Problems, late night leaks

I have the Comfort Gel full mask and the Remaster Auto A Flex System One. Almost every night I wake up around 3 or 4 in morning and the mask is fluttering on my face and no matter what I do I can not get it to stop leaking, and it is leaking BAD. I finally have resorted to hitting the ramp button to get the machine to calm down. This is very annoying as it wakes me up and I usually have a difficult time getting back to sleep. I have 10 nights under my belt, my 7 day AHI average is 7 and is coming down every night. I checked the machine and if I am reading the correct info it says that the max pressure I have had is 13. Any suggestions? Is the machine putting out to much pressure is do I need a better mask?
Again nothing I do will seal the mask when this is happening. Need advice.
After 10 night I am feeling better and I am optimistic about my treatment. Thanks

wvbike_99 wrote:I have the Comfort Gel full mask and the Remaster Auto A Flex System One. Almost every night I wake up around 3 or 4 in morning and the mask is fluttering on my face and no matter what I do I can not get it to stop leaking, and it is leaking BAD. I finally have resorted to hitting the ramp button to get the machine to calm down. This is very annoying as it wakes me up and I usually have a difficult time getting back to sleep. I have 10 nights under my belt, my 7 day AHI average is 7 and is coming down every night. I checked the machine and if I am reading the correct info it says that the max pressure I have had is 13. Any suggestions? Is the machine putting out to much pressure is do I need a better mask?
Again nothing I do will seal the mask when this is happening. Need advice.
After 10 night I am feeling better and I am optimistic about my treatment. Thanks

You need to spend some time here reading and learning.

Make your mask adjustments early - BEFORE bed, or take a nap to try it out. I like the nap best
Adjust your straps evenly (symmetrically) , while lying down (in your sleeping position), with the machine at FULL pressure - that means without any ramp. When done you should be able to stick 2 fingers under your straps.

That means you may have to learn how to change your pressure settings. But all that info is here if you search for it. Don't forget to change your settings back. That means you wrote all of them down BEFORE you changed anything, right? In your notebook.

Is your mask wet when you wake up? Condensation?

Good Luck

Well I think I have been doing what you said about adj. my mask at bed time. My mask is not wet so that is not a problem.
As far as adjusting my pressure since I am only 10 days old at this I don't feel comfortable with that yet, maybe a little later but I thought that my machine was supposed to take care of that since it is an auto? This leak I am talking about is so much air that even with the adjustment straps maxed out the air leaks out around it, even with my hand pressure it still leaks. Seem like my machine is really putting out some high pressure, Thanks for the advide.

Leaks can also be caused by anything that disturbs the seal of the mask: perhaps your head pillow is dislodging the mask, or the hose is pulling on it, or you turn over in your sleep and move the mask, or sweating or natural oils cause your mask to slip on your face. Or your mask is not the proper size for face, or is not adjusted properly. It takes alot of experimentation.

I like the ResMed Active Lt mask, which is good for active sleepers, and the PapCap Plus, instead of the headgear that comes with the mask, and use a PaPillow and sleep on the edge of it, and the Hozer hose management system. However, read the Wicki above, or do searches to see what others use.

What are your machine settings? What was your titrated pressure? Being an auto doesn't necessarily "take care of it". If your minimum is set too low, it may not have enough time to respond to apneas. If your maximum is too high, it can "run away" when you have leaks, or cause gas and bloating. What works best for most people is to have the minimum at your 90% pressure or 1 or 2 below, and have your maximum 2-3 above titrated pressure, if you have leak or gas issues. But everyone is different. It may be helpful to keep a journal, so you know what works for you.

In addition to reading here, this is an excellent article:

http://smart-sleep-apnea.blogspot.com/



http://smart-sleep-apnea.blogspot.com/

You need to adjust your mask at the highest pressure that the machine goes up to while you are sleeping. The way to do that is to change the settings on your machine so that it starts out at that pressure. So you either have to set your minimum pressure to 13 (or put the machine in straight CPAP mode at 13) and then adjust your mask. After you are done, and before you go to sleep, you then must reset the machine to its original settings. Hence the suggestion to write those original settings down. Since this procedure is a bit involved, you're best off not doing it just before bed when you probably are not functioning at your peak. Hence the suggestion to tackle this task earlier in the day.

