I was told I still snore through the CPAP mask & ResMed S9 ?

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Hello CPAP community:

Just a quick question if anyone has any ideas?
I spent the night with my Brother at a Hotel last weekend we were both in town for a beloved Great Aunts funeral memorial.
He said he was A. surprised to see me with the full face mask on attached to the machine, when he came into the room after I was asleep.
B. He told me that I still do snore through the machine.

I came home and ask my girlfriend to listen for it and she told me today, Yes you do snore a little through the machine but not for long.

So the question is do I need to call the Sleep doctor and get a higher pressure setting, I am currently at 11 on my ResMed S9 Elite with a Quattro 4 Mask?
Or is that the whole deal is that when I start to snore or close down the machine kicks into overdrive and pushes back until It gets me inflated again ?

Thanks for any light you can shed on this matter.

PS. I just hit 6 months on my Headgear and have reordered it. I think that when it gets worn it dosen't hold the mask as well and I end up cranking it down pretty tight to keep a seal, or waking up with a stream of air in my eye.

[xenablue]

My first visit with the neuro after sleep study, and one month on CPAP, she looked at my stats and said she didn't like that I was still snoring so ordered my titration up a notch or 2 from 7 to 9 and I'm to call her if I'm still snoring consistently.

Hope this helps.

xena

[bdp522]

Do you use the ramp? If you do you might snore until the machine gets up to the required pressure. If you don't use ramp, you could try upping the pressure slightly and see if it helps.

Brenda

[billbolton]

Yes you do snore a little through the machine but not for long.

You probably should talk to your sleep clinician when you have the opportunity, but if your overall treatment is effective the clinician may not change anything much.

Cheers,

Bill

[jmelby]

Do you have the software or look at your data on the machine? That will tell the story more than snoring... if your AHI is high, you may need a higher pressure. The other solution would be to use an APAP with a range of pressure and let the machine decide based on your breathing.

[BusyLyn]

If you snored more while sleeping at the hotel than at home and you didn't bring your pillow(s) with you, the hotel pillow may be part of the snoring issue. I changed pillows about 2 weeks ago, and used them for 4-5 days before I switched back to my old one. Even though my AHI was down just a smidge, I found that I was waking up on my back (I'm a side sleeper from way back), my vibratory snores were up by more than a factor of 10, and I didn't feel as good.

Lyn

[Slartybartfast]

The "...but not for long" part of your GF's comment is important. It sounds like you're right on the edge of having sufficient pressure to keep your airway open. Sometimes just changing position, or shifting from one sleep mode to another will cause snoring to commence, or to cease. Eating Chinese food (sodium?) causes me to snore more than usual.

FWIW, every time I go into REM sleep, I snore a little. Wife says she doesn't notice it, but the machine never sleeps, and kicks the pressure up a notch until the snoring decreases, then stops. Then it slowly ramps the pressure down until something else kicks it up. If you have the software, you can see the REM episodes, indicated by erratic flow rates. 4 or 5 times/night separated by an hour or two of relatively quiet sleep. It's likely your snoring episodes are associated with REM sleep. Mine are, anyway.

You've already been advised to consider upping your pressure a little, or better yet, having your clinician do so until you are confident/comfortable doing so.