Sleepweaver Elan

First night report on the SleepWeaver elan. I got a good seal while I was testing it out before dinner, but when I used it in bed I had pretty bad leaks. I tried switching to the large size but that didn't work. I thought I might have to give up on it.

I went back to the regular size, removed the mask from the headgear and just played around with it until I didn't have any leaks. I found that it was more important for the bottom to be very snug than the top. The instructions and the video seem to talk about just seeing a little bit of the black fabric on top and that did seem to be the best spot as I was playing with it. It's a bit of a hassle to put on compared to my other Resmed masks, which is a totally unfair comparison since they have plastic snaps that wouldn't work at all for this mask. But those snaps sure do make life easy. Or at least this little snippet of life.

After playing with it, I was able to get a better seal. There was a small leak that blew air along my nose up into my eyes. It wasn't that bad but I could still feel it. The headgear does seem to push the mask up into my eyes. I found that I had to make the mask uncomfortably tight on my upper lip to stop the leaks. It might be possible to work that out a little better.

Being a side sleeper squishes the mask some. And tossing and turning as I do I wonder if the seal is good the whole night. I didn't have time tonight to check the data; maybe tomorrow night. All I can say is that I woke up and the seal was pretty much like I left it the night before. Honestly, I felt a little more rested than with my full face mask.

The weirdest thing is that I feel all kinds of air rushing by the tip of my nose when I breathe in. I mean, it makes sense since the outlet for the hose is just about right at the end of my nose. I never felt that with my FFMs. I can't imagine how one could feel the same thing with a nasal pillow. It didn't really keep me awake but I was also going to bed way late (sleep hygiene? what's that?) and was very tired. I didn't find it uncomfortable (like I do with the air in my eyes), just unusual.

I'm not totally sold on this mask yet. I'm also not looking forward to strapping a big hunk of plastic back on my face. I'm curious about nasal pillows and would like to give them a try, but I do have to regulate my acquisition of new masks. So I will try this one a while longer and see how it goes. I do need to work out how to put it on a little better, so it's easier to put on and I don't get leaks. If I can reduce the pressure on my upper lip a bit, it's hard for me to imagine how there could be a more comfortable mask to wear.

And either I kept my mouth shut the whole night, or opening it up didn't wake me up enough that I remember.

I think I had a pretty good fit with the mask last night, which was night #3. I've looked at the SleepyHead data now for the past three nights and I don't see anything that makes me think this mask is performing any differently than my ResMed Ultra Mirage FFM. I can find nights that look more or less the same with both masks. If anything, I'd have to say that (according to the data) there are nights when the ResMed mask leaked worse than the SleepWeaver mask. It still feels like it's riding high on my face and pushing on my eyes (or sometimes my eyelashes). It does blow a small amount of air up into my eyes, but I'm not sure that winds up bothering me any more than the pressure from either of the FFM masks I've used. The plastic part of the headgear on the Quattro pushed into my eyeball when I was sleeping on my side, which was the main reason I switched masks to the Ultra Mirage. The Ultra Mirage sits higher (by design) than the Quattro, and while nothing in the headgear pushed into my eyeball, there seemed to be lots of pressure on my tear ducts and I could feel the mask at the edge of my eyes. The air still feels odd blowing across the tip of my nose and the mask gets a little cooler where the air either escapes or blows around my nose next to the top seal. My upper lip feels weird. I'm conscious of it now, and who is conscious of their upper lip? Last night the hose inlet was rubbing up against my nose some because the balloon was kind of deflated; maybe I could try the large size but I had awful leaks when I tried it last. It really wasn't too much of a bother.

The mask is a hassle to put on. It's just nowhere near as uncomplicated and convenient as my other two ResMed masks. I think I am probably experiencing what chunkyfrog referred to as "dancing" with her mask. A couple things that seem like they might help are that when I am putting it on, I push my upper lip down a bit and then let the bottom of the mask slide up. It seemed kind of to help. To test the seal before connecting the hose I simply cover up the inlet tube and exhale through my nose. If it blows up like a balloon, it's good to go. The top of the mask is much looser than the bottom strap. As I said, I have to make that one uncomfortably tight. It's not painful, just a bit uncomfortable. I think if I have to choose between my eyes being bothered by pressure and my upper lip being bothered by pressure, I will choose my upper lip.

Not sending it back yet but still wondering what nasal pillows would feel like . . . .