I have the same issue using my Mirage Activa LT or any other mask or pillows that I have tried. I find it is usually me smooshing my face into the pillow and a simple yank on the front of the mask will straighten it up such that the leak ends.

As to the other kind of leaks; don't drink late at night and don't eat salty stuff or take a diuretic in the evening. Practice good bladder control and THESE leaks will also go away. Of course DEPENDS.

I am still on my quest for the perfect mask for myself and have decided to try two or three new ones this month. Like handgun holsters, it is a never ending quest as any hobby shooters will tell you. There is never a perfect solution except for the few lucky ones... and I have a duffel bag FULL of holsters here. One of the last I purchased cost nearly $400 and when I was at the firing line with my Glock in the holster (or "on" the holster would be more appropriate) and the holster "locked"... I heard a 'plop' and looked down to discover my customized Glock sitting in the dirt.) At least with masks, the only danger is from a leak or a face fart.

Thus far I love my Activa LT and am now going to go back to try some pillow type 'masks'. The Swift LT I found would smoosh up when I put my nose into the pillow and cut off the air flow, waking me up. Now I discover that I am opening my mouth ever so slightly at night and whistling (Yah, I know.... I am off to Sears to try on different sizes of underwear. Think YOU got problems now? Wait until you have to go to Sears with your wife to try underwear on your head (think I'll start in the lingerie department)), causing my mouth to dry out in a hurry and bringing me out of Stage 4 and/or REM sleep dreaming that I am ingesting sand in the sandbox during a sandstorm. Sic.

The only good thing that comes out of all this is that (a) eventually you will get a good night of sleep; and (b) you get to wear underwear on your head.

i have the same problem using quattro ffm and major lraking went to dme today tried ocer 20 masks in an hour and walked out wiht the same maskonly a small i have dimples soshe suggested i fill in the dimples with tissue and hopefully that will seal the mask worth a try i guess

You might try moldable silicone earplugs for filling the dimples. I forget the brand but any drugstore should have them.

Beak off a piece, work it between your fingers to soften it up a bit.

Instead of wasting time trying to adjust the leaking mask, pull it off the tube and put on another one. It's a much quicker solution and you can do it without getting fully awake.

My big-time solution has been switching to total face masks, the Respirionics FitLife and Total Face masks.

thanks for the silicone plug suggestion will try tonight -

I have the SAME problem, I am on 20 days on CPAP, and it seems that my sleeping hrs get worse as time goes by...I have a Resmed Quatro FF mask, and am having MAJOR leaks at the chin area, I have tried preparing my adjustments 30 min. before bed, but I still get the leaks. My Pressure is set at 13, and I'm beginning to suspect the reason Im having the leaks is because the high pressure is pushing my mask seal out of place... PLEASE HELP!, I wanna sleep more hrs!

Cpapman11 wrote:I have the SAME problem, I am on 20 days on CPAP, and it seems that my sleeping hrs get worse as time goes by...I have a Resmed Quatro FF mask, and am having MAJOR leaks at the chin area, I have tried preparing my adjustments 30 min. before bed, but I still get the leaks. My Pressure is set at 13, and I'm beginning to suspect the reason Im having the leaks is because the high pressure is pushing my mask seal out of place... PLEASE HELP!, I wanna sleep more hrs!

Some hints on fitting this mask...http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/taming ... e-quattro/

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Also bumping this post for others to see. I don't use that mask type so I am zero help. This is an old thread if you don't get many responses I would suggest starting a new thread of your own and it will get more attention.

The mask is the hardest part to all this. Have you considered a different mask?

Try a mask liner like pad-a-cheek and turn the humidity down. I had the same problem and it was the mask getting slightly moist where the mask seals against the face. The liner keeps it dry and lets the skin breath a bit and feels better, the lower humidity seems to also avoid moisture buildup in the mask. Side sleeping also seems to help.

www padacheek com has a mask liner that some folks have had good luck with. I had good luck with it in the beginning but after a couple of weeks the liner no longer kept it from leaking. Others have had better luck, worth a try.

Mine does much better after I wash it. Then again its only been three weeks, the stitching is also failing as well.