Aliens? Morning leak..Update

[oak]

Hi Everyone, I have hesitated to post this thinking that I could figure it out, but I am stumped. For the past 4 nights, I have my normal .1 to .3 AHI sleepyhead graphs and sleep like a baby until about 5-6 AM, when all H@#% breaks loose. I have huge leaks at that time and my AHI goes up, of course. The first night I thought it must be that I was opening my mouth but the last three nights I have awakened and found that I was not, plus I have to fidget with the mask for quite a while to get it to reseal. Its like the pillows just "give out" or something.

I did change pillow size from extra small to small, but that was over a week ago.

It's crazy: the leak is always at the same time every morning and absolutely no leaks at any other time at night.

Do I have aliens in my house or has anyone experienced this??

EDIT: I just rechecked and this started about August 26th out of the blue...does anyone have any ideas?

[LSAT]

This topic has been discussed before. Your face is smaller in the morning than it is at night. The muscles in your face relax over night. What fits good and tight at night will be slightly loose in the morning.

[oak]

so what to do about it? what would you recommend? I have everything snug when I go to bed. and why would it happen after two months, out of the blue? I am not ready to get up at 5:30 AM

[Pugsy]

Is there any chance that sleeping position is a factor?

Also..is there any chance that there is a little condensation in the nasal pillows? If I remember right you are using the barrel cozy but from past experience myself...it only takes just a little moisture to make those pillows slide all over the place?
Are you using anything like the Lansinoh ointment? I used too much once and with my body heat it melted and I ended up with the nasal pillow in my right ear....big leak with that one.

[oak]

Is there any chance that sleeping position is a factor?

Also..is there any chance that there is a little condensation in the nasal pillows? If I remember right you are using the barrel cozy but from past experience myself...it only takes just a little moisture to make those pillows slide all over the place?
Are you using anything like the Lansinoh ointment? I used too much once and with my body heat it melted and I ended up with the nasal pillow in my right ear....big leak with that one.

Pugsy I bet you had an interesting AHI with the nasal pillow in your ear-Ha!

Sleeping position could be a factor-I think I may sleep on my side towards morning hours. There IS condensation in the pillows, you are right there also. Maybe I will turn the humidity down a notch and if that doesnt do the trick, go back to the extra small pillows and see if that helps. I dont use any ointment.

[kaiasgram]

For me this kind of leaking usually means it's time to replace the nasal pillows.

[oak]

unfortunately i just replaced them about a week ago..i think maybe i should try to go back to the extra small pillows but first I am going to try turning down the humidifier and see what happens...lots of trial and error with this cpap stuff, huh?

[Pugsy]

Yeah, lots of playing around with things and then as soon as you think you get it right something changes and messes it all up again.
I have been using the non heated hose lately...with the humidity set to 5 on my PR S1 and that's the "new humidification mode" which normally uses less water and maybe using half a tank of water during the night (I always top it off just in case) most of the time using maybe a third of the water.
Well, last night I opened up all the windows in the house (had been running the Air Cond) and normally this means more ambient humidity but I guess things were a lot drier outside than I thought and I woke up to the stinky hot plastic smell that tells me that I have either ran out of water or I am about to.
7 1/2 hours of sleep..pretty much exact number of hours as the night before where I used maybe a third of the water and last night I used all but maybe one or two tablespoons. I know for sure I topped it off because I spilled just a little water last night and had to clean it up.

Last weekend I had tried Classic mode at 5 and had rain out so bad everywhere that it even woke my husband up one night.
It was everywhere....in the hose sounding like a plane taking off and in the mask going up my nose. The pillows were so wet I couldn't get them to stop whistling so I finally just took the mask off and said to heck with it.

I have been trying to find the right balance because my nasal mucosa were acting dry lately...which for me means a bit of sneezing and dry feeling in the AM. So I guess I am still going to be working on it but with the nights cooler I want to have the windows open.
It isn't allergies..I am lucky as that the allergy shots I took years ago pretty much fixed all that stuff.

I just looked at my last night's report....the leaks may have been the aliens because I had more leaks in the last couple of hours than I usually do and they don't look so much like mouth breathing leaks either. Maybe it is getting close to the time to retire these nasal pillows....only been using them since March 3. Every night the same set. I sure can't complain about how long they have lasted.

[oak]

Yeah, lots of playing around with things and then as soon as you think you get it right something changes and messes it all up again.

Good thing we are there for each other...good luck with your "adventures in moisture," Pugsy. Let us know what you learn.

Regards, Oak

[knightlite]

No matter what I do I wake up about 5-6 hours into my sleep . Seems like a wall , I usually get up for an hour or two then if I'm lucky i get another 3 hours of sleep after that. Gave up alcohol to see if that would improve my sleep and help my diabetes. It did reduce my ah1 , juries still out until some major time passes. I think I'm making some progress, took me 68 years to get here nothing is going to change quickly now. Cpap did get me off the couch after years of bullheaded suffering .
If only aging would stop, they have Viagra--- where is the anti -aging pill . Ha!

[oak]

Well its been two nights and I turned the humidity down a notch and went back to my extra small nasal pillows with no change. The above is typical now since August 26th. I wake up at the time of this big morning leak every morning and I am not mouth breathing at the time...any more ideas? It also doesn't seem to make any difference if I am supine or not...and the mask doesn't seem loose..it just seems like it must shift a bit when I am sleeping really hard?? The nasal pillows seem to collapse???

stumped in WI...

[chunkyfrog]

Next time, get their plate numbers.
We can notify the Sheriff and one of his buddies can pull them over and find a few "violations".

[Pugsy]

I am thinking maybe one or both of the pillows has sort of dislodged...maybe from movement in bed or your arm or bed pillow.
If the inner cones had collapsed I am pretty sure that you would have to manually uncollapse them. I have had that happen and they don't easily pop back out all by themselves...it takes a bit of work to get them expanded.
So unless you wake up and have found the inner cones have collapsed and have to fix them...I think it's more likely that the pillow or pillows have moved out of the nostril.

[oak]

yes Pugsy, i think they are collapsing inside. i have to fool with them quite a bit to get them to "expand." i hesitate to make the straps looser to avoid having them collapse. the straps are snug when i go to bed, but very loose by morning when i awaken with the "big leak". i read about some kind of ring you can put in them to keep them from collapsing but i don't know anything about them. can anyone enlighten me or was i dreaming? maybe I will just ignore it. its not killing me or anything.

[Pugsy]

Here you go. One of the O ring threads. Worth a try and very cheap.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76193&p=696113&hili ... gs#p696113

That back strap isn't trying to ride up on you is it? That would happen to be sometimes. It will loosen things..the top strap won't go anywhere but that back strap has been known to slide around.