What's with the drooling?

[Katagal]

Hi Everyone

I have another question, very happy with my CPAP machine and everything is going swimmingly with my sleeping. However, I have noticed I drool while I'm asleep and it is quite a bit. I don't recall drooling before CPAP entered my life probably because I was a true mouth breather and my mouth was as dry as the Simpson Desert all of the time. I now sleep with my mouth closed after some training with a chin strap. I just wonder why I don't swallow the saliva reflexively while I'm sleeping?

Does anyone have any clues about this minor aggravation?

As always your collective advice is deeply appreciated

Cheers Katagal

[chunkyfrog]

I found that when I drooled, it was because the chin strap was keeping my chin up,
but my lips still managed to open--just enough to let air (and saliva) leak out.
I tape now. Or I wear a full face mask.

[LSAT]

Sorry Katagal, but, I think you are exhaling through your mouth. The chinstrap is not doing its job.

[Starlette]

Hi Katgal

Are you using a dental appliance? If so, that may be reason for drooling.

Starlette

[a1albert]

You said you were a mouth breather before cpap, so your mouth was dry. Now that you are on cpap you drool, I would say the chin strap is doing its job. Your mouth is not drying out and that syliva is building up and has got to go somewhere. I find it a little hard to swallow when I have my cpap on. I drool now and then and I like it better than a dry mouth.

Albert

[Katagal]

No I'm not wearing a dental appliance nor my chin strap now but since I drooled with it or without it, I guess I'm more curious about why I don't reflexively swallow it. Thank you for your advice, appreciated as always

Cheers Katagal

[rosacer]

This is only my opinion. This is what I have observed:
- I drool sometimes,
- I never wake up now with a dry mouth. If I have been mouth breathing a lot in that case the aerophagia wake me up
- I have NEVER woke up with the mouth full of saliva

I think we automatically swallow up the saliva when there is enough accumulated. How much is enough? only the brain knows. What I have noticed in my case is if I use only the mouth guard (which I don't think has anything to do with my drooling) I'm able to just open a bit the corner of the mouth and then I wake up drooling. In the leak's graph it's evident I was mouth breathing. I don't do that each night and I don't know why I do it some times and others not, maybe it's because the pressure level (I have an APAP)

The same thing happens some times with the mouth taped. I use only a small strip of tape in the front of the lips, so I'm able to just open a bit the corner of the mouth. Maybe it's a combination of thinks like the position of your face on the pillow and the pressure level. But to me it's certain we swallow while asleep.

Now, the only way to be sure I don't do that is to put care when I mouth tape to ensure that my lips are the closest possible.

[napstress]

Hi, Katagal.

How are your leak statistics?

Have you made a change recently from sleeping on your back to sleeping on your sides? If so, maybe on your back you swallowed your saliva, but on your side it just leaks out.

I've noticed that I drool more during naps and after awakening in the middle of the night after being asleep only a couple of hours. Are you waking up more often, and therefore, noticing the drool for the first time?

Random speculations from an exhausted mind.