Will open mouth with nasal mask show up in leak numbers?

[junior49]

I've switched to the mirage fx nasal mask. I started off with a chin strap but stopped using it. There's only been one time (that I remember) where I woke up with my mouth open, and the leak numbers were much higher -- 95%ile was around 40, while usually its around 5-15.

So is it true, as I'm assuming, that when I open my mouth with a nasal mask that the S9 interprets this as a leak? Or is a leak only a leak from the mask itself? (It seems I rarely if ever have mask leaks with the mirage, but I don't know, maybe it's just not waking me up).

[SleepingUgly]

There have been times I knew I was mouth leaking at a particular hour (looked at the clock) and it only registered as a very minor leak on the graph the next day. So I don't think you can assume that you aren't opening your mouth if you don't see big leaks. On the other hand, if it wasn't disturbing my sleep (which it was), I wouldn't have cared about such minor leaks.

[b360155]

I've switched to the mirage fx nasal mask. I started off with a chin strap but stopped using it. There's only been one time (that I remember) where I woke up with my mouth open, and the leak numbers were much higher -- 95%ile was around 40, while usually its around 5-15.

So is it true, as I'm assuming, that when I open my mouth with a nasal mask that the S9 interprets this as a leak? Or is a leak only a leak from the mask itself? (It seems I rarely if ever have mask leaks with the mirage, but I don't know, maybe it's just not waking me up).

Most definitely. I started out with a Swift FX nasal pillows mask. I slept fine but my fiancee said periodically throughout the night she'd wake up to a loud wind tunnel like sound. So, while awake, I put the mask on and turned on the machine, opened my mouth and she said that was exactly the sound she heard. Looking at my ResScan graphs, I was seeing periodic large leaks (some up in the 60's) and putting 2 and 2 together, I figured out that's what was happening and switched to a full face mask. Immediately leaks decreased into the single digit range.

If you use nasal pillows or a nasal mask and you open your mouth, the air that goes into your nose just comes out your mouth instead of going into your air passage as it should to keep it open and and avoid OA's.

[Pugsy]

Open mouth leaks will be recorded just like any other leak. The machine just calls them like it sees them and doesn't know if mouth is open or mask is off your face.

Unless they are causing you to wake up or spending a lot of time in large leak territory....the time spent with open mouth may be minimal and not the end of the world. So I am with SleepingUgly on this one.
I know that sometimes I wake up and my mouth is open...but when I look at the reports and specifically the leak line itself I just don't see any horrible large leaks...so I assume time spent with mouth open was minimal and not likely to impact therapy hugely and I shrug my shoulders and don't worry about it.

As long as I sleep well and the leak line stays well below large leak territory for the most part, I don't sweat the minor ups and downs of the leak line.

[SleepingUgly]

One thing I wonder about is whether people have arousals due to leaks that they are unaware of. In that case, they may experience unrefreshing sleep and continued symptoms, and yet their leak line doesn't look terrible and they don't think leaks are problem. Meanwhile, they are spending their nights arousing to correct the mouth leaks.

[Pugsy]

One thing I wonder about is whether people have arousals due to leaks that they are unaware of. In that case, they may experience unrefreshing sleep and continued symptoms, and yet their leak line doesn't look terrible and they don't think leaks are problem. Meanwhile, they are spending their nights arousing to correct the mouth leaks.

Tis true. This is why we ask if there are frequent awakenings for any reason and go from there when people are reporting good "numbers" but feel like crap still. Even minimal leaks (on paper) are a problem if they disrupt sleep. Anything that causes frequent awakenings is unwanted and needs to be addressed.

Any open mouth issues I might have are rare and so I don't feel the need to put forth the effort to try to fix them. I have slept through some monstrous leaks (on paper) which are probably the pillows coming out of the nostrils. Could they be prolonged mouth breathing? I suppose that they could but it is rare that the reports show leaks into large leak territory and since I sleep through them....I don't worry about them.

[SleepingUgly]

I meant to say that I am concerned that there may be arousals that are disruptive but people aren't aware of them because they aren't long enough to be awakenings. Their mouth may drop open, and without fully awakening, they close their mouth. Then it happens again. And again. Those people would have no awareness that they were leaking, and because the leaks are minimal and short-lived, albeit extremely disruptive, the leak line would be well below the red line and appear acceptable.

I am a very light sleeper and there are nights I remember transient awakenings of my mouth being slightly open and dry, I close it, fall back asleep, and the process repeats. If I were a heavier sleeper, I bet I wouldn't even remember those because they might not fully awaken me enough for me to remember it occurred.

It's just a hypothesis. If I were a person who used no chinstrap and still had EDS despite good numbers and an acceptable leak, albeit perhaps not a flat line at 0, I would consider a chinstrap just to rule out this wild hypothesis that I invented.

[Keith In Vancouver, WA.]

hi, 1st post here. i just want to thank everyone for taking time to post. i am new user, although at 56 years old, have had severe probs since i was a skinny little kid. i want to tank the poster who affirmed that leaks may show up which are actually just mouth coming open. i have an excellant tech in portland oregon at sleep technologies and the next "tweek" to my treatment will be a chin strap she mailed me. hope it works! sincere good luck to all.
keith, vancouver, wa.