Question about mattress and OSA

Another thing to think about if you are a side sleeper is supporting your knees so that your hip doesn't torque when the upper leg touches the mattress. Your hips should stay on the same plane as your spine, a long body pillow between your legs will keep your body straight and properly aligned.

BlackSpinner wrote:As far as pillows are concerned... I've tried several, including the expensive CPAP pillows. The memory foam pillow that I got from Macy's is by far the most comfortable for me.

I had a memory foam neck support pillow - totally useless because after a couple of nights it conformed to my neck and no longer supported me.[/quote]

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Depends on the pillow... mine pops up like new when not in use. It's like using a new pillow every nite. It's from the Martha Stewart Collection and is close to two years old.

I bought a sleep number mattress with an adjustable bed frame, where I can raise my back, or my legs, or both just like a hospital bed. With having the adjustable firmness of the mattress, and the adjustable frame, I've never slept better.

I would suspect the pillow of causing the problem. I am a side/stomach sleeper. My pillow is thicker than it would be if I were a back sleeper. I sometimes sleep on my back just before awakening and wake up with my chin on my chest. I have a Tempur-Pedic pillow and love it. I have learned to swap the pillow in my sleep when I move from my side to my stomach, as the two edges are different heights.

jaybeem wrote:I would suspect the pillow of causing the problem. I am a side/stomach sleeper. My pillow is thicker than it would be if I were a back sleeper. I sometimes sleep on my back just before awakening and wake up with my chin on my chest. I have a Tempur-Pedic pillow and love it. I have learned to swap the pillow in my sleep when I move from my side to my stomach, as the two edges are different heights.

I suspect my pillow is the culprit as well. Last night I used two flatter pillows, and while I still awoke still not nearly to the degree I did when I only used one flatter pillow.

jaybeem wrote:I have a Tempur-Pedic pillow and love it.

Can you tell me which Tempur-pedic you have? Website lists four: comfort looks like the one I might like.

Most pillows are too thick for my short little neck--and I wake up in pain. Now I use a shopping cart when shopping for pillows.
If I lay it over the handle and my purse in the kid seat, I can tell which ones are the right thickness and resiliency.
Mattresses are even worse; there needs to be more truth in packaging and not all the mumbo-jumbo hype you usually see.
Hard/firm/soft/whatever should yield to numerical ratings of how much weight compresses the support by how many inches.
Plus, tested durability ratings posted on every unit.
Topping material needs to be disclosed by composition and numeric density specs. No more fuzzy, meaningless hype.
The perfect world--which shall never be.

ems wrote:You might find this interesting:

http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/memory- ... mfort.html

As far as pillows are concerned... I've tried several, including the expensive CPAP pillows. The memory foam pillow that I got from Macy's is by far the most comfortable for me.

We wound up getting that Serta iComfort Genius Queen plus iComfort Foundation at our local LazyBoy Furniture Gallery, after spending a lot of time lying on many mattress models at many stores for a minimum of five (5) full minutes or more on each, including lying still, rolling around, getting on and off, etc. etc. We even took cell snapshots of the contour of each others' bodies lying in each one! As all stores were willing to discount below the so-called list price, we probably ended up buying at the place that was most tolerant of our persistence in testing and refusing to listen to sales pitches. However, we did also study that site above that ems recommends - a lot of unbiased information there.

At the time we were shopping Serta was offering a right of return and full refund or exchange for a full 120 days, as that model had just been introduced. I think they have reduced the length of right of return/refund to a shorter period since then, but I am not sure.

But before you spend money on a whole new set-up, I too recommend that you first just experiment with less expensive things like pillows, position etc. My cpapMax pillow, for instance, gives my head and neck great support, and allows me to lie on my side when I want to without the pillow knocking my mask out of position because there are no tapered ends on the pillow to touch my face or mask beyond my cheekbone.

Goog luck!

Nate

The experimenting at home is really important. I used to like a very firm mattress - in fact I spent many years sleeping on a futon on the floor, the old fashioned futons with only cotton stuffing. But since sleeping with the cpap I need something much softer for my joints so parts of my body don't go numb from staying in one position for more the 1/2 hour. Getting a cheap mattress pad and topping it with some duvets made a huge difference for me and told me what kind of mattress I needed to buy next.

Good quality mattresses are expensive - we bought new ones for my parents 2 years ago. First we bought one for my father who is spending a lot of time in bed. He bitched loudly at the thought of spending over $2500 for a new twin sized mattress - then 2 days after it arrived he insisted we get a new mattress for my mother too.

I too have a Serta iComfort Mattress & Foundation and love it. I'm a side sleeper, rarely turn unless I wake up, and prior to buying the iComfort I would wake up with pain in my hips - no more! One thing that sold me on it was how quickly the mattress bounced back when I got up.

As for pillows, I use a Latex foam pillow and it works well with my PAP masks.