Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.
Login or Create an Account
I thought I'd conduct a test to see if I snore and lo and behold, snorelabs picks up extremely loud snoring whenever I sleep without my mask. I've also found that when I sleep without it, I wake up with a head rush, almost as if I've been choked out. I'll also wake up early and have nightmares where I'm choking or paralyzed right as I'm about to wake up. Whenever this all happens, I'll spend the rest of the day with brainfog so severe I feel it in my neck, followed by intense depressive thoughts.
Sleeping with my mask completely stops the mentioned symptoms, and mitigates my brainfog by about 30% or so, but throughout the day I still feel just about as crummy. I guess the best way to put it is I feel bad, but not completely trash.
I'm pretty lost on where to go from here, as my machine says my AHI/flow limits are low, and my bloodwork has come back perfect, thyroid and all.
I also just had an in lab study and the entire night there was hellish. I only got a few hours of sleep since I woke up with a nightmare about halfway through.
The first thing I would focus on are your leaks - overall your leak data is pretty good but it looks like your mouth is opening almost immediately. Pretty common with nasal pillow / nasal mask users. This will definitely impact your therapy can also lead to arousals which will fragment your sleep. When you get your mouth leak under control your sleep will be more restful.
Couple of options:
Full face mask (Resmed F20)
Tape your mouth with cloth medical tape and breathe through your nose
Chin strap
10-19-2023, 03:25 AM (This post was last modified: 10-19-2023, 03:26 AM by Foxafillion.)
RE: AHI low but still feel extremely fatigued.
I’m not sure if you know how many of your apneas are obstructive vs central? I’m in a similar situation, I only really look at the summary on the machine to see how I slept but it’s always about split with central and obstructive and I agree with you I’ve yet to feel good after sleep though cpap has definitely helped and gotten rid of my headaches. I want to try. Bipap but my doc said my sleep apnea is technically “under control” at around 7 per hour down from like 27 without the machine
(10-19-2023, 01:05 AM)saiyangod Wrote: im confused because i started taping my mouth because of this exactly. i'm curious as to why it's picking up leaks.
Seems to me like your tape either isn't holding your entire mouth shut, air is escaping from the corners or if you're using humidity the humid air is eventually defeating the tape later in the night.
One thing I found that works well with the cloth medical tape is to purse your lips and apply it there for a good seal. Try overdoing it tonight or trying a different type of tape.
I personally don't understand while people prefer nasal masks considering how finnicky they can be with having to tape your mouth, wear a chin strap, etc. Just wear a full face!
A likely answer to your continued sleepiness is:
1. It takes a while for your body to recover from repeated oxygen deprivation so don't expect immediate results
2. It's not so much about how many events you have but how often your sleep is fragmented, especially fragmented REM. That's why I'm focusing on these leaks because they are likely causing arousals.
