AHI less with nasal pillows vs FFM?

Waiting for my 2nd sleep study but had interesting observation. Since I switched to nasal pillows there was a huge drop in my OAs AHI went down to a fraction of what it was with FFM. I wasn't having a problem with the mask, just wanted to try so etching else. Has anyone else experienced this? Does it make any sense?

Sleepysuz wrote:Waiting for my 2nd sleep study but had interesting observation. Since I switched to nasal pillows there was a huge drop in my OAs AHI went down to a fraction of what it was with FFM. I wasn't having a problem with the mask, just wanted to try so etching else. Has anyone else experienced this? Does it make any sense?

That's another one of those "Your Mileage May Vary" situations.
I can't answer from my own experience as I've never used a nasal mask of any kind.

But, I've read where others have had varying results with different types of masks and even with different pressure settings.

Glad to hear you're seeing a drop in your events.


Den

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Not the first time I have heard of this.
For some people going to nasal pillows from a full face mask enabled people to use a slightly lower pressure.
So inversely if someone uses the same pressure with nasal pillows as they do with full face mask it would stand to reason that it could happen that the AHI is a little better using nasal pillows.

Now I know in theory X amount of pressure should be X amount of pressure regardless of how it is delivered and in theory it shouldn't matter...but I have seen proof to many times to say it can't happen...

The neat part is with the same pressure with the nasal pillows the aerophagia wasn't as bad. Must have been gulping air! If this keeps up ( or keeps down . )maybe I won't need the bipap after all!

Actually my very first really bad aerophagia night came with an experiment using a full face mask...
One of reasons that I crossed those things off my want list. I never had aerophagia until that time using a full face mask just so I wouldn't die a thousand deaths if I caught a cold and couldn't breathe through my nose. I was sick the whole next day from that little experiment.

Well.....I quickly decided I would rather die a thousand deaths than go through that again and add bad aerophagia to me having a bad cold too...ain't gonna happen.
So here I am 5 years later and a handful of of colds and not once was I not able to use my nasal pillows.

Haven't slept with a full face mask since that one time. I have tried a few on to see what they were like but have no desire to use one all night and I apparently haven't had the need either.

I wondered if I mouth breathed more because my subconscious knew it was okay to mouth breathe with the full face mask and caused the problem....I don't know but didn't want to repeat the experiment to find out. I will do a lot of crazy things but not stupid crazy things.

Pusgy et al - I have found that if I tough it out I can get my P10 to work with quite heavy congestion - even one blocked nostril. It seems that about 10-12 breathes will allow me to blast enough of a passage to get to sleep and stay there. I run my system quite dry which may help - passover humidity and no heat.

englandsf wrote:I run my system quite dry which may help - passover humidity and no heat.

It's because you nose likes drier better than wetter.
Mine likes wetter better...hey, that rhymes.
When I have a cold and nasal congestion...hot steam would suit me just fine if I could do it.
I wonder how much your frequent nasal rinses are hydrating your nasal mucosa and helping you out with that preference for dryness...they are already hydrated a bit from the nasal rinses.
I never do nasal "rinses"...might do a quick spray with Simply Saline but that's it. Don't need to do anything else...God blessed me with minimal to none nasal congestion after I took allergy shots forever some 35 plus years ago.
Either way...whatever floats your boat.