Sore Throat & Burnt Tongue

Lately I've been awakening after 3 hours (some night 1.5 hours) on the machine with the tip of my tongue feeling burnt and my throat pretty sore (slightly hurts when I swallow). I was certain that I was leaking out my mouth (don't think I mouth breathe because it wasn't noted in my three sleep studies this year and I didn't have these symptoms pre-cpap) but when I get up most mornings and check my leak line on the software its usually 0 (straight line) with the max leak I ever see being 6.

I guess my questions are, is REM the sleep stage where you are most likely going to have your mouth open and I say that because in my titration study I saw a little REM near the end of the night but spent over 50% of the night in deep sleep? (Going for the sit down with my sleep doc on Monday to go over study). And is probably time to adopt either a chin-strap or taping? I like my nasal pillows and would rather not change from them. Also, from what I've read on this board that these symptoms are likely caused by mouth breathing or leak out the mouth, why am I not seeing any leaks in ResScan?

Thanks

I discovered quite some time ago that it takes very little mouth breathing to dry out the mouth. I would wake with mouth open and dry mouth and look at reports and not see the huge leak I expected. I can only surmise that the time with mouth open was not very long. If not long enough or big enough to show up on leak report probably not impacting therapy hugely but the fact that it (or something) woke me up and disturbed my sleep was enough for me to take steps to limit it. I did tape for a while just to limit the possible wake up and possible large enough leak to impact therapy.
Even now I occasionally will wake with open mouth (quit taping over 2 years ago) but not particularly dry and no leaks at all showing on report. I don't worry about it now.

You could try a night with tape or a chin strap just to see if your symptoms disappear. If not showing up on report then most likely not as huge of a leak or long enough in duration to show up on report.

Pugsy,

Did you seem to wake up less often and sleep a bit longer, when taping to prevent this or did you see little change?

The thing that gets me is the leak line is a flat 0 but am still having these symptoms. That to me makes no sense since I have to be leaking out my mouth one way or another to have the slight dry mouth that I have (nothing close to sahara dry, seems close to normal) but with the sore throat and tongue feeling wind burned.

Padron192664 wrote:Did you seem to wake up less often and sleep a bit longer, when taping to prevent this or did you see little change?

Honestly, I saw little change that I can remember. June and July of 2009 is when I taped. So still very new to all this and the general adjustment phase plus I had some other pain issues that also woke me up often so it is impossible to say which caused what. Besides, it has been a long time.

But I can confirm for sure that, now, I will occasionally wake up during the night (to turn over or whatever) and realize my mouth is open. It will be a wee bit dry. I check my reports and even using SleepyHead where I can zoom in up close on leak line there just isn't any earth shattering increase showing on the report at any time during the night. So at least for me...mouth opening is so brief it will not register as a leak and I do have a wee bit of dry mouth. Husband says he might hear a few soft snores. This happens only when I have turned over onto my back.

I guess what I am saying is that it is possible for mouth opening issues to be brief enough not to show up on the reports and still cause a bit of a dry mouth. I have never experienced any burning sensations though.

I know that logic tells us if we are mouth breathing we should see a huge leak but I can say with complete assurance that I know I have had occasional mouth breathing or opening and it not show up on the reports. Perhaps my mouth is open but tongue placement still prevents the air from leaking out the mouth. I do know that while awake I am able to place my tongue in such a manner that I can open my mouth and the airway is still remain sealed. Odd I know. I can even yawn with mouth open and not have any air exit via the mouth. Hard to explain but I can do it. I have played with it while awake. So perhaps my occasional mouth openings don't have a lot of actual mouth breathing. Maybe mouth is open and no air is escaping hence the no leak showing.

Taping or chinstrap may make zero difference with the dry mouth and burning sensation or it may help and you have your answer. There is only one way to know for sure....give it a try.