Snoring with mouth closed

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
mle_ii
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Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Thu May 26, 2011 11:31 am

Ok, me again. It appears that I'm so talented I can snore with my mouth closed. LOL

Anyway I was able to get my video camera set up with an IR light and I'm most definitely snoring with my mouth closed. Most snoring I read about is with the mouth open. Also I was snoring while lying on my stomach and head to turned to the side, which seems even stranger as it wasn't on my back. Which leads me to think something with the nasal passage and one more tick as possible UARS. I had some snores while on my back, though not as much as on my stomach. Though other times when I was on my stomach I didn't snore. And most times when I was on my back I didn't snore.

I don't see any pattern in which way I sleep and snoring or blood oxygen. 42% on left side, 25% on stomach, 23% on back and 10% on right side. Though I was trying to favor not sleeping on my back as I thought it might be a too relaxed toung.

There are periods where the blood oxygen is pretty flat and doesn't fluctuate much, that is right around 95%. Which was only about 3 hours time.

I'm guessing a sleep study is in my future after I talk to a sleep dr this Friday, though from what I've read so far CPAP doesn't seem to help as much for those with UARS.

Oh and I also notice in the video I move my legs and tend to change sleeping positions a bunch of times.

It's a wonder I get any sleep at all with all that action. LOL

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gasp
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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by gasp » Thu May 26, 2011 5:54 pm

When I read your subject line I thought - That's talented- and then read that in your post LOL

I add that you are also brave! I don't think I could watch videos of myself sleeping. Too much awareness for me LOL not to speak of it would prove I yank the covers and wake my husband up! So, do you fast forward until you see movement or watch it real time?

So, here's a test. Lie down in the positions you think/or see are problematic and relax as completely as you can. Then notice your breathing. Does your tongue go back into your throat, does your throat narrow, what other things do you notice?

If you have an auto machine, you can change positions and see if your machine responds to a perceived blockage by pushing more air at you. If I turn to my left side I can count on the machine upping the pressure/pushing more air. Therefore I know there is narrowing somewhere. I think it's because I use nasal pillows and have a deviated septum on the right side of my nose so when lying on my left side my right septum closes down

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mle_ii
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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Thu May 26, 2011 7:45 pm

LOL

Yeah, I started thinking, what if I see something or someone walk past my bed. Spooky. I fast forwarded to spots that were of interest on the Oximeter report and I also wrote a program that finds parts of the audio with noise and go to those sections to see what the noise was.

I assumed that lying on my back was a problem given that seems to be a common thing for most folks here, but from what I can tell I don't see what side might be a problem. Though perhaps if I tape a few more nights I might figure something out. Though if I snore sleeping on my stomach I'm not sure how my tongue would be the cause, but since my head is to the side perhaps it's enough. Though I would think that if it were my tongue the worst would be on my back, but it wasn't. Though it was only one night.

No machine yet, I see the Sleep Dr for the first time tomorrow.

I do know that at times I have trouble breathing through my nose, and it's not even with a cold/flu that it happens. I might also have to try sleeping in a different room with different sheets/blankets/pillow as perhaps my nasal passages are reacting to something in the room or my bedding. Though I've had allergies tested and as far as regular allergies I'm not allergic to anything that they tested. I also do remember a Dr noticing inflamation in my nasal passages at one point in the past, but I didn't think anything of it at the time.

Going to try the Breath Right thing and do a nasal rinse before bed to see if I can get the extra breathing capacity for my nose.

mle_ii
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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Sat May 28, 2011 9:10 am

Saw the sleep Dr and I'm getting a sleep study in a couple of weeks. Just need to make sure insurance will cover it, and if not figure out how much it might be to pay for it.

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by Mary Z » Sat May 28, 2011 9:26 am

If I read your post correctly, you do not have a machine yet. A CPAP (or other- AUTO, BiPAP) should take care of the snoring.

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by gasp » Sun May 29, 2011 7:44 pm

mle_ii wrote:Saw the sleep Dr and I'm getting a sleep study in a couple of weeks. Just need to make sure insurance will cover it, and if not figure out how much it might be to pay for it.
Jealous - you actually SAW a sleep Dr? I've never even met mine LOL. He did a great job for me - at least I'll give him that : )

If insurance doesn't cover it or enough of it you may consider an in-home test. However, I HIGHLY recommend having an actual sleep study because the resulting reports can show so much more than just apnea and the presence of oxygen or not.

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Mon May 30, 2011 10:05 pm

Yep, though I'm very sure it's not sleep apnea what ever it is. Did another video recording and though I snored a couple of times I slept through both times and O2 didn't change.

