Dry mouth question

In my first week, and acclimating slowly. Havent looked at detailed data yet, but always get the smiley face for mask fit. Leaks on the LCD generally 25-35. My pressure is set @ 6.6-20. AHI comes down a bit every night - now about 8.

My consistent problem is awakening after a couple of hours with a really, really sticky dry mouth - rather panic-provoking. When I wake up in the am, my mouth is closed and fine. It happens once every night. I switched from the Bella Loops to the headgear (no change).

My questions:
1) there is always air in my mouth-I know this because the machine is very quiet, and when I think maybe its accidentally turned off, if I open my mouth I get a big puff of air. Is this normal?

2) does my once-a-night awakening with a sticky dry mouth mean my nasal pillow mask doesn't seal right? gulp...might I need the terrifying FFM?

Thanks for any insight, Jean

FFM's are only terrifying for people whose masks have either not been fitted properly, or whose pressure has not been set well, or who have anxiety that they can't/won't deal with. There's nothing intrinsically bad about them and they help many people. If you get fitted properly (first finding the right size in the right mask structurally for you), and lying down in as closely similar a position (bring your own pillow if you need to) as you'd use at home, the only difference is that instead of having the bottom edge of e.g. a nasal mask on your upper lip, it lands just below your bottom lip. Not terrifying, horrifying, catastrophying ( ), just different. At least give it a fair try - you may be very glad you did.

If you're waking with a dry mouth you can bet that at some point during the night your mouth opened (even if just a bit). For me, it tends to happen during dream state. Take a look at your numbers in Sleepyhead. If the leaks aren't horrible or if the mouth-leaking sessions are short and your AHI is good...a glass of water at bed-side may be the easiest answer. I have a chin strap, but rarely use it any more. Early on, I even tried drastic measures (like using painter's tape across the center of my lips). Eventually, I just learned to keep my lips sealed while sleeping though, as I said, I still have times when I awake to the Sahara in my mouth!

Jeannh wrote:1) there is always air in my mouth-I know this because the machine is very quiet, and when I think maybe its accidentally turned off, if I open my mouth I get a big puff of air. Is this normal?

Yes.

Jeannh wrote:2) does my once-a-night awakening with a sticky dry mouth mean my nasal pillow mask doesn't seal right? gulp...might I need the terrifying FFM?

Once a night only?
It means you are probably doing some mouth breathing. When you finally look at the software reports and the leak detail graph then we will have a better idea if you are doing enough mouth breathing to seriously impact the quality of your therapy.
Don't worry about the "terrifying" FFM until you really see a need to worry.
It doesn't take much mouth breathing to dry out the mouth. It doesn't always mean that you spent the entire night with your mouth wide open and all the therapy pressure flying right out your mouth.
I use a nasal pillow mask. I sometimes do a little mouth breathing...I know I do because I have woke up with mouth open and it was dry as the Sahara but when I go look at the actual leak line graph for that time period..sometimes it is only 5 for 10 minutes and sometimes not even into large leak territory. I am not about to wear a FFM to try to fix 5 or 10 minutes of mouth breathing.

You might need a FFM ...you might not...don't worry about it until we see the actual leak graphs. It all depends on how much leak and for how long and how often. If it is only once a night and very brief time then it may not be that big of a deal.
It's a rare night that I don't see some evidence of mouth breathing on my reports..most of the time it's usually a couple of segments around 30 minutes or so but rarely do I hit large leak territory. I sleep right through most of them...occasionally wake up with mouth stuck together from dryness but for the most part they are just a minor annoyance. Trying to wear a FFM (which I simply don't want to do for a long list of reasons) would be much more of an annoyance for me...so I am not going to do it just because I don't want to.
BTW using a FFM won't fix the dry mouth...all it fixes is the loss of therapy pressure out the mouth assuming that there is a great loss of therapy out the mouth.
I once woke up and I was mouth breathing. Since it was about the time I was going to get up anyway and I knew I was mouth breathing I went ahead and just lay there mouth breathing (mouth open slightly) so that I could for sure test the leak graph...since I knew for sure I was mouth breathing. I have the report saved...if I didn't know I was mouth breathing you could spot it very easy on the report unless I told you.

So let's wait and see your reports before trying to talk you into a FFM which I gather is not on the top of the list of things you want to do.

Thanks! Yes, it does only happen once a night. This is very encouraging, and a great motivator for getting Sleepyhead up and running!

Thanks again Pugsy and Jeannh. I also have a period of mouth breathing for a few minutes, usually about 20 minutes between 5 and 7:30 AM. At first I thought it was mask leaks, and Pugsy helped with that. Then I realized that I am opening my mouth. It was hard to figure out, because I don't usually wake up during that time, and also I must shut it again because the leaks go away from 7-8 AM. Sleepyhead has shown the leak consistently now for about 2-3 weeks, always towards the end of my sleep time. Unlike some people, I have severe claustrophobia and the thought of a full face mask puts me into a complete panic. I am not going there. You might get me into a chin strap, but I doubt that I would ever wear a ffm. We are all different.