1st Flat Leak Line!

falvesjr wrote:Bob, I have a chinstrap (not the PapCap) but it doesn't stop mouth leaks for me. Sure, it keeps my mouth shut and I don't really breathe through it with the strap on, but when I'm in REM, my mouth will leak all over the place if I don't tape... It'll even leak with tape, if I don't have my lips really prepared to withstand the pressure!

The PapCap is very unique in the way the strap works. The strap is broader and much more capable of supporting the lower jaw. You can really clamp your mouth shut. So if you inhale and exhale through your mouth you stand a very good chance of stopping this with the PapCap.

If you inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth in a kinda of puffing fashion then the PapCap probably will not help with that.

Yeah, I really should give the PapCap a shot. The thing is, even though I've been a mouth breather as long as I can remember, I am now consciously breathing only through my nose. The problem is when I lose muscle control while asleep, my tongue drops and the nose-mouth seal is lost causing air to shoot straight out... While taped, I can often feel that I've lost the nose-mouth seal and my mouth fills up with air. It makes me feel like a chipmunk! But since the tape holds my lips together, a seal to the outside is maintained and the leak is prevented. Yeah, it sucks, but for now I have to live with this reality...

falvesjr wrote:Gary, funny you should mention AIs and HIs... I've been having very low AIs for a while now, three days in a row last week with zero, and most nights since with only one a night! My HIs, though, are still a little high -- in the 6/hr range. Hopefully they too will come down once I really master the leakage issue. Not bad from someone that came from a sleep study with 114.1 AHI!

I just read in another thread where RestedGal pointed out that HI's measured on a ResMed machine are reported higher than other machines, and she suggests halfing the number from the ResMed machine. So with an AI of less than 1 and an "virtual" HI of 3 (half of 6), your AHI would be less than 5, so that means you're in normal range.

Thanks for the info, Gary. Regardless of the numbers, I'm feeling pretty good, so that's what really matters!

falvesjr wrote:Yeah, I really should give the PapCap a shot. The thing is, even though I've been a mouth breather as long as I can remember, I am now consciously breathing only through my nose. The problem is when I lose muscle control while asleep, my tongue drops and the nose-mouth seal is lost causing air to shoot straight out... While taped, I can often feel that I've lost the nose-mouth seal and my mouth fills up with air. It makes me feel like a chipmunk! But since the tape holds my lips together, a seal to the outside is maintained and the leak is prevented. Yeah, it sucks, but for now I have to live with this reality...

I did give the PAPCap a try for quite awhile. Did not prevent my mouthbreathing during sleep at all. The PAPCap was not one bit better for me than regular chin straps, which can't stop my mouth breathing during sleep either.

I have the same problem you have, falvesjr. When relaxed in sleep, my tongue completely loses the inside-the-mouth seal. I have to tape over my mouth securely.

I also have to add a chin strap (or the PAPCap as a chin strap) simply to keep my jaw up and prevent cheeks from ballooning out. Either/both of those problems lets more air fill the inside of my mouth, putting more pressure against the tape from the inside and making it more likely for an edge of tape to pull loose before morning.