Learn to sleep upright?

I'd like to learn to sleep upright. My machine claims that my sleep apnea is well controlled (using Swift FX) but I'm clenching a whole lot at night and am having trouble getting it under control. I'm thinking of experimenting sleeping upright. Anyone have experience with that? I haven a nice Ikea chair that looks well suited for the task but to ease the transition I thought I might look into a chair that can fully adjust from flat to upright so I can gradually increase the angle over a few weeks. Anyone know of such a chair? Preferably something minimalistic and cheap. I can put a prop under my Ikea chair for the moment to angle it back a bit but it's not gonna get me flat. I already have my bed raised 6" I think and I'm fine with that so looking for middle ground here.

As a side note, my wife loves the raised head of our bed. My brother and his wife tried it and they love it too.

balor123 wrote:I'd like to learn to sleep upright. My machine claims that my sleep apnea is well controlled (using Swift FX) but I'm clenching a whole lot at night and am having trouble getting it under control. I'm thinking of experimenting sleeping upright. Anyone have experience with that? I haven a nice Ikea chair that looks well suited for the task but to ease the transition I thought I might look into a chair that can fully adjust from flat to upright so I can gradually increase the angle over a few weeks. Anyone know of such a chair? Preferably something minimalistic and cheap. I can put a prop under my Ikea chair for the moment to angle it back a bit but it's not gonna get me flat. I already have my bed raised 6" I think and I'm fine with that so looking for middle ground here.

As a side note, my wife loves the raised head of our bed. My brother and his wife tried it and they love it too.

Lawn chairs should be on sale right now.

I would check with a doctor before you go into it for any length of time. It's one thing to do it temporarily while e.g. waiting for a machine or other things, but I wonder what it would do to your body, systems, back, etc. on any long term basis - you don't want to look for new trouble.

Julie wrote:I would check with a doctor before you go into it for any length of time. It's one thing to do it temporarily while e.g. waiting for a machine or other things, but I wonder what it would do to your body, systems, back, etc. on any long term basis - you don't want to look for new trouble.

People used to sleep sitting up in the middle ages all the time. If you go to Europe and look at the old houses (museums) you will find these 4 foot long closet beds everywhere. It was considered healthier.

It was good advice still. I'll check tonight (lots of doctors in the family) but pretty sure I won't hear anything interesting.

I noticed on my travels too that people used to sleep upright. I remember a tour guide mentioning it was for drainage but probably also as a treatment for heart problems and I'm sure people had apnea back then and they found it helped (even if they didn't know what apnea was or if they had it). I read that monks apparently also sleep that way. Still, that doesn't make it a good practice or one without pitfalls to avoid.

Lawn chair is a good suggestion. I can toss it when I'm finished with it and they're pretty cheap at discount stores. Another thought was a giant bean bag chair? My kids would love it after I'm done.

balor123 wrote:I'd like to learn to sleep upright. My machine claims that my sleep apnea is well controlled (using Swift FX) but I'm clenching a whole lot at night and am having trouble getting it under control. I'm thinking of experimenting sleeping upright. Anyone have experience with that? I haven a nice Ikea chair that looks well suited for the task but to ease the transition I thought I might look into a chair that can fully adjust from flat to upright so I can gradually increase the angle over a few weeks. Anyone know of such a chair? Preferably something minimalistic and cheap. I can put a prop under my Ikea chair for the moment to angle it back a bit but it's not gonna get me flat. I already have my bed raised 6" I think and I'm fine with that so looking for middle ground here.

As a side note, my wife loves the raised head of our bed. My brother and his wife tried it and they love it too.

Why do you think sleeping upright will help with clenching? I'm assuming that by "clenching" you mean that you are clenching your jaw? I've never heard of it used for that, but for acid reflux, yes.

Are you thinking of sleeping upright instead of using cpap? Or would it be in addition to cpap? If it's instead of .. I wouldn't recommend it. I tried that when I was first diagnosed, when I was still in De-Nile and refused to start cpap. I was willing to try anything else rather than get on the hose. I even bought an adjustable bed and slept on a 30 degree angle for most of a year, thinking that it would prevent my airway from closing at night. It sort of worked for a while (not sure though, since I didn't have a cpap machine to monitor my blockages while sleeping upright). But after maybe 6 months, I had a couple of choking incidents, just like when I was lying flat, and my husband reported that I was again struggling to breath, stopped breathing, etc., even upright. So it was then that I finally agreed that my severe apnea needed proper treatment, and got on the hose.

If you're thinking of sleeping upright with cpap, it might help to lessen the number of events, I suppose, maybe. It does help with acid reflux to raise the bed. So that can be a plus. But it's not all that comfortable in the long run. Not sure if you're a male or female. If you're female, there are issues with under-boob chafing (lol) from sleeping in an upright position. Here are some of the other discomforts that I experienced. Sliding down the bed. No matter how you work it, even when you support behind your knees, you will slide down and find your feet hanging off the end and your head lower than you wanted it to be. I always wanted to install hooks under my armpits to keep me up there where I wanted to be ... LOL. Alas, there was no such contraption available! If you use a chair, like a lounger or a lazyboy recliner, you might stay in place, but you'll find yourself folded in the middle. This puts undue pressure on your heart, lungs and other internal organs. Also, since you're being held in a sitting position, you're not able to move around and get relief from pressure points on your hips, posterior, etc. That can be uncomfortable over a 6 to 8 hour period, every night.

Just a few things to think about.

balor123 wrote: Another thought was a giant bean bag chair? My kids would love it after I'm done.

Very uncomfortable and they take up too much floor space

balor123 wrote: I'm clenching a whole lot at night and am having trouble getting it under control. I'm thinking of experimenting sleeping upright.

I am wondering why you think that sleeping upright would help with (teeth?) clenching?

Doesn't sound like much of a solution to me when you consider what the previous posters have brought up.

Have you discussed this with your doctor? There might be a healthier solution.