Having an extremely dry mouth is a sign of mouth breathing?

[zoomzoom]

What up, party people? Every now and then, perhaps once a fortnight, maybe twice, I'll wake up in the middle of the night--or when I normally wake--to find my mouth absolutely bone dry to the point where it's even slightly painful to swallow for first several seconds.

This is with me using the Brevida pillows.

I haven't been told I am a mouth breather, but then again, I normally sleep alone.

This happened to me last night, as well.

I am not sure what else would dry out my mouth like that, especially as I am not taking any prescription medications.

Is this a symptom of mouth breathing? Should I buy some skin tape to shut my lips together? A head band or something?

Do you think that could be the reason why I have never had that "aha!" moment when using CPAP? I have been on it for a bit over a year and don't exactly feel any better, but my doctor does say that my health will improve anyway even if I am not feeling the benefits.

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

[khauser]

What up, party people? Every now and then, perhaps once a fortnight, maybe twice, I'll wake up in the middle of the night--or when I normally wake--to find my mouth absolutely bone dry to the point where it's even slightly painful to swallow for first several seconds.

This is with me using the Brevida pillows.

I haven't been told I am a mouth breather, but then again, I normally sleep alone.

This happened to me last night, as well.

I am not sure what else would dry out my mouth like that, especially as I am not taking any prescription medications.

Is this a symptom of mouth breathing? Should I buy some skin tape to shut my lips together? A head band or something?

Do you think that could be the reason why I have never had that "aha!" moment when using CPAP? I have been on it for a bit over a year and don't exactly feel any better, but my doctor does say that my health will improve anyway even if I am not feeling the benefits.

Thank you for listening to my Ted Talk.

That's a nice machine you have there, and since it has the ability to save data on an SD card, you can use OSCAR to see if there is leaking present and at what level.

The mouth will get dry with even minimal leakage through it, so then it becomes a matter of how often and how much you care about it.

[Dog Slobber]

Having just a dry mouth *might* be a sign of mouth breathing, but it could also be a symptom of other things such as not enough humidity, or medication.

This is why it's good to provide as much information as possible, especially graphs.

If you're OSCAR graphs show little to no leaks, then we can likely rule out mouth breathing. If you're waking up with a very dry mouth, turn the machine off then back on. The look on your OSCAR graph for the machine being turned off and if the there's a lot of leak, then mouth breathing can definitely be the cause.

[jimbud]

Do NOT mess with Dog Slobber unless you have a GOOD sense of humor.

JPB

[Pugsy]

It can be a sign of mouth breathing but it doesn't always mean a massive prolonged episode of mouth breathing.
I have had some serious dry mouth just from maybe 5 or 10 minutes of mouth breathing (as seen on the leak line graph).
Sometimes it just doesn't take much mouth breathing to dry out the mouth.

[zoomzoom]

Hello all,

I haven't been able to get OSCAR to properly get all my data via SD card since last Dec.

So I went ahead and reinstalled Windows. I was then able to reinstall OSCAR (as a simple uninstall and reinstall did not work) and that did the trick. I am able to get all my entries.

screenshot-20200715-222826.png (127.71 KiB) Viewed 1258 times

Looks like I had a bit over 6% of leak!

Also, my Pressure graph is all over the place. Why isn't it a smoother line?

[zoomzoom]

That's a nice machine you have there, and since it has the ability to save data on an SD card, you can use OSCAR to see if there is leaking present and at what level.

The mouth will get dry with even minimal leakage through it, so then it becomes a matter of how often and how much you care about it.

You got it! I just posted the data above

[khauser]

Hopefully some other people will jump in here .. i certainly can't tell if that's mouth breathing, but the amount of large leak over the night is minimal.

About the pressure changes ... do you rely on ear? It looks to me like the machine is upwards adjusting about to the point that exhaust pressure gets to your minimum intake pressure. Are you willing to try reducing epr?

[Dog Slobber]

Hello all,

I haven't been able to get OSCAR to properly get all my data via SD card since last Dec.

So I went ahead and reinstalled Windows. I was then able to reinstall OSCAR (as a simple uninstall and reinstall did not work) and that did the trick. I am able to get all my entries.

screenshot-20200715-222826.png

Looks like I had a bit over 6% of leak!

Also, my Pressure graph is all over the place. Why isn't it a smoother line?

On some people (me being one of them) REM sleep can show up in the breathing patterns. I actually find the Respiration Rate a good indicator of REM Sleep for me.

Looking at the repeating patterns of increased respiration, and the increased Flow Limitations during those periods, this suggests REM Sleep and worsened sleep apnea during REM.

The leaks also increase during those periods. Opening one's mouth during REM with its lack of muscle tone is pretty common.

At 9:15 you woke up, immediately after a 15 minute period of Large Leak, was your mouth dry? Did the Leak wake you up?

You may want to try taping.

Also, my Pressure graph is all over the place. Why isn't it a smoother line?

