Sleeping in a recliner?

[Findjcr]

Does anyone sleep in a recliner. Seems like common wisdom for us difficult breathers at night is a wedge pillow or raising the bed etc and fir some, allegedly this does enough to open the airways some. Has anyone on here resorted to a recliner and does it help? Concerns? I’m just looking for options, even those that would allow me to reduce or not use cpap possibly. In another thread I put my overnight sleep report if you search my posts.
I guess a problem w a recliner would be the inevitable side sleeping difficulty or would you be @up” enough you could sleep on your back?
Also has anyone tried the dental appliance approach or the inspire surgery??

[Julie]

You'd do better to work on whatever problems you have with whichever Cpap and mask you have now... if sleeping in a recliner or the Inspire were easy answers that worked, this forum wouldn't exist, but it does for a reason - Cpap is the one best way to prevent apneas and once you're set up properly for you, you won't want to try to escape to other half-baked methods. Really!

Recliners are recommended for 'better than nothing' nights when your machine's not available, but it is NOT an answer by a long shot.

[djont57]

On the rare occasion that I fall asleep in my recliner; my wife says I snore & gasp for air. That doesn't happen when I use my CPAP.

[lazarus]

Does anyone sleep in a recliner. Seems like common wisdom for us difficult breathers at night is a wedge pillow or raising the bed etc and fir some, allegedly this does enough to open the airways some. Has anyone on here resorted to a recliner and does it help? Concerns?

As I underatand it, for some with moderate-to-severe OSA without access to PAP, it is thought (assumed, really) that a bed wedge or sleeping in a recliner may be somewhat safer than sleeping lying flat. That is mostly because (1) it appears to help prevent fluids from building up quite as much in throat tissues, (2) it may also help keep some stomach contents in the stomach instead of running the catastrophic risk of stomach contents overwhelming the lungs, and (3) it can make it less likely for some for gravity to cause the tongue to fall back into the airway to block it outright for long apneas the way it can easily happen for some back sleepers.

However, to the best of my knowledge, there is no well-documented bulletproof evidence that elevating the head of the bed, using a wedge, or sleeping in a recliner has any actual stabilizing effect on the airway that would significantly improve quality of sleep for those with mild OSA or UARS-ish sleep-disordered breathing, as you apparently may be experiencing, based on what you've posted in other threads.

I’m just looking for options, even those that would allow me to reduce or not use cpap possibly. In another thread I put my overnight sleep report if you search my posts.
I guess a problem w a recliner would be the inevitable side sleeping difficulty or would you be @up” enough you could sleep on your back?
Also has anyone tried the dental appliance approach or the inspire surgery??

Alternative approaches to stabilizing the airway during sleep, such as a dental device, seem to help about 50 percent of patients reduce AHI about 50 percent or so. Not great odds, and no easy way to verify efficacy over time, but for those for whom it works, it can get them across the syndrome-definition line to the point that sleep can be considered "good enough," at least for a while, and some are perfectly satisfied with that. More power to them.

Be assured we all want you to find success in improving your life using whatever works best for you. As a CPAP forum, though, we tend to recommend finding ways to make CPAP work for yourself. Once you have access to the gold-standard approach to stabilizing the airway, PAP therapy, consensus here is that it is worth it to give that approach the full shot before resorting to less effective approaches to airway stabilization.

Not a doc; just a fellow patient with opinions.

[dataq1]

FWIW, my wife's experience with recliners and CPAP:
She is a CPAP user (two years) that underwent a total shoulder rebuild. To avoid any stress on the grafted bones, it was recommended that she sleep in a recliner (to prevent any possibility of rolling over on the healing shoulder).

What we found, quite incidentially, was that her AHI improved and her pressures were lower.

This scenario was observed over several months, so was likely not a fluke for her, but not necessarily transferable to anyone else.

So she is quite content now to sleep in a recliner regularly. But if we are not at home and she has to sleep prone, we see that her APAP pressure increases and her AHI also increases.
So.... for her, a recliner is a help, but not a "cure"

(BTW, she is most comfortable at a 40-45 degree angle, she can tolerate 30 degrees, but completely prone 0-10 degrees she finds very uncomfortable.)

[Janknitz]

I've fallen asleep in a recliner and sitting straight upright in a chair and had apneas (and reflux) almost immediately. So I don't think it does very much. Also consider gravity will cause the head to fall forward (and a lot of recliners PUSH the head forward to some degree if you're short and there's a big bulge in the cushion at the top back) which CLOSES the airway mechanically.

[chunkyfrog]

Maybe that's why I cannot use recliners.
At 4'9", getting even close to comfortable is impossible.
During chemo, I had several pillows and the only foot stool in the building.
6 hours in furniture designed for giants (to me) is not restful.
The discomfort counteracted the benadryl . . .

[Janknitz]

They do make recliners for short people (inexplicably sometimes called "ladies' recliners") but they are hard to find and most of them are UGLY. LaZ-Boy has some. I have one about 40 years old, ugly as sin, now taped together with duct tape (remember Martin's chair in Frasier?) and the foot rest mechanism died about 10 years ago. The dog has taken this chair over and drapes his head over the armrest like Kilroy to sleep. I've been displaced.

BUT, CPAP has saved me. When I used to have untreated asthma exacerbations (thought they were "just bad colds") before CPAP treatment I used to sit up in a recliner all night for weeks because I couldn't breathe lying down at all. One night I had pneumonia and I was afraid if I fell asleep I would never wake up. I actually was surprised when I did wake up (guess I fell asleep). Now the asthma is under control AND I can actually sleep, in bed because of CPAP. I can sleep peacefully even during an asthma exacerbation and believe I will wake up. No more recliner nights, waiting to die.

(Yes, I probably belonged in the hospital. But it was the night after Christmas, a Friday, and I decided I'd rather die at home than in an ER waiting room--spoiler alert, I didn't die ).