RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
Wear the gear during the day watching TV or reading to help get used to it. You still snore right when you are falling asleep because the pressure is too low and when you relax you snore. If you set the pressure too low the machine will not work well and you may feel like you need more air (I need at least 6.5 to be able to sleep)
Auto works great, I suggest trying it, the pressure ONLY goes up if the machine detects the need for more pressure, because you are snoring or having an apnea. Otherwise the pressure just stays at the minimum pressure.
Why the mouth only mask? may have missed it, but a full face will help with dryness.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
I have a mantra, that I use to help me get to sleep, or back to sleep, if I wake up, in the night. I think to myself, breathe in sleep, as I breathe in, and breathe out tension, as I breathe out. As, I breathe in, I imagine sleep coming in, and as I breathe out, I imagine a wave of relaxation, starting at my head, an taking the tension out of my body, through the bottoms of my feet. It helps me to relax, takes my mind off of the day, and focusing on my breathing, helps me get to sleep.
That or something similar, might help you. Also, if I wake up with dry mouth, I think about biting into a big juicy sour lemon, it helps get thing flowing again.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
(03-28-2017, 01:25 AM)PoolQ Wrote: Wear the gear during the day watching TV or reading to help get used to it. You still snore right when you are falling asleep because the pressure is too low and when you relax you snore. If you set the pressure too low the machine will not work well and you may feel like you need more air (I need at least 6.5 to be able to sleep)
Auto works great, I suggest trying it, the pressure ONLY goes up if the machine detects the need for more pressure, because you are snoring or having an apnea. Otherwise the pressure just stays at the minimum pressure.
Why the mouth only mask? may have missed it, but a full face will help with dryness.
I breathe 98% through my mouth and don't want anything touching my skin the way other masks do with their straps and what not. I break out very easily. With the oral mask, I don't even use straps. I actually slept with it last night for about 6 - 7 hours. I had ear pain the night before, but since I raised the temperature to it's maximum setting I had no issue with it last night. I used coconut oil to help with the dryness and it did make the mouth piece feel more comfortable, but all in all the dryness is going to be the big issue with whether I can stick with this or not. Even with humidity set to maximum, it is still like desert air.
So, I lowered the pressure thinking less wind, maybe less aridity. I was at 5 - 7 last night.
Results:
Pressure 6.8
0L/min
AHI 2.8
Total AI 2.5
Central AI 1.2
I know many of you say you can't really help without me using SH, but hopefully someone can still answer this:
When I wake up to take sip of water and take mask off, air keeps blowing for little while then automatically shuts off due to smartstart feature. If I do this several times during the night, does the machine think I am having an apnea event and how would it know the difference? All it knows is that I stopped breathing.
Thanks for everyone's help.
Also if anyone knows of a natural alternative to biotene, I would love to know.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
(03-28-2017, 05:51 PM)Hockenberry Wrote: I have a mantra, that I use to help me get to sleep, or back to sleep, if I wake up, in the night. I think to myself, breathe in sleep, as I breathe in, and breathe out tension, as I breathe out. As, I breathe in, I imagine sleep coming in, and as I breathe out, I imagine a wave of relaxation, starting at my head, an taking the tension out of my body, through the bottoms of my feet. It helps me to relax, takes my mind off of the day, and focusing on my breathing, helps me get to sleep.
That or something similar, might help you. Also, if I wake up with dry mouth, I think about biting into a big juicy sour lemon, it helps get thing flowing again.
I will try the lemon trick, but I think it is going to take some kind of oil or film to prevent how bad mouth breathers have it with dryness. I'm just now reading about something called mouth kote. Gross name, but maybe it will help.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
Snorzilla, the statistics you posted indicate a good leak rate in spite of not using straps. Your pressure seems to have averaged 6.8 but we don't know your pressure and EPR settings. With all this you had less than 3 events per hour at about 50% CA/OA, which is pretty good. When you remove the mask, the machine records a large leak for several seconds, no apnea or event will be recorded.
Pressure 6.8
0L/min
AHI 2.8
Total AI 2.5
Central AI 1.2
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
(03-29-2017, 06:12 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: Snorzilla, the statistics you posted indicate a good leak rate in spite of not using straps. Your pressure seems to have averaged 6.8 but we don't know your pressure and EPR settings. With all this you had less than 3 events per hour at about 50% CA/OA, which is pretty good. When you remove the mask, the machine records a large leak for several seconds, no apnea or event will be recorded.
Pressure 6.8
0L/min
AHI 2.8
Total AI 2.5
Central AI 1.2
Pressure range 5 - 7
EPR 3
Pressure 6.8
0L/min
AHI 2.8
Total AI 2.5
Central AI 1.2
Thanks for the info. So how could I have had 2.5 events total, yet an average of 2.8 an hour if I slept for at least 5 - 6 hours. Machine said it was in use for 7.5, but I know it took me a while to fall asleep. Don't understand how those numbers add up.
Going to bed now. Ate some xylitol and will put coconut oil on the mouthpiece to deal with the dryness. Hope it helps. Ordered some natural mouth spray as well. The dryness so far is the worst part of all this. Drooling not a problem on my back at all. Tiny bit on my side, but not too much of a bother. The tube is still annoying, but this will be my 4th night, so here's hoping it is better. At least breathing part is completely fine.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
Last night:
Used hours 7.3
Pressure range 5 - 7
EPR 3
Pressure 6.6
0L/min
AHI 0.8
Total AI 0.8
Central AI 0.6
I guess the results are good, but I kept waking up from dry mouth, so what's the difference between waking up from apnea events or dry mouth if I still can't get a solid night sleep? Ultimately it might be my severe periodic limb movement disorder that is leaving me like a zombie every morning anyway. Regardless, I still plan to keep on with this.
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
for me the path was to get the apnea treated first and then figure out how to adjust things so I could tolerate the treatment. Your numbers are fantastic.
Something you might try is to hold your tongue up in from of the airflow. I do this what I have a cold and have to breathe through my mouth. I do get dry tongue, but not dry mouth
I would try swishing the coconut oil around inside my mouth to coat everything
RE: First night: some good, some bad. Need help.
(03-30-2017, 09:01 PM)PoolQ Wrote: for me the path was to get the apnea treated first and then figure out how to adjust things so I could tolerate the treatment. Your numbers are fantastic.
Something you might try is to hold your tongue up in from of the airflow. I do this what I have a cold and have to breathe through my mouth. I do get dry tongue, but not dry mouth
I would try swishing the coconut oil around inside my mouth to coat everything
If I do that with my tongue then I can't breathe. I use the oral mask only so breathing through nose is not an option, however I will try swishing more with the coconut oil. Thanks.
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