Anyone else have trouble breathing through their nose when sleeping?

[POOKISTAN]

I watched a You Tube video about drymouth and how the solution is to sleep while breathing through your nose. Here's the kicker: I watched the whole video while breathing through my nose! For some reason, I find it near impossible to fall asleep while breathing for my nose, though.

I was just wondering how many people have the same problem and how many people have overcome that problem - If you're out there and you 'beat the system', please let me know, and maybe include some tips if you have any.

I wear a full face mask specifically because I just always sleep with my mouth slightly open. The guy in the vid also claims that that's kind of peoples' way to adapt slightly to sleep apnea before they get a cpap, so it amounts to a 'bad habit' which can be overcome. I guess the part of me that watched that vid while breathing through my nose wants to believe that's true, but I just can't seem to make it happen - Even when I do breathe through my nose when not sleeping, I still occasionally breathe through my mouth periodically.

So, if anybody has any thoughts, words of wisdom, or encouraging anecdotes, please post them in the responses. I'm willing to try, but I just don't see it happening. Maybe someone can change my mind, though...

The video is titled 'CPAP Dry Mouth & Mouth Leak - 3 Tips To Fix' if anyone wishes to watch it (I would post a link, but apparently my profile is too new).

[johnathanb76]

Yeah, try sleeping on an incline. Theres a video I watched on youtube called ''The Best Sleeping Position For Sleep Apnea & Snoring'' and he recommended sleeping on an incline because when you first lay down, your nose gets clogged which is true and sleeping on an incline or a pillow rampe, what it does is it drains all of that out of your nose so you can breathe easier through it, I would watch it if I were you. Also have you tried using the humidity settings on your machine? That does help with nasal congestion as well, so does nasal spray. When I had a Nasal mask, I had to use Saline nasal spray to clear it up quite often. I used Arm & Hammer Simply Saline.

[POOKISTAN]

That sounds like it'd probably require a new bed, so I'd imagine that's probably out of the question. Unfortunately, I'm in limbo waiting on social security, and I've heard that most people get rejected their first time, so I probably have a long road ahead of me before I get any reasonable amount of money, and that's pretty terrible. So pretty much: If insurance won't provide it for me, I'm not going to be able to get it - I even resorted to using one of my elastic bands I used for knee physical therapy to try to hold my mouth shut and that didn't seem to work.



On the plus side, my dry mouth is quite a bit better now that I've replaced my ripped mask with a new one again...

[johnathanb76]

No new bed required, you can buy ramp pillows on amazon. I have one.

[staceyburke]

I had mouth breathing problems for about 1 year.  I tried everything, Full Face mask, special mints that stuck to your teeth to keep saliva forming, Taping my mouth....  I read someone used what he called tongue suck.   If you put your tongue on the back of your upper teeth and suck you tongue back - you are forced to breath through your nose..  All fine and good but as soon as I feel asleep my tongue fell to the bottom of my mouth.  So I started practicing, every time I could think of it I would to a tongue suck and after several weeks my tongue was trained and stayed up on the roof of my mouth and no leaks.

This takes a while to get it to work but it does work.  Use tape or full face mask until you get this mastered.  It will work.

[Pebble]

I’m a nose breather all day but my mouth falls open as soon as i fall asleep.
Recently learned that being hypermobile is a factor in this - as well as being a factor in sleep apnoea too. Apparently hypermobility results in more floppiness when asleep, which includes tongue, jaw, palate and airway floppiness. Hence the slumped drooling that has happened my whole life.

Chin straps and mouth tape have never helped (I just remove them in my sleep).

The humidifier has been life changing. It is wonderful to not wake up with a dry mouth.

This is why I’m in a full face mask.

[SarcasticDave94]

Yes, however I have trouble breathing through my nose while awake too.

[Deborah K.]

If you tried a nasal mask, pillows mask, or Bleep you would be forced to breathe through your nose.  I think you would find that you can do it.  I started with a full face mask, as I thought I needed it, but it leaked quite a lot, so I tried my husband's nasal mask and did just fine, so I switched to a pillows mask (as they leak less than nasal masks) and eventually to Bleep.  Therapy is comfortable and great.