe memory problems. (I have CRS - can't remember sh!t syndrome).

I will try raising the minimum pressure to 7 and see if that helps.

Sorry about all your problems but not sure they are the reason for the snoring. I have not seen your other threads and basically too lazy to searching for them. What are your settings? If you are getting correct therapy there should be no snoring. As soon as I started cpap my snoring stopped. You said you have not found the right pressure...what was your prescribed pressure?

Minimum pressure of 7 is still pretty low. Last my DME (the people who occasionally bug me with the automated calls, trying to get money for stuff I buy ANYWHERE but through them) knew, my pressure was 6cm. I'm still working through the snores, etc...but I'm up around 11cm at the moment. And as pressures increase, my snoring lessens. You might need to climb at a comfortable rate to closer to the 10cm mark. Then again, you might not need that much pressure to get the snoring under control. So long as you don't see Centrals start up, you could test some higher pressures.
I found that when I'd originally hit 10cm, I suddenly had a little soreness in my chest...at 9.5, all was fine. After a couple days, 10 wasn't an issue. Either way, SleepyHead shows that my snoring is far less than it used to be, in frequency and volume.
Find a mask that is comfortable and has minimal leaks, and work out from there. Mask fit is a HUGE issue for many people, and once you've got that licked, the rest is just tinkering. Good luck!

I doubt the stress hasn't had an effect on my sleep, in fact there is a current thread about that, at the very least, the extra stress has made dealing with lack of quality sleep harder to deal with. But that aside... I don't have a "prescribed" pressure anymore. my pressure needs kept changing due to weight fluctuations, so I was just switched to an auto machine that was wide open 4-20 pressure range. I have been narrowing the pressure slowly to try to optimize my therapy but still experience snoring. I am also trying a total face mask, which I'm told I am in the minority because I actually find it comfortable but it magnifies the sound of the snoring, so even though I snored worse (at least the data suggests it) with the pillows mask that I switched back to mid-night, it isn't as disturbing to my bedfellow.

Tattooed Lady, one of the reasons I didn't significantly increase my lower pressure is because I was seeing more centrals after switching to apap and Pugsy and others said that increasing the pressure wasn't how that was treated. I have twice as many centrals as OA episodes now. So I'm kind of dealing with multiple issues. Stress, mask, pressure, various apneas, depression and frustration.

ETA: I don't need sympathy. I shared the stressful stuff to emphasize just how much stress I've been under, not to garner attention. Please don't apologize or feel sorry for me, I don't feel sorry for myself. It's been a very stressful 6 weeks and I think that lack of good sleep is effecting my daytime functioning, and I think daytime stress is effecting my sleeping. I may be snoring more because I'm basically passing out at night from exhaustion and I suspect my airway is more relaxed than it might be if I were not experiencing so much stress. So it may even be that I need more pressure temporarily until I'm not quite so stressed and exhausted. Or I may be grasping at straws. Who knows. I just want to sleep and preferably not get kicked out of bed.

Let me add a little to my previous post. I struggled with a full face mask for 2 months with my wife wakeing me up for the same reasons. The nasal pillow cured it all immediately. I am not a doctor, but I am smart enough to realize that the apnea was what was causing my snoring all these years. Hence, managing the apnea leads to managing snoring.

The presence of snores usually means not quite optimal pressure...so even if the AHI (at least the obstructive components and setting the clear airway index aside for the moment) is within acceptable limits...and the snores are normally warning signs that the airway is trying to collapse and is occluded at least a little bit. Now these snores may not grow up any further meaning they don't collapse further to the point an OA or hyponea gets flag and if they didn't disturb sleep and aren't present in large numbers then it may not be that big of a deal to let them slide.

If they (snores) are present in large enough numbers that they worry you or are disturbing your sleep then you may want to use a little more minimum pressure (if in apap mode or a little higher pressure if in cpap mode) even though the obstructive components of the AHI maybe isn't all that remarkable. As long as a little more baseline pressure doesn't cause more centrals (and that's actually not something that is hugely common) it wouldn't hurt to be a little more aggressive with the snore control no matter which mask you use. Normally snores alone (when seen with an already nice AHI) don't require much added pressure to reduce them considerably.
Usually 0.5 to 1.0 is all that is needed to make a marked change in snores if that is all we are dealing with.