Increasing one's minimum will often flatten the pressure line. Increases the lows, reduces the peaks and might clean up some of the Flow Limit activity.

[Pugsy]

The Flow Limitations are driving the pressures all over the place. FLs are part of what the auto adjusting algorithm will respond to because they are the first early warning signs of the airway trying to collapse.
From the pattern of the FL increases on the graph...I would first suspect REM stage sleep. It's common for our OSA to worsen in REM...I have it myself.
It could also be you are maybe on your back....or maybe on your back and in REM.
The machine is doing a good job though...those FLs aren't progressing and growing up to be full grown OAs or hyponeas though...and that's good. If you are sleeping well and feeling decent...I wouldn't worry about it.

As for the large leak...impossible to know for sure if it is mouth breathing or not but with the dry mouth complaint...obviously very suspect for mouth breathing but I have personally seen worse looking leak graphs with my mouth taped shut so it wouldn't be impossible for those leaks to be mask movement leaks.

What you want to do or need to do about it...depends on how much it annoys you.
Personally I never even bat at eyelash at the leak numbers unless they get into double digits and they are disturbing my sleep by waking me up.

6% of the night with 7.5 hours of use...that's 27 minutes and it's broken up into 3 main segments. Far from the end of the world and the worse it ever got to was around 38 L/min. The machine actually does a fairly decent job of things up to around 35 L/min leak...
It's not a real pretty leak graph but it's far from horrible.
Now any leak that wakes us up...needs to be fixed because it is messing with our sleep but if this were my report and I slept decent and felt fine during the day I would just shrug my shoulders and move on. I wouldn't worry about it.

Now if the dry mouth becomes a common complaint and it is annoying or wakes you up...then we obviously want to work on it because it is disturbing your sleep. Anything that disturbs our sleep is unwanted.

[zoomzoom]

Hopefully some other people will jump in here .. i certainly can't tell if that's mouth breathing, but the amount of large leak over the night is minimal.

About the pressure changes ... do you rely on ear? It looks to me like the machine is upwards adjusting about to the point that exhaust pressure gets to your minimum intake pressure. Are you willing to try reducing epr?

Do you mean "on air?" If so, I don't have any additional equipment than the machine. I don't have an added O2 machine, etc.

I can try turning off EPR completely. It used to be a higher number but I saw it was suggested to slowly bring that number down.

[zoomzoom]

On some people (me being one of them) REM sleep can show up in the breathing patterns. I actually find the Respiration Rate a good indicator of REM Sleep for me.

Looking at the repeating patterns of increased respiration, and the increased Flow Limitations during those periods, this suggests REM Sleep and worsened sleep apnea during REM.

The leaks also increase during those periods. Opening one's mouth during REM with its lack of muscle tone is pretty common.

At 9:15 you woke up, immediately after a 15 minute period of Large Leak, was your mouth dry? Did the Leak wake you up?

You may want to try taping.

Increasing one's minimum will often flatten the pressure line. Increases the lows, reduces the peaks and might clean up some of the Flow Limit activity.

You know, I can't recall if it was the dry mouth that woke me up, but I do know that I have been aroused from sleep at times due to the sound of leaking air. Then I just shift the pillows around a little bit to fit better to my nose and dose off. Sometimes, if it's a strong enough arousal (or if I'm roused by having to get up to pee) I may notice a dry mouth. On this particular day, I think I was woken by the sound of leaking air.

I would say the majority of the time I do not have a dry mouth when aroused prior to my normal wake time of about 1015-1030.

[zoomzoom]

As for the large leak...impossible to know for sure if it is mouth breathing or not but with the dry mouth complaint...obviously very suspect for mouth breathing but I have personally seen worse looking leak graphs with my mouth taped shut so it wouldn't be impossible for those leaks to be mask movement leaks.


Now if the dry mouth becomes a common complaint and it is annoying or wakes you up...then we obviously want to work on it because it is disturbing your sleep. Anything that disturbs our sleep is unwanted.

Thanks! I think what I'll do is maybe give taping a try or something. Will look on Amazon for some skin-sensitive tape.

[khauser]

About the pressure changes ... do you rely on ear?

Do you mean "on air?" If so, I don't have any additional equipment than the machine. I don't have an added O2 machine, etc.

I can try turning off EPR completely. It used to be a higher number but I saw it was suggested to slowly bring that number down.

That's what I get for writing responses on my phone. I meant EPR. My phone decided that was eat, sorry about that!

But you got the suggestion correct ... good luck!

[SMenasco]

I suffer from a recirculation problem, in that, when I relax, air enters my nasal pillows and a small amount comes OUT my mouth, drying it out. It wakes me up about every two or three hours, desperately needing a drink of water! I solved this problem with Biotene, a gel that coats the mouth keeping it from drying out. I've been using it for about a week now and it's working great! I tried taping for several months. What a pain in the ass! Biotene works for me!