Hi there... new to cpap and the forums

[Hal_]

Hello there! I am about to start my 9th night with my CPAP and I wanted to say hi. This is my second post- my first was asking for a link to software !

My issue:
I have had a dry sore throat- despite increasing the humidity- and I have this strange thing happening, at least it seems strange to me. I wake up at 5AM, lets say, and want to go back to sleep... so I restart the ramp- I find as I am trying to fall back to sleep - as I am getting to that sleep stage- I wake up with a "puff" of air in my closed mouth- I wake up from the pressure of it in my mouth- let it out- and then try to sleep again- and this process repeats - after 3 or 4 times I "give up" and just take the mask off and sleep for a bit longer.

My feeling was, based on my searching, that this qualified as mouth breathing and I needed to get a full-face mask. At first my DME resisted and told me to give it a few more days- So I have. This phenomenon continues- and I feel like I am more tired than ever.

That said- I looked at my data with the software, and from what I can tell- it doesn't look that bad. Since I have been using the machine my AHI is 2.3. My 95% leak is 36 (median of 1.2) . This is with my prescribed pressure of 12. Interestingly, the first two nights- when I thought it was doing pretty well- my AHI is at a 6.4! the Night I thought was the worst- and gave up at 4AM my AHI was 1.4! So I find myself incredibly confused. Why the night I think is so bad and give up, is the night with the lowest AHI? Am I not really having a mouth breathing issue and I just need to give it yet more time?

My AHI at the sleep study was 84, by the way.

Can anyone help me shed some light on this before I go through the process of changing masks and find out it's not really want I need to do?

Thanks,

Hal

[Julie]

Well, if you do mouth breathe once asleep, giving it more time won't change that. What happened one night when your AHI was good could be due to many reasons, and unless it repeats consistently, don't bother about it. If you want to try the full face thing, but aren't sure, try taping for a couple of nights (do a search here on taping) and see how things go - it's a cheap way to find out if you need the FF mask.

[Uncle_Bob]

HI Hal

I'm glad some kind soul helped you out with the software

Just a couple of points. Your AHI score may not be all that accurate if your leak is above 5.0 L/min.

Mouth leaking or mouth puffing is common and there are some things you can try before you have to strap on a full face mask.

You could try a chin strap. I use the PapCap it totally stops my jaw from dropping and eliminated my mouth puffs.

http://www.pur-sleep.com/products/produ ... category=6

Other people tape their mouths closed, you can search for mouth taping on this forum to find out about that.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do. A good step 1 in this therapy is to get the leaks down or gone.

[Hal_]

Yes, kind souls are nice to come by...

Leak for the 8 days: Median 1.2, 95th 36, max 58.8

but that doesn't make sense to me.. since individual days show higher numbers...
for example- last night 7.2/36/52
and the 8th: 12/38.4/102


Is the leak the best way to tell if I am mouth breathing? If it is, I'd say these numbers say I am...

[oscar98]

I'm new to all this but those leak rates seem VERY high. I tend to mouth breathe when I'm dreaming and my leak rate at that time is still lower then that so if I were to venture a guess I would say that you are mouth breathing quite a bit. You might try getting a papcap like suggested above or ask your DME for a chin strap. Check with your DME to see if it would be covered by your insurance. I just got one a couple days ago and my insurance paid for it but the papcap looks a lot better then what the DME gave me.

If you don't want to mess with all that and don't mind a full face mask or hybrid mask then that might be the way to go.

[elena88]

hi there Hal !

Hang in there.. youve gotten some really good advice..

Dont worry too much if the AHI numbers dont match how you feel right now..

Mine dont match how I feel yet, and Im going on three months soon..


I have a tad of a mouth breathing thing going on too, and still on the search for the perfect mask..

I can tell you are going to work through this..

[echo]

Welcome to the Forum!!

Yes it sounds like mouth breathing (or i prefer: mouth leaking). I tend to get it more in the early morning hours (REM related)?

You can go with a DIY solution (tape, chinstrap etc) or a full face mask. I personally prefer the FFM route but have yet to find one that fits me well, so I just tape.

All the info you could ever want about mouth taping, denture strips, and other fancy ways of keeping our traps shut at night:
Links to: Mouth leaks - Air Leaks - Tape - DIY Guard