Pugsy,
How do I go about interpreting the snore graph?

cnl390, I'm not new to pap therapy (four years and my dad used it before he died). I'm somewhat new to pressure and mask issues. It took some nagging before I really started recently to take aggressive measures to fix it mostly because it's really effecting my partner. That and hearing my brother peeling the paint off the walls snoring while out of state at his house when dealing with my daughter. Between my partner nagging me and my brother's loud snoring making me fear for him, I decided to take the issue a little more seriously. What can I say, I'm resistant to change when it seems to me that I'm getting along fine.

Pugsy, my AHI was indeed low enough to not worry too much about it if I wasn't snoring (3.05) Raising my pressure when I switched to the auto machine did change my apneas from almost all hypopnea to mostly CA's, but I think (from responses from you and other others on previous posts I've made) that a CA index of 1.47% is not something to worry about. I wouldn't even know about the snoring if it wasn't bothering my partner and if I couldn't see it on Sleepyhead - though it doesn't seem to be happening in conjunction with apneas which is puzzling. . I'm trying again tonight with the tfm and raising the pressure to 7 I thought I had but Sleepyhead said it was still 6 last night. I think I mentioned having CRS. I'll think I've done something I haven't actually done. I don't remember even that I should have something. I reset the pressure as soon as I saw Julie recommend it (I think it has already been recommended by someone else, but I forgot.)

Hopefully we'll have more success tonight.

KatyDidAgain wrote: Tattooed Lady, one of the reasons I didn't significantly increase my lower pressure is because I was seeing more centrals after switching to apap and Pugsy and others said that increasing the pressure wasn't how that was treated. I have twice as many centrals as OA episodes now. So I'm kind of dealing with multiple issues.

Good reason to be cautious. Guess I saw your postings through the week, but now that I'm home on a regular computer (as opposed to my phone), I wasn't aware WHO had the CA issues. Also why I had the disclaimer about if you don't notice CA issues, blah, blah. Either way...have you noticed that it's a positional thing, with the snoring? Would it help to raise the head of the bed a bit, use a wedge, etc? Can your bedmate tell you what position you're MOST likely to shatter windows? That would probably be a good starting point. My BF snores in pretty much any position, unless he's got duct tape or a pillow over his face.

Also, the first break in my graph is from going to the bathroom. The second one is where I switched masks so I didn't make it far into the night with the FitLife mask before he asked me to go back to the Swift FX pillow mask. So, clearly, the large leak areas are with the pillow mask (and the pillow is two days old and I wash my face well at night to help with any seal issues.) I had no leaks with the FitLife tfm but I didn't have it on long enough to see if leaks developed later on in the night.

TattoodLady, Partner says I snore on both back and side, unfortunately.

I suppose putting a pillow over my face would fix the problem more permanently.

cnl390 wrote:How do I go about interpreting the snore graph?

I hate the ResMed snore graph.
It's mainly a volume level near as I can tell. I much prefer Respironics for snores because it flags the snores with a flag like it does OAs and hyponeas.
So mainly I look at the snore graph on the S9 like I do flow limitation graph...if it has a lot of activity on it I look at it more closely and if it doesn't I don't bother. A few snores here or there...loud or small...that don't disturb sleep (yours or bed partner) aren't the end of the world.

KatyDidAgain wrote:I wouldn't even know about the snoring if it wasn't bothering my partner and if I couldn't see it on Sleepyhead - though it doesn't seem to be happening in conjunction with apneas which is puzzling.

Not puzzling to me...they are just indications of an apnea trying to happen but doesn't grow up. There's a reason that apnea events need a 10 sec duration minimum and a % of flow reduction minimum...lots of stuff happens that don't meet criteria for whatever reason.
If you look at your report....snores pretty much went away when the leaks weren't so big. Assuming you aren't having a lot of nasal congestion issues which maybe could remotely cause snore like sounds...probably all you need to greatly reduce the snores is have your leaks better controlled and probably just a little bit more pressure (minimum when in apap mode).
If you want to use a full face mask...don't be surprised if you need even a little more baseline pressure to keep the snores away.

Don't try to fix your snores with a mask though...fix the snores with better leak control and maybe a little more pressure.
Use whichever mask allows you to sleep the best.... zero snores on the graph means nothing if your sleep is in the toilet from fighting a mask all night.