mouth breathing

Every day I learn something new, I try something new. It does not always work 2 nights in a row.

Last night I used the Dreamwear (which really sculpts to my nose perfectly) and used a head band across my mouth. The night before, my mouth was able to occasionally breathe or exhale through the headband without causing big leaks.

Last now I went into a deep sleep. Big dreams. Not happy dreams. (it was about one of my cats who has passed but I still miss him terribly) And in my dream I was screaming. I have been known to sleep talk and sleep scream so I I was awoken by major leak activity and it showed up on my graph.

So what worked one night, did not the second night. (I think my mouth is taking notes and deliberately circumventing any solutions.)

I don't know if it was the level of my sleep/dream, but without doubt my mouth opened and stayed open headband be damned.

Any ideas for tweaking? I prefer the nasal mask. I just need to outsmart my sleeping mouth.

I really don't have any advice on this...I use a Hybrid and still have dry mouth...but I wanted to say I feel your pain with the loss of your cat. Last November we had to put our sweet 17-year-old to sleep due to several health problems that, although we had been treating successfully for over a year, the treatments were no longer working. We still miss her deeply. It does get better with time. (I love your profile pic with the cat and keyboard!)

Just how bad was the mouth breathing leak? How long did it last and how deep into large leak territory did it take you?
Or was it just the fact that it woke you up...or something woke you up?

I always have said that the leak war (no matter the cause) is a war we never totally win. Sometimes we win a battle and some nights the leaks win.
I don't worry too much about them unless I I start incurring heavy losses on a consistent nightly basis.

Yeah, I could switch to a full face mask but that comes with a whole new set of problems that for me are bigger problems than 15 minutes of mouth breathing might cause. The biggest problem being I simply don't want to use one.

Pugsy wrote:Just how bad was the mouth breathing leak? How long did it last and how deep into large leak territory did it take you?
Or was it just the fact that it woke you up...or something woke you up?

I always have said that the leak war (no matter the cause) is a war we never totally win. Sometimes we win a battle and some nights the leaks win.
I don't worry too much about them unless I I start incurring heavy losses on a consistent nightly basis.

Yeah, I could switch to a full face mask but that comes with a whole new set of problems that for me are bigger problems than 15 minutes of mouth breathing might cause. The biggest problem being I simply don't want to use one.

I know I can't use a full face mask. I have never been able to get any fit to stop leaks and its too much stuff on my face. So I don't want to use a full face either . I am sold on the nasal masks and will live with some leaks. I don't know if the dream state made me go into a zone that was more than I was accustomed to. I will continue to try whatever I can to make this process as useful as I can without giving up.

this was my thing from last night. It was the first night I took the mask off. Also my nostrils were burning (not really burning but a burning like feeling) That felt like a side effect of going mondo mouth breathing.

WearyOne wrote:I really don't have any advice on this...I use a Hybrid and still have dry mouth...but I wanted to say I feel your pain with the loss of your cat. Last November we had to put our sweet 17-year-old to sleep due to several health problems that, although we had been treating successfully for over a year, the treatments were no longer working. We still miss her deeply. It does get better with time. (I love your profile pic with the cat and keyboard!)

I have 4 rescue cats and love them all dearly. Mouse lived to 23 and was with me through all the thick and thins of my life. My dream was about someone letting him out and I could not find him and I thought the big animals would get him (I live in a semi country environment) The dream really really disturbed me and I returned to the same dream several times after waking. I finally just got up and watched the news. For once it was not worse than my dream. But I am sure I was screaming in my sleep.

The bulk of the night the leaks were well within acceptable limits.
A little less than 3 % of a short night it looks like was over 24 L/min.
Even at it's worst it went to just shy of 35 which is where the data can start to really be questionable and where I start to look more closely.
I think I would just chalk it up to a bad dream which very well could have caused some tossing and turning and even mask movement along with maybe a little mouth breathing. I don't know that I would do anything more than shrug my shoulders on this one. Even under the best of circumstances we can't be perfect all the time and this circumstance was simply way unusual with the bad dream and all. Crap happens and when it does sometimes we just have to accept it and move on.

Not every leak with a nasal interface mask is mouth breathing anyway. Yeah some but not necessarily all of them. A little while back I was getting some pretty big leaks with my trial of the DreamWear nasal pillows that were being fairly consistent so I decided to tape my mouth just to eliminate the possibility of mouth breathing and to my surprise the leaks were still there and fairly significant. Had to be mask movement leaks because the tape never moved. They looked like mouth breathing leaks with the plateau thing and all that but they weren't.

Even if all of your leaks were mouth breathing...2 or 3 % isn't the end of the world IMHO and I am betting that some of those leaks are just mask movement leaks. No way to know for sure unless a person does the tape thing but I wouldn't even do it for 10 % or even 20% unless it was happening every night for several nights. I never get too excited about anything that shows up that is random and rare.

Just a note - not re Cpap, but... when I lived in Toronto 30+ yrs ago I met a cat who was 27 yrs old... had lived in the same men's tailor shop all that time and looked great - jumped on the chairs and all! Yours at 23 is a testament to your care. But I hope you were not screaming!

Pugsy wrote:The bulk of the night the leaks were well within acceptable limits.
A little less than 3 % of a short night it looks like was over 24 L/min.
Even at it's worst it went to just shy of 35 which is where the data can start to really be questionable and where I start to look more closely.
I think I would just chalk it up to a bad dream which very well could have caused some tossing and turning and even mask movement along with maybe a little mouth breathing. I don't know that I would do anything more than shrug my shoulders on this one. Even under the best of circumstances we can't be perfect all the time and this circumstance was simply way unusual with the bad dream and all. Crap happens and when it does sometimes we just have to accept it and move on.

Not every leak with a nasal interface mask is mouth breathing anyway. Yeah some but not necessarily all of them. A little while back I was getting some pretty big leaks with my trial of the DreamWear nasal pillows that were being fairly consistent so I decided to tape my mouth just to eliminate the possibility of mouth breathing and to my surprise the leaks were still there and fairly significant. Had to be mask movement leaks because the tape never moved. They looked like mouth breathing leaks with the plateau thing and all that but they weren't.

Even if all of your leaks were mouth breathing...2 or 3 % isn't the end of the world IMHO and I am betting that some of those leaks are just mask movement leaks. No way to know for sure unless a person does the tape thing but I wouldn't even do it for 10 % or even 20% unless it was happening every night for several nights. I never get too excited about anything that shows up that is random and rare.

Thank you Pugsy. I am still learning and can't interpret my results, but I will get there. I also figure that a little mouth breathing and dry mouth is still a big improvement over wearing no mask. I am trying little tricks like I put my hair in a little ponytail and stick it in between the two straps in back so the head gear does not move like it used to. I think there is a trick to be figured out still on how to immobilize my mouth using that same space. Still thinking about it.

Julie wrote:Just a note - not re Cpap, but... when I lived in Toronto 30+ yrs ago I met a cat who was 27 yrs old... had lived in the same men's tailor shop all that time and looked great - jumped on the chairs and all! Yours at 23 is a testament to your care. But I hope you were not screaming!

Thank you. Mouse was the most laid back, affectionate companion one could ever ask for and I enjoyed him every bit of those years (someone was going to put him down and I said no I will take him) Even with 4 cats now, I will always miss his good nature.