CPAP Help: Feel suffocation.

[coldsideofpillow]

so this has been my progress so far, making the change to pressure of 8 and EPR at 3. i attached the pictures.

last night thursday was my best night as far as using it. i did the same thing i put my nose strip on to open my nostrils and used some zicam decogestant and put the cpap on and fell asleep with my mouth closed. im trying to remember if at any point i took off the mask but i cant remember but i feel like i might have...i was in such deep sleep i was actually dreaming. i did wake up twice and the first time i was sleeping on my side with the cpap still on but i was drooling. i was a bit disappointed because i dont know how long i was like that .

after that happened i was determined to not let that make me want to stop so i laid flat on my back and woke up for my alarm at 8 am. i was on my back with my mouth closed.

i feel good. its certainly easier to get out of bed and i dont need as much coffee to wake up. i guess i gotta give it a couple of weeks till i feel those life changing effects. thanks alot yall i would have not got here without you guys. just a few questions.

with my mouth open during cpap, is mouth taping suggested? does keeping your mouth open during cpap sleep affect how effective the cpap treatment is? ive tried taping before but it gives me that asphyxiation feeling when im breathing out. if i have to learn to breathe through the cpap with tape over my mouth then i guess i have to. thoughts?

[Pugsy]

Mouth opening or mouth breathing doesn't always mean that there is a massive loss of therapy pressure out the mouth.

I have a leak graph where I was awake and mouth breathing for sure....because I woke up mouth breathing (gently...no massive tornado out the mouth) and I figured it would be a good time to document just how much mouth breathing might actually impact the leak graph.
The known mouth breathing time is circled in red at the end of the night. I would have done it longer but my bladder wouldn't take much more stretching.
It's certainly well within the machine's ability to compensate for leak and actually well below some other bigger leaks earlier in the night.
I don't know what caused those...probably mask moving around with tossing and turning...and I don't really care. I slept through all of it and that's all I care about. I never worry about minor short lived excursions into large leak territory as long as the leaks don't wake me up.

If taping to get a "perfect" leak line causes more sleep disruption than any little leaks might....don't tape. Let a little leak slide.
You gotta get the sleep first....without the sleep the rest of this stuff doesn't matter much does it? A little drooling...is it a big deal...nope...I do it all the time. Annoying yes...big deal as to impacting therapy...I don't see it happening. Drooling can happen with just a tiny bit of opening in the lips...doesn't even have to cause any mouth breathing at all.

[coldsideofpillow]

thanks a lot for the reply. i find it weird that i even got to the point of drooling with the mask on but im unsure if i even did any mouth breathing. but i will never know until i get one of those APAP machines.

do you think a few more weeks of this and i will see some progress in my energy and brain fog and mood?

[Pugsy]

do you think a few more weeks of this and i will see some progress in my energy and brain fog and mood?

I wish I could give you a definitive answer but there's so much more to getting good quality restorative sleep than just dealing with sleep apnea events all by themselves.

I will say this though...until you can consistently get a decent number of hours of sleep with minimal awakenings for whatever reason...you don't stand much chance of feeling much improvement.
And there's so much more than just sleep apnea stuff that can impact our sleep quality.
It's not only hours of sleep but the quality of those hours and then there are the other things that can impact sleep quality and how we feel....like medication side effects or other health issues or whatever.

[zonker]

so this has been my progress so far, making the change to pressure of 8 and EPR at 3. i attached the pictures.
<snip>

with my mouth open during cpap, is mouth taping suggested? does keeping your mouth open during cpap sleep affect how effective the cpap treatment is? ive tried taping before but it gives me that asphyxiation feeling when im breathing out. if i have to learn to breathe through the cpap with tape over my mouth then i guess i have to. thoughts?

keep on keepin' on, as we used to say in the 70's.

instead of taping, which i hate because of my beard, you may want to try this-

viewtopic/t172378/Sticky--Newbies-PLEAS ... STING.html

it works GREAT for me. maybe it can help you?

[coldsideofpillow]

do you think a few more weeks of this and i will see some progress in my energy and brain fog and mood?

I wish I could give you a definitive answer but there's so much more to getting good quality restorative sleep than just dealing with sleep apnea events all by themselves.

I will say this though...until you can consistently get a decent number of hours of sleep with minimal awakenings for whatever reason...you don't stand much chance of feeling much improvement.
And there's so much more than just sleep apnea stuff that can impact our sleep quality.
It's not only hours of sleep but the quality of those hours and then there are the other things that can impact sleep quality and how we feel....like medication side effects or other health issues or whatever.

i understand. it was silly of me to ask this with barely my first night of “decent” sleep on cpap. thanks!

[coldsideofpillow]

so this has been my progress so far, making the change to pressure of 8 and EPR at 3. i attached the pictures.
<snip>

with my mouth open during cpap, is mouth taping suggested? does keeping your mouth open during cpap sleep affect how effective the cpap treatment is? ive tried taping before but it gives me that asphyxiation feeling when im breathing out. if i have to learn to breathe through the cpap with tape over my mouth then i guess i have to. thoughts?

keep on keepin' on, as we used to say in the 70's.

instead of taping, which i hate because of my beard, you may want to try this-

viewtopic/t172378/Sticky--Newbies-PLEAS ... STING.html

it works GREAT for me. maybe it can help you?

is that the right link? not sure im following here...

[Pugsy]

That's probably not the link Zonker was thinking of...he'll be along in a bit and correct it.
I don't have the one he is thinking about handy or I would give it to you.

[Okie bipap]

I think this is the post he was looking for viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112758&st=0&sk=t&sd ... i#p1086296

[zonker]

I think this is the post he was looking for viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112758&st=0&sk=t&sd ... i#p1086296

THAT'S it. thanks for saving my bacon, okie!

[zonker]

is that the right link? not sure im following here...

that was merely a test to see if you were paying attention!

okie bipap has the correct link.

[coldsideofpillow]

hello guys ive been using my machine for over a week now and i have been using it fully for 6-8 hours these past 5 days at pressure of 8 EPR of 3. Thanks to you guys Ive been sleeping much better and im greatful for this message board.

Im wondering now where do i go from here now? Do i increase pressure? As far as my sleep quality its improved but i wonder if it gets better?

[palerider]

Im wondering now where do i go from here now? Do i increase pressure? As far as my sleep quality its improved but i wonder if it gets better?

Ya know how we talk about posting charts? well, this is one of those times.

[klv329]

after years if taping, I switched to a 3 inch soft cervical collar that is working fine. a stiffer 4 inch collar was too uncomfortable. just got tired of taping, I guess. lots of collars on amazon.

[Chris8243]

Do you think I would benefit from using a mouth and nose mask even though im a mouth breather? Like if i was do get a mask with mouth and nose would CPAP still be effective even if im breathing through my mouth on cpap?

Yes! I use Amara View (click on it on my post so you can see it). It covers the mouth and under the nose. I don't worry about or even think about trying to keep my mouth closed. I don't keep my mouth closed naturally when I'm awake so I know I'm a mouth breather.