I'm thinking I might just be overly sensitive to my breathing, sounds or ??? and waking up. Tried sleeping in a different room with none of the same bedding to see if it was something about the room or my bedding that's keeping me from getting a full sleep. Didn't seem any different, in fact it took me longer to get to sleep as it wasn't as comfortable.

I'm wondering if I should see an Ear Nose Throat Dr first before the sleep study, as it seems like something is up with my sinuses, which might be what's keeping me awake. And what pretty much feels like a constant pressure now behind or above my eyes most of the day. Used to only feel it for part of the day, usually afternoon for a few hours, now seems to be getting longer.

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by NightMonkey » Tue May 31, 2011 5:24 am

mle_ii wrote:
I'm wondering if I should see an Ear Nose Throat Dr first before the sleep study,
Here is what I did which worked out great. First I had the sleep study. Then the sleep doctor wrote a letter to an ENT who has a special interest in sleep apnea. The letter told the ENT how bad my sleep apnea was. The ENT seemed to give me special consideration because of the severity of my case.
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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by LinkC » Tue May 31, 2011 8:46 am

Ah! But can you snore with your nose closed??

As long as the air can get in and out, I don't think it matters if it uses the door or the window...

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Tue May 31, 2011 3:24 pm

Well, I can breath through my ears, but can't seem to snore through them.

All kidding aside, I'm now thinking of not getting the sleep study as my insurance only pays for part of it, but it's still a lot of money out of pocket. It appears that the Sleep Study is $4800, and so out of pocket would be around $1,280 ($400+20%). A lot more than I thought it might be.

After the testing I did myself I'm not convinced enough that the sleep study will find anything.

I really don't know where to go from here other than perhaps an ENT Dr to see if something is up with my sinuses, which would certainly cost a lot less I would guess. I should also talk to some family to see if there are any others who have something similar.

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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by NightMonkey » Tue May 31, 2011 5:08 pm

mle_ii wrote: All kidding aside, I'm now thinking of not getting the sleep study as my insurance only pays for part of it, but it's still a lot of money out of pocket. It appears that the Sleep Study is $4800, and so out of pocket would be around $1,280 ($400+20%).
No one is getting $4800 for a sleep study. The higher priced ones in high income areas are around $2600 and there are in-lab sleep studies done as low as $1500. The insurance company probably has a contract with the sleep lab to get the "$4800 study" for around $2000. That means the insurance company will pay $720 and you will pay the $1280 that you mentioned.

Find a sleep doctor that does in-home sleep studies with portable equipment. These studies are very good at diagnosing sleep apnea and cost in the range of $300 to $600.

mle_ii wrote: I really don't know where to go from here other than perhaps an ENT Dr to see if something is up with my sinuses, which would certainly cost a lot less I would guess.
Yes, seeing an ENT is a good idea, but my preference would be to do it after the results of an in-home sleep study are known.

And the ENT is not just going to check your sinuses. He is going to check the entire airway including the nasal passages, vocal cords, tonsils, and adenoids and the soft palate and tongue. Depending on his findings he may also want to test for allergies.
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mle_ii
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Re: Snoring with mouth closed

Post by mle_ii » Wed Aug 31, 2011 2:50 pm

Ok, after wasting too much time and money with the ENT dr I think I figured it out on my own.

I've been recording my sleep to see if different things help. Diet, meds (glucocordicoids/antihistamines/others), timing, etc. Was even trying antihistamines as that seemed extreemly likely. But nope, nothing really seemed to change it. I thought it was antihistamines as I did seem to have some effect in the past, and I thought lately as well. Well it turns out we are very hard to experiment on as there are so many outside variables. And the one that was throwing me off was exercise.

I'm an inconsistant runner/exerciser, so I was doing it here and there. Well it turns out if I do a run, so far at least 30 minutes of around a moderate intensity (like say around 60-75% Max HR) I get 2 nights without snoring, after that I start snoring again. Even doing longer runs of say 1 hr at a higher intensity didn't seem to make a difference so far, still only 2 nights. I've done some research and it appears that there are some biochemical reasons along with some physical reasons for why they think it helps. And I'm not even talking about weight reduction. As I mentioned somewhere before my BMI is good, weight is good and I'm in decent shape as I can now run longer and longer distances (up to around 9 miles without having to stop).

Anyway I thought I'd throw this out there just in case someone is in a similar position. With what seems like UARS, but no alergies and no low blood oxygen, no apneas, doesn't sleep well and feels tired no matter how much sleep. Still going to experiment more, but most likely am going to make sure I at least get a short run in every other day or so.

HTH,
Mike