How to Ensure Side Sleeping

I discovered that side sleeping is the key to keeping my airway open and AHI down to less than 5. I start off with a pillow behind my back to keep me on my side. The problem is that I roll over on my back anyway. Is there a better way to stay on your side?

As you found out staying off your back is easier said than done.
I don't like the tennis ball idea though. Just what I want to do for the next 3 months is have my sleep disturbed by tennis balls poking me every time I roll over onto my back...all the while hoping the brain will become annoyed enough to learn to not put me on my back.

I tried several things back when I was doing the "stay off my back" experiment. Not so much because my OSA is worse or pressure needs change much but because sleeping on my back cause a lot of back pain which wakes me up.

So I tried...
1....building a wall with bed pillows..didn't help much because they would slide out from under me too easily and the pillows ended up on the floor.
2....using a big wedge pillow to keep me maybe at a 45 degree angle on my side...it wouldn't stay under me either...I would wake up to find it on the floor.

3...my best luck came from using a heavy buckwheat hull pillow. Much less likely to slide out from under me plus if I do happen to roll back just a little so that I am about half on my side and half on my back the support offered by the firmness of the hulls actually felt good against my back.

Now there are pillows that are designed to be more restrictive but I never tried those. I was going to if the buckwheat hull pillow trick didn't help.
I already had the buckwheat pillow because that is what I used to help my neck.

Where would you buy one of those?

Where to buy the buckwheat hull pillow?
This is the one I have. It's not real tall but it is tall enough to keep me from being flat on my back if I lay against it.
https://www.amazon.com/CPAPfit-Pillow-C ... fit+pillow

There are others available in various sizes a various websites.

+1000 on the buckwheat pillow!
It is heavier than a regular pillow, and may not even need to be under the bottom sheet.

lwieland11 wrote:I discovered that side sleeping is the key to keeping my airway open and AHI down to less than 5.

When I started out, I forced side sleeping. Then I discovered a firm foam cervical collar works even better for keeping the airway open. As a bonus, it helps keep the jaw from dropping. There are a good many people here who use them.

It's a cheap trial - https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=d ... r&cat_id=0

I am a small person, but find the 4-inch works best. You might be more comfortable with a smaller one.

I can tell pretty quick if I've shifted from my side to my back because I wake up with aerophagia. If I remained on my side throughout the night, I wake up without that.

I have tried the cervical collar. Found it to be uncomfortable and hot.

Not sure about the buckwheat pillow. I'm normally very sensitive to wheat in general. Though it is encased in a pillow, not sure if that would be an issue or not. Might be worth a try to see.

You can also try a "total body support" pillow like this - http://a.co/iKPihb8

Buckwheat us not a variety of wheat.
Edit: from Wikipedia: "Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass.
Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Because its seeds are eaten
and rich in complex carbohydrates, it is referred to as a pseudocereal."
East Europeans sometimes call it "kasha". It has a rich, nutty flavor, like rye.

ZzzCatcher wrote:You can also try a "total body support" pillow like this - http://a.co/iKPihb8

Has anyone tried this?

I gave up trying different ways of keeping myself from back sleeping. More important to me to get a comfortable undisturbed night's sleep, and I can't stay in one position all night. Having a tennis ball, pillow or other restriction only serves to disrupt my sleep so I don't mind if my AHI sometimes goes a little over 5, so long as I'm averaging around 2.5 to 3. I feel good and well rested so long as I get over 7 hours, and that'll do nicely for me.

Hannibal 2 wrote:I gave up trying different ways of keeping myself from back sleeping. More important to me to get a comfortable undisturbed night's sleep, and I can't stay in one position all night. Having a tennis ball, pillow or other restriction only serves to disrupt my sleep so I don't mind if my AHI sometimes goes a little over 5, so long as I'm averaging around 2.5 to 3. I feel good and well rested so long as I get over 7 hours, and that'll do nicely for me.

That's pretty much my thoughts but insert REM for back sleeping. For me back sleeping doesn't really seem to make any difference in either pressure need or degree of OSA but REM sleep sure does. I can't control REM and can only control back sleeping to some extent but since it doesn't really matter much in my case about the back sleeping ...I don't try to to anything special for the OSA part but I do sometimes try to avoid back sleeping because of the pain it causes the back which in turn would wake me up. Ultimately it was the waking me up part I really wanted to avoid.

In the OPs situation here...she needs considerably more pressure when she is on her back when compared to the pressure she needs when on her side.
Her situation is further complicated by the fact that pressures trigger centrals giving her complex sleep apnea and the fact that she gets some serious aerophagia issues if she uses enough pressure to take care of the supine sleeping increased pressure needs.
In her case staying on her side greatly reduces the pressures needed to deal with her obstructive issues and with the reduction in pressure she has less aerophagia issues. If I were in her shoes I would definitely be trying harder to stay off my back. So I understand why she is wanting to try something to keep her off her back.
The increase in OAs while on her back, because her pressures need to be higher when supine, is a significant increase with some rather dense clustering.

Yeah, she could maybe get by better with an ASV that would auto adjust than the fixed pressure with back up rate (for the centrals) but she might not and she can't afford the increase in her co pay involved with a switch to ASV and there's no guarantee that she wouldn't have the same aerophagia issues with an ASV.
So she is trying to make do with what she has.

chunkyfrog wrote:Buckwheat us not a variety of wheat.
Edit: from Wikipedia: "Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass.
Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel, knotweed, and rhubarb. Because its seeds are eaten
and rich in complex carbohydrates, it is referred to as a pseudocereal."
East Europeans sometimes call it "kasha". It has a rich, nutty flavor, like rye.

So if the pillow doesn't work out, you can always eat it for breakfast.