CPAP Timing of Pressure

I'm a new user of a an Resmed S10 I picked the item up and had it set to auto in the options. I have a full face mask, I'm a 39 year old male who breathes through my nose, however due to allergies the doctor recommended the full face masks. Over the pasts week my machine reads out as 25 occurences an hour and pressure 10.8. I thought the machine would fix my occurrences and that the number should be going down. I haven't been able to make it more than 3 hours wearing the full face mask because sometimes I feel as though I'm suffocating. I attribute this to me breathing slower than the machine forces air? I'm just curious why when I'm laying there the machine feels my mask with air even if I'm not breathing in. My intakes are very slow and I feel the machine is forcing air into my face masks before I'm even breathing. OR perhaps its because I have the wrong masks. I dunno just frustrated. that I can't go all night with the masks.

CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure.

It's supposed to pressurize your throat to keep it open while you sleep. Think of it like a balloon for your lungs and the the neck of the balloon is your throat.

What you are probably sensing is the pressure of the full face mask on the facial capillaries around your sinuses. You should get yourself a nasal pillow type mask and just use your full face mask if you are actually suffering from severe nasal allergy congestion. Even then, the nasal pillows have a tendency to open up sinus congestion due to mild allergy.

Hang in there and register/join the forum so that members can better help you.

I completely agree I think what was happening is that I'm a nose breather and my mouth would close and the mask would fill up with air, because I had my mouth closed.

cosmosleeper wrote:I completely agree I think what was happening is that I'm a nose breather and my mouth would close and the mask would fill up with air, because I had my mouth closed.

It doesn't quite work that way. Regardless of whether you have your mouth open or closed, the pressure seal is maintained along the edge of the full face mask cushion and that is where you feel the pressure on your face.

With a nasal pillow type of mask the pressure seal is much smaller, along the edge of the nostrils where the pillows seat. The issue with some using nasal pillows is that often they may experience mouth leaks .... but there are ways to mitigate that issue. You can read/ask all about it here on the forum as member.

Use the software so you can know exactly when those apnea events are happening and exactly what the pressure was during those events and also very important is the category of events.

https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

I would suggest trying a nasal interface mask. Save the full face just in case you really need it but "sometimes allergies" means sometimes you breathe just fine.
You might breathe just fine most of the time.
Besides...6 hours with maybe mouth breathing going on...is better than only 3 hours of use.

I completely agree so I just went to the store to follow your guys advice and was blocked by a RX only sign for buying a piece of plastic!

Anybody so kind to point me to a site where I can buy masks without the red tape!

Guest wrote:I completely agree so I just went to the store to follow your guys advice and was blocked by a RX only sign for buying a piece of plastic!

Anybody so kind to point me to a site where I can buy masks without the red tape!

NM GUYS I FOUND THE phillips resporonics on amazon next day shipping Ill posts back my results thanks!

You can buy mask replacement replacement parts without a RX.
Sometimes if you shop smart you can build a complete mask from the replacement parts for less than you can buy online in a complete package.
It all depends on the mask and what replacement parts are needed to make a complete mask.
I have built a complete ResMed Swift FX or the ResMed AirFit P10 nasal pillow mask from EBay seller replacement parts for as little as $40 total and that included shipping.
Gotta watch the deals though...takes a bit of patience sometimes waiting on the really good deals.

You're getting great advice here. I'm also a nose breather and have found that a nasal mask (Swift FX) works well for me, AS LONG AS I keep my mouth shut with a chinstrap. When I don't my AHI goes up and I get bad headaches.

I have mild allergies at times and was worried early on that a nasal mask might cause issues, esp. when I have a head cold. Surprisingly, THIS HAS NOT BEEN A PROBLEM for the many years I've used the FX but of course ymmv. Don't ask me why it isn't a problem but I'm grateful. I did try a full face mask at the outset but couldn't handle it - too much bulk, too big a contact surface to keep sealed - just my own experience, maybe a different one would have worked well.

Keep working at it and keep taking advice from experts here like Pugsy, DreamStalker and others (just don't rely on them for theories of molecular carcinogenesis ).