Woo-hoo! Slept w/o my chin strap last night!

[JustTia]

The last time I tried to sleep without my chin strap, I woke up less than an hour later with a wind tunnel in my mouth. Not pleasant. I had resigned myself to having to wear the darned thing forever, even though it feels like I'm clenching my jaw from it when I wake up.

So, last night I decided to give it one more good try. I made sure to do my nasal rinse (nudge-nudge, englandsf) first, which is something that I did *not* do the last time I tried. So, I did that, and a little while later hit the sheets. I slept through the night, only waking up toward morning (roll over, go back to sleep, roll over, go back to sleep for a couple of hours, lol). Apparently my mouth stayed closed all night long! And my data looks good! I really hope this is a trend that will continue, and I can do away with the chin strap. The occasional open mouth is no big deal, as long as most of my sleep looks like this did.

[palerider]

The last time I tried to sleep without my chin strap, I woke up less than an hour later with a wind tunnel in my mouth. Not pleasant. I had resigned myself to having to wear the darned thing forever, even though it feels like I'm clenching my jaw from it when I wake up.

So, last night I decided to give it one more good try. I made sure to do my nasal rinse (nudge-nudge, englandsf)

so, the church of the hosed out nose has a new acolyte, eh? awesome that it's working for you

and that's an awfully boring chart you posted... con-grats!

[Sir NoddinOff]

It's always great when you can stop using a piece of gear like a chinstrap... or something like mouth taping. The real test is in the long run when you see yourself adapt successfully to the change over time. Good luck. I hate chinstraps BTW and was soooo happy to kick mine to the curb. Here's what I use now:

[avi123]

So the Quattro FX and the blue cloth is in contact with that strap?




Isn't it sweaty?

[MINItron]

Woohoo!! When I first tried nasal pillows I used a chinstrap, but I kept waking up to readjust the mask and the chinstrap. When I tried the mask again I did it without the chinstrap, and it was a whole different experience. I only wake up once or twice a night at the most to adjust my mask. It is so much more comfortable this way.

[englandsf]

I feel sanctified Tia, thank you.

[JustTia]

so, the church of the hosed out nose has a new acolyte, eh? awesome that it's working for you

and that's an awfully boring chart you posted... con-grats!

Haha, thanks! And yes, I've joined the Cult of Nose-hosing. Never gonna look back.

It's always great when you can stop using a piece of gear like a chinstrap... or something like mouth taping. The real test is in the long run when you see yourself adapt successfully to the change over time. Good luck. I hate chinstraps BTW and was soooo happy to kick mine to the curb. Here's what I use now:

If I were using a ffm, that might work for me. But I'm using nasal pillows, and there's really nowhere to attach something like that and it work properly. I'm good with it, though! Two nights down now with no mouth breathing and no chin strap. Crossing my fingers that the good luck continues.

I feel sanctified Tia, thank you.

Even though you get ribbed and ragged on for repeating the suggestion to EVERY newbie who has issues, I think you should keep doing so. It might not work for everyone, but it's an important suggestion for those whom it WILL work for.

[JustTia]

The grammar in my last post is annoying me, lol.

[palerider]

The grammar in my last post is annoying me, lol.

go back and edit it

[junior49]

Congrats! I was surprised how fast I learned to sleep without it. One thing that helped me was to learn to nose-breathe. I never even knew mouth-breathing was not optimal. Over the first 3-4 weeks I had to consciously remember to keep my mouth closed at all times and after that it became automatic. Same with sleeping--took a few weeks with the chinstrap, but eventually was able to sleep without it. The greatest thing was that I was able to switch to a nose mask, and now I use nasal pillows. Much quieter and less cumbersome.

[JustTia]

The grammar in my last post is annoying me, lol.

go back and edit it

Nah, I'll leave it. It's a reminder that I'm not perfect. I need that now and then or else my head gets so big that it won't fit in my car any more.

Congrats! I was surprised how fast I learned to sleep without it. One thing that helped me was to learn to nose-breathe. I never even knew mouth-breathing was not optimal. Over the first 3-4 weeks I had to consciously remember to keep my mouth closed at all times and after that it became automatic. Same with sleeping--took a few weeks with the chinstrap, but eventually was able to sleep without it. The greatest thing was that I was able to switch to a nose mask, and now I use nasal pillows. Much quieter and less cumbersome.

I don't normally mouth breathe at all. Awake, anyway. In fact, when I have a stuffy nose I find it nearly impossible to get to sleep because it doesn't feel natural to me to open my mouth and breathe through it. It takes conscious effort. Yet, for some reason, after I fall asleep my face seems to completely relax and my jaw drops. So my first mask was a full face. I hated it, though, and could NOT get the leaks to stop. So I tried my swift fx and loved it - except that it seemed that my mouth was still dropping open after I fell asleep. So I added the chin strap. But my teeth hurt every morning, even if I set the chin strap pretty loosely. Finally I decided to try it again without the chin strap and see just how often my mouth actually does drop open - and it hasn't done so (that I know of) in three nights now. Although, my teeth are still sore in the morning, so I may still need to get an oral appliance from my dentist to protect my teeth. It seems that I went from jaw-dropping to jaw-clenching.

One extreme to another. I guess I don't do anything "small".

[Pugsy]

One of the reasons I decided to try the Tap Pap mask was because I was having some TMJ discomfort from clenching my jaws.
Having the mouth guard did help so you might look at the Tap Pap sometime in the future but I will warn you...there can be some tooth discomfort initially especially if a person fits it so it is too snug. It doesn't have to be skin tight to stay in place.
It took me about a week for the minor tooth discomfort to go away.