Side sleeping....try it...you might like it.

[track]

It's a little bit of a pain strapping something on your back to stay off your back but when you get better numbers at 7 cpap on your side than 15 cpap on your back as I do, it seems like a no brainer. ....especially when you factor in aerophagia and fighting leaks at the higher pressures.

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, aerophagia

[ozij]

hmmm,
Wonder what happens after you do this for 3 or 6 months. Do you think you could train yourself to side sleep and then no longer need the pack?

O.

[Artreyman]

it takes a bit of practice but you can teach your self to side sleep...beware that you wake up with a stiff arm or shoulder from time to time..but you do sleep and with less mask leaks

[Pilot_Ron]

I only sleep on my side. I bought the CPAP pillow from cpap.com, and I slept a full 7 hours the first night. The only problem I have, is that I have to wrap my arm in my blanket to keep from getting a chill on my arm with the axhaust air blowing from my mask vent.

[roster]

hmmm,
Wonder what happens after you do this for 3 or 6 months. Do you think you could train yourself to side sleep and then no longer need the pack?

O.

My new sleep doc called me Wednesday to see what was going on. I told her about the backpack. She said eventually I would be able to sleep on my side without it but then I should still use it for two nights back-to-back every two weeks to reinforce the habit. I don't trust this advice yet, but let's see if my opinion changes.

BTW Track, I still have bad leg pains on the "down" side and switch sides regularly throughout the night to move the pain around.

[track]

Makes me wonder about your mattress and box springs....is your spine and hips being supported properly? It sounds to me like something in the low back or hip area is not in a position that allows them to rest naturally. You might try a pillow under your side to keep the spine and hips aligned. Do you bend your knee...you might try the fetal position with the leg underneath.

[roster]

I did heavy workouts Thursday and Friday evenings and took 3 mg melatonin and 500 mg l-tryptophan last night. This combination of things allowed me to stay in bed nearly 10 hours last night despite the leg pain.

Through much observation, I am becoming convinced the pain is cause by pressure on the hips when side sleeping. Now I suspect that socknitster may be correct and piriformis syndrome is causing my pain.

I have to get serious about doing those recommended exercises, (http://www.spine-health.com/topics/cons ... rcise.html) for piriformis syndrome each night before dinner.

Ah, another hurdle to overcome! But maybe it is the last one!

[coonface]

I've slept on my side most of my life and I still stop breathing, but not as bad as on my back. When I got a cpap was the first time in over a decade that I slept on my back. The only effects I've noticed of sleeping on my side was putting my arm to sleep from time to time, so if you get better readings go for it.

[Country4ever]

I used to sleep all over the place, but ever since I got pregnant about 22 years ago and also developed horrible stiffness in my hips, and had to sleep on my side, I've preferred that position ever since. I think you can train yourself to do it. If you're most comfortable on your back, that might be harder to overcome.
I also sleep on a couch, and it really helps to have the support of the back of the couch, to encourage me to stay on my side.

Rooster.....about your leg pain.......is it an ache? I have developed a really bad ache several years ago. Sometimes I think its about an unstable knee. But last spring, it got really bad. I had an MRI and it only showed mild degeneration of my spine. I had 3 months of PT and was doing tons of exercises. I don't know if it helped or not. The pain was very inconsistent.......but the down leg while sleeping on my side definitely hurt alot.
One doc diagnosed me with piriformis syndrome, yet those particular exercises made the hip pain component worse. I did all sorts of leg/back exercises, so I'm not sure which helped the most. But......I finally stopped all the exercises, and the pain has gone away for the most part!
Anyhow..........can you describe your pain more? I have found that walking alot causes my night leg aching the most. The exercises that seem to help the most are stretching exercises.........my achilles tendon and calf stretches, the quadricept stretches, and of course, strengthening the back muscles can help alot.
My sleep got horrible during the time when my legs hurt the worse at night. I started taking 2 tylenol every night before bedtime, and that would definitely help get a better night's sleep. I'm sort of surprised at how much pain interfered with my sleep. Good luck to you.

[CompuTech007]

I sleep on my side most of the time or used to until I started my therapy a little over a month now. Recently increased my lower pressure again and now it's up to 9 and increased the top end to 15. I was tritated at 14 in the sleep lab. But last night I noticed that I was mouth breathing a lot. I normally don't do this. Most of the mouth breathing episodes where when I was on my side. ehh don't know why actually. Found I slept better on my back last night. My AHI is up to 17.0 for last night and it's normally averaged around 12. Better than an AHI of 32. but it's not good.

Anyone else have issues with mouth breathing while lying on their side?

[Country4ever]

I would imagine alot of it depends on everyone's individual physical make-up in their noses/throats, etc. Maybe if the muscles in the back of your throat that are lax occlude more on your side??
I've also found that I breath alot harder and tend to have more problems with various aspects (mouth breathing, higher AHI, etc.) if I've eaten too many carbs.
Is it possible that when you're lying on your side, you are somehow occluding your nose, and that sort of forces you to open your mouth?

[track]

I learned early on that I mouth breathe at times so I went to a full face mask.

My 95% pressure on my side is around 13 if I open the machine up on apap and maybe a point higher on my back. Oddly enough I have recently discovered I get satisfactory treatment at 7 on cpap when on my side. I was fooled by the 95% pressure thinking I needed to have the apap set at least there to get the best treatment. I am slowing working my way down to see if perhaps I don't even need treatment if I restrict myself to side sleeping. It's sure more fun going this direction than going up which is what I was constantly having to do when I allowed myself to sleep any ol way.

[CompuTech007]

I would imagine alot of it depends on everyone's individual physical make-up in their noses/throats, etc. Maybe if the muscles in the back of your throat that are lax occlude more on your side??
I've also found that I breath alot harder and tend to have more problems with various aspects (mouth breathing, higher AHI, etc.) if I've eaten too many carbs.
Is it possible that when you're lying on your side, you are somehow occluding your nose, and that sort of forces you to open your mouth?

Interesting note about the carbs. I deffinately have issues if I have ice cream or cerial with milk within 3-4 hours of bedtime. It's the milk I think in my case. So much for a glass of milk to calm you before bed...sorry grandma it don't work for me honey.

[jrfoster]

Makes me wonder about your mattress and box springs....is your spine and hips being supported properly? It sounds to me like something in the low back or hip area is not in a position that allows them to rest naturally. You might try a pillow under your side to keep the spine and hips aligned. Do you bend your knee...you might try the fetal position with the leg underneath.

Anybody ever try the temperpedic matress? The commericals make it look wonderful, but I wonder for us side sleepers, would are arms still go to sleep as much? Just wondering!

Jeff

[roster]

..... I deffinately have issues if I have ice cream or cerial with milk within 3-4 hours of bedtime. It's the milk I think in my case. So much for a glass of milk to calm you before bed.........

If you haven't already considered it, you might want to look into this connection:

Dairy products aggravate GERD and GERD interferes with sleep and increases AHI.