No luck so far!!!

I have found it so difficult in using my mask so far. Its been over two weeks and have barely have any time "clocked" in. I can't afford to lay there awake for hours on end because this is my final long semester (non-traditional student--went back to get degree) and I am under alot of pressure this month and need my sleep.

The mask is fairly comfortable (quattro fx) but I don't breath through my mouth when settling down to sleep...I just end up that way. My pressure is only 11 and the belly full of air (aerophgia) sp? gets unbearable fairly quickly. I tried the flex which ramps up from 4 to 11 in 45 mins but I find myself worrying about falling asleep within 45 mins. lol The ramp up tends to wake me up anyways. I have then tried to start at 11 pressure and then hope sleep will come. I have also tried Benadryl to help me sleep but the air seems to wake me up from my drowsiness.

Just because I am a mouthbreather doesn't mean I have to be right? I am thinking of getting a nasal mask or pillows. I cant stand the warm air on my mouth when I have my mask on so I am thinking this may help quite a bit. Heck I dont like the covers over my head when i sleep either so you know what I mean about the warm air intake. I know I will need some sort of chin strap which I dont mind I just need to try something different. Has anyone else been down this road and understand my rambliing frustration? I feel bummed out that I have failed so far...but I guess I need to try another mask and get some "air" time in.

Whatcha think?????

Hi,
Sorry to read, your having difficulty with your mask. I started with nasal pillows, then hybrid for approx 3 months, then onto Quattro, been using ever since. I am a mouth breather (sinuses), Quattro was best solution. It did take me a few weeks, to get completely adjusted. I alway's refer to Quattro, as going to bed imitating Darth vader

But, different mask selection may make a world of difference for you, it did for me. With apnea, all experiences is trial/error for a few.

Good luck !

CantsleepinTx wrote:I have found it so difficult in using my mask so far. Its been over two weeks and have barely have any time "clocked" in. I can't afford to lay there awake for hours on end because this is my final long semester (non-traditional student--went back to get degree) and I am under alot of pressure this month and need my sleep.

The mask is fairly comfortable (quattro fx) but I don't breath through my mouth when settling down to sleep...I just end up that way. My pressure is only 11 and the belly full of air (aerophgia) sp? gets unbearable fairly quickly. I tried the flex which ramps up from 4 to 11 in 45 mins but I find myself worrying about falling asleep within 45 mins. lol The ramp up tends to wake me up anyways. I have then tried to start at 11 pressure and then hope sleep will come. I have also tried Benadryl to help me sleep but the air seems to wake me up from my drowsiness.

Just because I am a mouthbreather doesn't mean I have to be right? I am thinking of getting a nasal mask or pillows. I cant stand the warm air on my mouth when I have my mask on so I am thinking this may help quite a bit. Heck I dont like the covers over my head when i sleep either so you know what I mean about the warm air intake. I know I will need some sort of chin strap which I dont mind I just need to try something different. Has anyone else been down this road and understand my rambliing frustration? I feel bummed out that I have failed so far...but I guess I need to try another mask and get some "air" time in.

Whatcha think?????

I am a newbie too. My first week was with a full face mask because during the sleep study I was asked if I was a mouth breather. I said yes. Well once I had the full face mask, I discovered I kept my mouth closed as enough air was going in my nostrils. That was a surprise. So week 2 I switched to Easy Life Nasal Mask. What a difference. No leaks arounds the eyes, no leaks around the mouth. Smaller, less clastophophic. Vent blows up over head so no more blowing on chest and arms. As I don't have a data capable machine yet, I wanted to make sure my mouth didn't open during sleep. I found my headband that I used at the gym. Worked well. Still not sleeping during the night. Wake up after and hour or two several times a night. But not because of the mask. I really like this new mask compared to the struggle with the comfort gel full mask. Glad I switched.

If I were in a position similar to yours, I would accept that some therapy is better than no therapy.

A pressure of 11 may be optimum, but what if you lowered your pressure to gain comfort? You may not have "perfect" sleep, but you may be able to catch most of the apnea events.

