Uh oh, wife says I 'mouth breathed' last night.

I have been on CPAP about a month now, and doing very well. I even had excellent results from the get go with the ComfortCurve, thanks to some tips from this forum.

My wife tells me that last night for a short time I breathed through my mouth. She had noticed the night before what she described as 'bubbling sound'?? Anyway, she watched more closely last night, and that sound was mouth breathing. Apparently, I only do it when I sleep on my back (just got used to doing that again, and like it). Also, she thought I only mouth breathed when I slipped into very deep sleep. When I sleep on side, no noted mouth breathing. Please note that my wife is a registered nurse....ain't I lucky!!!!

Am I doomed to get a face mask, or a chin strap? If I can retrain again to sleep on my side more often, maybe one suggestion here for the soft foam pillow on top my regular pillow would help side sleeping (right now, on my side I have to be real careful or the ComfortCurve will shift enough to start a small leak).

What should I do?

Another question, if I had the RemStar Auto, like I wanted in the first place and my HMO didn't allow, would it have compensated the pressure in any way for my moments of mouth breathing. I suppose it would also have recorded the mouth breathing, instead of my wife lying awake to observe me too?? I talked to her this morning about just buying an auto, but she was concerned that the 'airflow' automatically going up and down would keep her awake more than just the steady flow of the CPAP Plus. Would that be noticeable enough to keep sleeping partner awake?

Seeing how you have only been on it for a month, you may try a chin strap for a while until you get more used to it, the deeper the sleep, the more you relax. I used a tennis sweat/head band to go around my face/lips, seemed to work well until my body adjusted, and it was comfortable. Not sure your wife would notice the pressure difference with an auto....

Nitro Dan wrote:....Not sure your wife would notice the pressure difference with an auto....

I agree, my REMstar auto is very quiet. I do notice a slight increase in sound due to the CFLEX, but you can turn that off. I find this machine much quieter than any other I tested, even with cflex on. Exhaust port air blowing against my sheet or pillow makes more noise.


The caviat is that maybe I got lucky and for some reason my machine is quieter than most. Is there somewhere you can go to turn one on and listen before buying?

Thanks Nitro Dan. Thanks I Wanna Sleep. Your informations will be very helpful.

Also, does anyone have any thoughts on my other question....."if I had the RemStar Auto, like I wanted in the first place and my HMO didn't allow, would it have compensated the pressure in any way for my moments of mouth breathing?"

I'm not a doctor, but if I can apply some of my Physics and Engineering background to a medical problem, my intuition says no. If your mouth is open it is basically releasing any pressure the machine is trying to apply. I suppose the machine would try to compensate but it wouldn't be effective as the open valve in the system... your mouth... would prevent any significant increase in pressure. That would be quite a wild ride if the machine were to apply enough increased pressure to your sinuses to compensate for the loss in pressure from your open mouth. Might very well blow you right out of bed.

I Wanna Sleep, that sounds pretty darn logical to me. I should have thought of that. The valve is open, my mouth!

My experience is that my mouth can be open, but my airway opening to my mouth is still blocked by the natural position of my tongue. I can manually open that airway, with my mouth open, and feel the CPAP pressure escape, but it isn't automatically the case. In other words, you can nose-breathe with your mouth open without any pressure escaping out your mouth. For example, if you open your mouth with the pressure turned on, pressure doesn't automatically rush out. Try it and see if you agree.