Too much snoring - help

After a litte more than two months of cpap, my 30 day AHI is 2.41, last night's AHI was 1.96. In that department, I'm doing well, but my snoring has not ceased. I don't know if that's good or bad in the long run, but most people I know who use cpap have stopped snoring for the most part. Could someone please look at last night's sleepyhead graph and let me know what I might be able to do differently, if anything? I have the flow graph and the events chart. I live alone so I'm not bothering anybody when I'm home, but I travel, visit others etc. and would really like to not be bothering others. Until I started cpap and using sleepyhead, I did not realize I snored so much, though occasionally people would mention it, and once in awhile woke myself up with it. Is it something I need to be concerned about in terms of optimizing my therapy?

Hi - what are your scripted pressures set at?

I've never used a full face mask, so I am not familiar with exactly how it's worn, but ... could a chin strap possibly help? Most (not all) snoring happens when our mouth opens during the night. A strap might help keep the jaw closed and prevent the snoring. Again - just guessing.

@Julie: my pressures are 8-18.
@Joe: I did try a chin strap. I had more trouble with leaking as the strap came up on my chin above the lower edge of my mask, and if I put it on over the mask it's not going to hold my mouth closed. I do have problem with the theory of a chin strap, pushing my jaw backward to keep my mouth closed, which it does. ... but pushing your jaw back seems counterproductive to using a therapy that's intended to splint the airway open. My sister helped me make a chin strap based on a YouTube video I found, but the strap kept coming up in front of my chin instead of below it, no matter what modifications we made to it. All that accomplished was to continually wake me up. I would rather sleep through the night with dozens of snores.

Hmm, I was thinking maybe you needed to raise your pressure, but unless moving the bottom one to e.g. 10 (which so many of us end up at) does make you feel better - tried it? - not sure what to say.

library lady wrote:@Julie: my pressures are 8-18.
@Joe: I did try a chin strap. I had more trouble with leaking as the strap came up on my chin above the lower edge of my mask, and if I put it on over the mask it's not going to hold my mouth closed. I do have problem with the theory of a chin strap, pushing my jaw backward to keep my mouth closed, which it does. ... but pushing your jaw back seems counterproductive to using a therapy that's intended to splint the airway open. My sister helped me make a chin strap based on a YouTube video I found, but the strap kept coming up in front of my chin instead of below it, no matter what modifications we made to it. All that accomplished was to continually wake me up. I would rather sleep through the night with dozens of snores.

I throught that might be a problem.

This may sound extreme, but I've heard of taping your mouth closed. Use first aid or sports tape. I also agree with Julie - increase pressure.

I was experiencing the same thing. My AHI was under 1 but I had a lot of snores. Over the last two weeks I have raised my bottom number to be very close to my average and my top number to be 4 above. My snores have gone from 20 or more events to under 5. I think I'm sleeping better and I'm not waking myself up. My settings are now 11-15. Very rarely am I at the 15 and if I do get there its for a very short time.

Good luck.....Laurie

I would bump up the epap a bit every other night until I solved the problem.
Ipap of 18 and Epap at 8 is a big difference. I am Ipap 23 and Epap 19.

8 is not enough pressure to hold the air way all the way open; that is why you are snoring.

I wish you good luck

Thanks all for your helpful replies. I haven't tried mouth taping yet, or played with the pressures, which I've been afraid to do. Now is probably the right time for me to look at the little pamphlet my DME gave me and figure out how to adjust it. I will try taping tonight, and tomorrow will adjust the pressure after reading the pamphlet tonight.

This brings me to another question... I will raise the lower pressure by 2, but not sure if I should do anything with the upper which is currently at 18. I've looked at my pressure graphs, and the highest it ever goes is to 15, rarely goes much over 13. I should perhaps go slowly with the starting pressure and see what happens with that first.

You can leave the upper at 18, not important as Cpap will rise to wherever it needs to stop an event as long as the low pressure's reasonable - doesn't have to start climbing from 4-5.

OK thank you, Julie. That is what I will do.

Are you using this machine has BiPaP or straight pressure with a range of 8 to 18? Your equipment shows bi-pap.

Oh - I didn't realize you were on bipap, so my advice may not be relevant - please check into this as I don't know how bipap pressures are set compared to autopaps.

To tell you the truth, I don't know what I have - bipap or otherwise. The number on the bottom of my unit is 560P, top of the unit says A-Flex....