Brand New and Have Questions

Goldsmoke97 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 04, 2019 12:10 pm

I sleep with my mouth open, I’ve been thinking of getting nasal pillows and getting a mouth guard or taping my mouth shut

if you want to go this route, may i suggest-

viewtopic/p1089718/viewtopic.php?f=1&t= ... s#p1086296

this (slightly modified) plus a firm foam cervical works to keep my chin from dropping (collar) and lips together (scuncis).

it may work for you.

good luck!

Why do you sleep with your mouth open?
Out of habit or do you have chronic nasal congestion issues that pretty much force you to mouth breathe to move enough air to be comfortable?
Do you breathe through your nose or mouth during the day?

I occasionaly would wake up with dry mouth, but I honestly don't know if that was just caused by the sleep apnea. I actually don't KNOW if I sleep with my mouth open. I just described something things, like my mouth being dry some times, and I was suggested the full mask. I'm actually already reached out to my provider to schedule a 30 day exchange so i can try some different masks. I never had chronic nasal congestion problems and I don't normally breath through my mouth during the day. I was just very unprepared when I went to pick up my supplies.

Gotcha. I understand.

By all means try a nasal interface mask that interests you. If there is no physical reason to just have to use a full face mask then there is a real good chance that you will have success with a nasal mask and for some people it is simply a lot easier to get comfortable with and sleep with because the nasal has such a smaller footprint on the face.

Often dry mouth is associated with mouth breathing but not always and even if it was there's no proof that the mouth breathing is so bad that it seriously impacts therapy unless someone evaluates the leak reports in great detail.

Someone took the lazy way out with you...you mentioned dry mouth and they said "oh, mouth breather so you have to use a full face mask" and they didn't bother with letting you try other masks or even making sure that the therapy might be impacted or not by mouth breathing.

When you have time read this from Perrysbucsdad
viewtopic/p663440/Mouth-Breathers.html#p663440
He also originally thought he had to use a full face mask because he had a bit of a deviated septum and someone told him that he couldn't use a nasal mask. I had to just about twist his arm off to get him to at least try a nasal mask. Once he did though...the rest is history.

I mouth breathe on occasion. I know I do because I wake up with a bit of a dry mouth and I am mouth breathing.
Mostly it's out of habit though...my nose is fine and not congested and I am usually on my back when it happens.
I don't spend much time on my back because it causes back pain to be worse...so if I do mouth breathe it's never for very long and often it barely even shows up as much of a leak on the leak graph.
I am NOT going to wear a full face mask for 15 minutes of maybe mouth breathing leak because for me a full face mask causes more sleep disruptions than the 15 minutes of maybe mouth leak might cause.

I don't know that a nasal mask will let your sleep be more consolidated but it might and "it might" is surely a good enough reason to try something.

As to which one....dunno but I always tell people to go with what looks interesting to them...gotta start somewhere and what looks interesting is a good enough reason as any.
If headgear sort of bugs you...go with a nasal mask with minimal headgear. If venting noise bugs you...go with a nasal mask with diffused venting.

Currently I'm just waiting to schedule a time so I can try on different mask, but I think I had a good night last night. I found a comfortable sleep position and I only woke up a 3 times, hopefully this will continue.

Waking up 3 times...actually that's probably normal as it is normal to awaken briefly after REM stage sleep and we can get multiple REM stages during a night.
I would count that as a good night. Hopefully with time the wake ups will be very brief and we won't remember them as much.
I had a gazillion wake ups last night myself...none cpap or apnea related though. Today will be a butt dragging day for sure.

I have continued to have good sleep, which is wonderful, I don't even remember waking up last night. I just want to thank everyone on the board you all really helped me out during those first two weeks. I'll still be stopping by here every few days, but I probably won't be posting in this thread until I get my new mask.

Hello everyone,
A quick update, I've since had a titration test and the Dr. recommended a static 9 for my pressure. So I changed the setting to min 9 max 16 with no ERP. What I found weird was that my median on days where my min was 9 went up to 10 or above consistently where prior my med was be around 8-9. Should I set my machine to min 9 and max 9?

I just want to point out, that the gap is where I got up to listen to music. The past week I've found myself waking up 3-4 hours after I go to bed and being unable to go back to sleep. Its not that I'm awake I fear that I'm starting to develop some anxiety about not being able to fall asleep.

The past week I've found myself waking up 3-4 hours after I go to bed and being unable to go back to sleep

I had the same experience for my 1st month. I'd sleep 3 hours then wake up feeling what I thought was 'completely rested'.
Then toss and turn forever and manage another two hours then toss and turn forever and manage another two hours then get up.
What did I know...I hadn't had a good nights sleep in decades.
It wasn't until about 8 weeks that I managed a 7 hours straight night.

Goldsmoke97 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 7:52 am

Hello everyone,
A quick update, I've since had a titration test and the Dr. recommended a static 9 for my pressure. So I changed the setting to min 9 max 16 with no ERP. What I found weird was that my median on days where my min was 9 went up to 10 or above consistently where prior my med was be around 8-9. Should I set my machine to min 9 and max 9?

I don't understand why you would wonder that.

Titration tests are very often wrong, and the machine is clearly showing you need more pressure, at least you did on the night of that chart. Remember, sleep varies from hour to hour, and night to night. It's not a constant.

I'd set your max to 20 and forget about it, and then if you keep seeing median pressures of over 10, raise the min pressure to 10. Your AHI is higher than we like to see.

If you'll get rid of the mask pressure line and bring in the snore and flow limitations chart, you'll see why your pressure is jumping around.

Goldsmoke97 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 7:52 am

Hello everyone,
A quick update, I've since had a titration test and the Dr. recommended a static 9 for my pressure. So I changed the setting to min 9 max 16 with no ERP. What I found weird was that my median on days where my min was 9 went up to 10 or above consistently where prior my med was be around 8-9. Should I set my machine to min 9 and max 9?

not weird at all. your machine raises pressure to combat the events that you see on your oscar graph. look at your top graph, the events flags. on the left side, look for the H. you have many of them as you can see by the marks on your graph. your machine is trying to do battle with those events. it's a victory to let the machine do it's job.

now, look at your pressure graph. see how it starts at 9 and never goes back until you restarted the machine? this is why palerider suggests a min pressure of 10. the machine doesn't have to work up to where it's going anyway. thus it can react faster.

if you set it at 9 and 9, it has nowhere to go in order to fight the hypopneas (the H on the chart) once you let the machine go free to fight them pesky H's, you'll greatly reduce and then eventually eliminate them. that's what cpap therapy is all about.

continued good luck!

Personally, I would set it to minimum of 10 and max of 20. Your median pressure is 10.44 which means half of the time your pressure was at or above 10.44 and half of the time it was at or below 10.44.

Thanks you for the advise everyone. I don't know why I was thinking that I should just go to straight 9''s. I guess I was just panicking a little bit and I really needed you guys to kind of drag me back to Earth.

Goldsmoke97 wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:42 pm

Thanks you for the advise everyone. I don't know why I was thinking that I should just go to straight 9''s. I guess I was just panicking a little bit and I really needed you guys to kind of drag me back to Earth.

no problem. you've got sleep apnea which means you're brain isn't working like it should.

we've been there and done that. and we got through it with someone's help. myself, i'm just trying to pay back what this forum gave me.

continued good luck!