Too loose or too tight

I feel like the story of the three bears. Too loose, too tight, or just right.

ESON mask that I like a lot.

First thing. I have a beard that isn't going to go. I don't know if it makes any difference, but I sleep most of the time on my left side. Some times I'll change to the right side for a while.

Most nights when I go to sleep, everything seems great when it comes to adjustments of the mask. No apparent leaks. (Large leaks never appear on my machine.) I'd say one night a week, I might make it through most of the night without any mask issues. Other nights it's constant adjusting of the mask.

I'd say the majority of the time that I'll awake with leaks under my nose (don't think the mustache is totally causing it since there isn't a problem when I go to sleep) when I exhale. Once in a while I'll get leaking toward my eyes from the bridge of my nose. Tighten things up, or adjust the mask left, or right, and I can get the leaks to stop. I can't be certain, but this might be when I move from my right side to my left side.

When I initially adjust the mask, I try to keep it as loose as possible, but not so loose that there would be any leaks. I can get a couple of fingers in the lower strap easily.

When I'm having issues, I end up with the mask tight enough to compress the softer silicone about as much as it will compress.

Any ideas?

With facial hair you might want to try nasal pillows

I struggle with Eson leaks and wonder if it is because fluid retention. Your face changes shape overnight if you are retaining fluid so you start off with one fit that needs adjustments.

People without OSA have good and bad sleeps so that might be what's happening. If you are sleeping soundly you aren't noticing as much. I find it frustrating many nights though and have mine really tight.

I also wonder if it is a mask that needs a new cushion more often than I am used to.

Dogjudge wrote:ESON mask that I like a lot.

Why?

Dogjudge wrote:I feel like the story of the three bears. Too loose, too tight, or just right.

My two cents worth: I couldn't get a good seal with my goatee and my Quattro FX FFM. Two things helped a lot.

one... Losing my goatee. Sad to say, but in the long run sleep trumps all facial hair, if you know what's good for you. You'll see after awhile, mostly because you can live without facial hair but you can't live without sleep.

two... I switched to the ResMed Airfit F10 full face mask... a huge improvement in leaks and stability, especially for a side sleeper, plus I can even sleep on my back quite nicely, which is a real treat from time to time.

I suggest you try the newer nasal pillows first, as someone else suggested, however if that isn't the solution then consider the two points I mentioned above. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear. Of course, everybody is different in regards to their mask, so take that into account. Some bearded folk are likely to contribute to the conversation, so maybe you will get help from them.

I can't go 3 days without shaving or it causes leaks

I also discovered that stretching your skin on your face around the mask helps me with leaks. Maybe the stretching simulates how your face reacts to being very relaxed when you fall asleep

I'm only 2 months into treatment but my sleep clinic let me try a couple masks on and I felt the fit was pretty good with the mask in my profile (the wide size for my shnoz).

My goatee hasn't been an issue as far as I can tell. I've been using the Sleepyhead software and monitoring my leak numbers. They are well within tolerances the majority of the time. Just the other day I noticed the numbers jumped a little bit and re-tightening one strap ( ~ 1/4 of an inch) seemed to compensate for some of the stretching that had occurred.

All is well here per SH and my goatee is staying, motorcycle is staying (despite the wife's advice) and this machine is going out the window with me in the event of a fire, YMMV mask fitting is a fickle issue here, g'luck.