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Well I didn't start this thread... I jumped in. But to answer your question, its two parts:

1. I am used to sleeping on my stomach... not sure why... just find it to be the direction I am facing when I get some sleep. The few masks I have tried get me really close (side sleeping) but the exhaust ports and extra plastic seem to get in the way of true stomach sleeping.

2. The whole suit of armor thing. I'm a really light sleeper. I wake up if a fan is turned off. Though the cpap sounds are NOT the problem... its the mask touching and tube moving stuff.

The mask itself seems to be working great, no leaks etc. Machine is rocking, cflex and apap is much better than my first straight cpap machine. I'm thinking about asking my doc for a sample of ambien to see if I can get through the night better... but then again... maybe not.

p.s. I never would have made it this far without cpaptalk... see my older posts if you need the back story!

itsme:

there are stomach sleepers around here -- think rested gal may be one, but i could be wrong about that. yeah, i see what you mean about being a light sleeper. that's a big difference between you and me.

keep your eye on the goal -- to sleep with cpap all nite. maybe that will make the interruptions (equipment touching, etc.) less bothersome.

personally, i got addicted to ambien, so i don't think a lot of it. doc took me off when i told her and switched me to short-acting benzo with idea that that might be easier for me to get off of, and it was. she said short-acting benzos aren't addictive the way long-acting benzos are. stopped the benzo as my cpap machine became my sleeping pill. but that's me. ambien may be just what you need for a short time.

good luck.

caroline

chdurie2 wrote:there are stomach sleepers around here -- think rested gal may be one, but i could be wrong about that.

You're close, Caroline. I'm not actually a stomach sleeper, but have written about experimentally turning face down, flat on my stomach while testing to see how some masks would be for that sleeping position.

itsme, if your DME has an Aeiomed "Headrest" (formerly called the "Aura") mask, or can order one for you, that is the only mask I've tried that lets a person sleep in ANY position, including on the tummy, as well as any I've ever tried. The exhaust on the Aura is placed above the eyes and points straight up, so it doesn't hit anything, even if you're practically face down on your pillow.

Downside is...the straps on the headgear of the Aura are a bit too long to take up enough to fit many women's heads very well. But if you're the least bit handy at figuring out where to add homemade straps, a person can usually get it fitting securely enough.

I'm a toss 'n turn sleeper, side to side; and sometimes on my back, occasionally semi-tummy sleeping. The Aura suits me well through it all. It's important to rig a way to hang the main air hose up overhead, out of the way, so it doesn't tug on any mask if you move a lot while sleeping.

I actually cut all the headgear off my Aura and use only some soft homemade straps and a pad at the forehead. "Deconstructed" that way, it's the lightest, most comfortable thing to sleep in that I've found. I especially love where the exhaust is placed.

If you prowl through this website directory and click on filenames that start with the word "aura", you'll see tons of pictures of ways that straps can be added to the Aura:

http://www.tnlc.com/Lara/laura/osa/

It's a mess of a directory, with a mishmash of stuff stored there...many of the pictures (none are me) were ones I worked on for various people for their avatar pics.

If you want to try the Aura and your DME can't or won't order it for you, you can always buy it from an online cpap store.

Tell you what, itsme...this is how much I like that mask...if you buy yourself an Aura from an online store (the "Headrest" by Aeiomed) and it doesn't work out for you, I'll buy it "used" from you for only a slightly reduced price below cpap.com's price for it.

Tell you what, itsme...this is how much I like that mask...if you buy yourself an Aura from an online store (the "Headrest" by Aeiomed) and it doesn't work out for you, I'll buy it "used" from you for only a slightly reduced price below cpap.com's price for it.

...And that's only half the story. Rested Gal likes that mask so much that by my count she must have accumulated 4 or 5 of them already - just to be on the safe side.

It's a great mask.

O.

What I found was somewhat interesting, and should be in the category of "Don't try this at home kid". But I am by my very nature an experimenter. I found over the last several weeks I wasn't sleeping as soundly as before. I disussed this with the vendor that set me up with the machine. The key questions they asked were "are you experiencing any of the symptoms you had prior to beginning CPAP therapy". The answer of course was YES. They said you may have gotten used to the set pressure and it needs to be adjusted. They originally set me at a 9. I entered the machines inner sanctum and adjusted the titration pressure up 1 to a 10. I also got a full face mask and dumped the nasal mask I was always fiddling with all night. Low and behold I'm back to my sleeping through the night and nodding off within 10 minutes. Waking refreshed and ready to take on the world. I would consult with your sleep specialist who did your testing and bring the doctor in on it to see if you don't need a pressure adjustment. Needless to say the mask is EVERYTHING to this equation.

Thanks for all for the advice. I actually pretty much fired my dme, didnt like the way they were dealing with me on the machine. I may go back for masks... i dunno. How often do most people get to try new masks through insurance/dme. My first mask from them was the Swift and I dig it.

Recently I decided to treat myself to a new mask, and was between the aura and comfortlite2... and I got the comfortlite from cpap.com. At first I thought it was great, I don't feel it touching at all... but after a few 'nights' of sleeping I found that the pillows hurt my nose a lot (compared to the swift that didnt hurt at all). I think its cuz I pulled up on the settings too much to get the seal good, and that upward pressure gave me nose pain.

Maybe next will be the aura!

don't buy from the dme guy, they sell you the stuff for about 125% over how much you would pay to buy it online, i learned that pretty quick, when i need a new comfortfull 2 i'll get it here on cpap.com, he tried to tell me that they cost 225 dollars a pop, but the first ones free, sounds almost like a drug dealer, lol, the same mask is like 100 bux here, what i would do is go and try some on find one that i like and tell them maybe next time and get it online. they do let me try different masks, dunno about yours though.