As far as the ramp goes, set it for 10 minutes. You can play a mental game trying to figure out where you are in pressure while you are falling asleep. You may find yourself falling asleep quickly, but if you don't you will quickly be at pressure and will have one less thing to worry about while trying to get to sleep.

Cantsleep:

I have to agree with the above posters, especially HoseCrusher! Maybe a slightly LOWER pressure and a nasel pillow type mask will solve most of your issues for now! Also if you go to a nasel type mask, read up on the advice of other forum members who posted about controlling mouth breathing etc! You may find as you become more used to this therapy, you are not as much of a mouth breather as you thought, and will be more comfortable with a nasel type interface!

Best to you!

Steve,
ufo13

Another suggestion about the ramp settings:

Instead of ramping from 4cm to 11cm (which causes a pretty steep rate of increase in pressure even over 45 minutes), try increasing the starting ramp pressure up to the highest pressure you can comfortably tolerate while you are awake. The increase in pressure will be much less noticeable and may be just enough to let it not wake you up when your full pressure is reached.

And even though it is counter intuitive, the best way to make sure you don't lie in bed for hours waiting for sleep to come when you've got the mask on is to simply get back out of bed if you are still WIDE AWAKE after 30 minutes of trying to get to sleep and do something else (that's quiet, soothing, and relaxing) to get your mind OFF the mask and OFF the fact that you are not sleeping. Return to bed when you are sleepy enough and calm enough to tolerate the idea of putting the mask back on. By choosing to sleep without the mask, you are allowing your mind and body to continue to believe that sleeping with the CPAP is not really all that necessary. And that will make it harder to become fully adjusted to the mask.

Understand that "mask shopping" is normal and you have to try several before you find the one that is best for you. I have never heard of anyone getting the right mask the first time.

Sheriff

CantsleepinTx wrote:
Just because I am a mouthbreather doesn't mean I have to be right? I am thinking of getting a nasal mask or pillows. I cant stand the warm air on my mouth when I have my mask on so I am thinking this may help quite a bit.

You're right...you don't HAVE to be a mouthbreather. My own experience was that I couldn't stand a FF mask because I hated the feel of the air blowing over my nose and it triggered massive claustrophobia for me. The Hybrid mask was a good alternative for me, because I had literally been a lifelong mouth breather because my nose always seemed to be too stuffy to really breathe through it. So I could mouth breathe but not have the claustrophobic effect of the full face mask.

Well, fast forward three months and I am now a dedicated NOSE breather and successfully use only nose pillows and don't even have any mouth leaking/jaw drop issues. Go figure. Never thought it would happen, but it did. I discovered that it is actually quite easy to breathe through the nose when air is being pushed IN! And the funny thing is that now I even breathe through my nose during the day because my nose is no longer always stuffy.

Start experimenting with masks. It is truly rare for the first mask someone has to be the best fit/most comfortable. You can buy a lot of masks for less than half price on the cpap auction sponsored by this site. Sometimes members will also sell or swap masks--we've all been on the hunt for our "forever" mask! It took me ten masks.

Weezy

You definitely should try another mask. I'll bet you do fine with nasal pillows and will be SO much more comfortable. Nasal pillows are less prone to leaking, if only because there is so little surface area that has to seal.

For the aerophagia, try try try TRY to sleep with your tongue on the roof of your mouth (I was pleasantly surprised to find I could learn to do this, even in my sleep). This will help seal off your nose and throat and should cut down on the air swallowed.

Thanks for all the responses...its good to hear from experienced people. I will check out a nasal pillow setup asap and see how that works and will let ya know how that goes. I read alot about taking control over your therapy etc....I plan on doing that sometime the line but right now I just received my machine and dont want to go against the doc quite yet.

thanks again.

Hey Texas...if you get tired of using your gym headband for a chin strap ( I did try that until it loosened up too much), try a PAPCAP which is about $34 and much more comfortable. It stopped my mouth/lip puffing, although it did not make me better looking.