If you want to lower your AI

And you are using a nasal or nasal pillows mask, try taping your mouth!! I have been resistant to this for a long time, but I have become a believer.

When I started on CPAP I had an average AHI of between 5 and 6, and my AI bounced around between about .4 and 1.0. Not great, but not bad, and much better than my pre-cpap 78!! After a couple-three months my AI dropped a bit, averaging about .5, sometimes spiking up over 1.0 and on rare occasions dropping down to 0.0. Again, not perfect, but good enough to pat myself on the back a bit and congratulate myself on my 100% compliance.

I had read lots of posts about taping one’s mouth shut at night, but since the sleep tech did not notice any mouth breathing, and the Dr hadn’t said anything about it, and the RT at my DME said I would be fine with a nasal mask, no need for full face, I didn’t think it was something I needed to worry about. I didn’t notice any serious mouth breathing, my wife didn’t either, and everything seemed to be going well. For the sake of science I did try a single strip of paper tape horizontally across my lips one night. I had read somewhere one should coat the lips with lip balm first, so I did, and woke up a couple hours into the night with the tape flapping off. I figured I had put on too much lip balm.

So about a week ago, since the first try had not worked out, I decided to try again. I wanted to prove to myself that I was not breathing through my mouth. I expected no great results, I just wanted to eliminate it as a possiblity. This time, no lip balm, and I added three vertical strips. I wanted to make sure nothing came lose.

So, the next day I got up and scrolled through the display. Leak rate was good, pressure was the same, then I got to my AI. 0.0!! HI was about the same. Since then, for the past week, my AI has been 0.0 one other night and the rest have been 0.1. I did have one night that jumped up to .6, but with over a weeks average of .1 AI I figure that was just an anomaly. My HI seems to be down very slightly.

As near as I can figure, I am not a mouth breather, but I am a mouth leaker, enough of one to effect my therapy. A few tenths of a point may not seem like much, but I definitely felt better, calmer and more alert this past week. I have to say I don’t like taping, it looks and feels weird, but I very much like seeing the very low numbers. Needless to say, my next mask will be a full face!

I credit this forum, and those who have shouted out the benefits of taping and the detriments of insidious mouth leaking, with this success. I would not have known to do it on my own, nor did the medical staff in charge of my care catch this. I felt like I had improved my sleep to the 75%-80% level with just the CPAP, and it feels like taping has added another 10-15 % improvement. It is also obvious to me, and should be obvious to anyone reading this that this improvement was made possible by my having a data capable machine with easy access to nightly information. Said access of which I was blocked out of until I learned here how to access it. Many thanks to all of you!! And if you are not using a full face mask, tape your mouth for a week and see what happens!!