[Pressure] Problem exhaling

[Snuffy1717]

I found with my nasal pillows that the air vent was getting clogged the night after cleaning, and any time my room was cold. It meant that I was doing a lot of re-breathing and waking up from not getting enough air.

[BadGoodDeb]

I found with my nasal pillows that the air vent was getting clogged the night after cleaning, and any time my room was cold. It meant that I was doing a lot of re-breathing and waking up from not getting enough air.

Yes to this. The P10 nasal pillows have had several of us complain that the exhale screen clogs after a period of usage. My overall sinus system is itself so clogged, that I need a very easy low pressure path to exhale. And I'm not talking about the exhale-relief setting on the cpap. I now routinely cut slits in that exhale screen when I get a new P10 nasal pillows mask. (Shhhh ... I haven't told the officials.)

I'm not recommending that .... unless you have an old mask to try it on .... but it sure works for me.

[Sleeprider]

BGD, what do your leak numbers look like with that? One of the big advantages of the Airfit P10 is the silent exhaust that does not blow on me or my wife. While you're welcome to alter the mask in any way that works for you, I am going to agree, no one should do this with a new mask.

[unofon]

Hi all
I have now changed from the nasal pillows which I have been wearing since day one 29 July and was waking up a lot however since the last two nights I have used a full mask and the difference is amazing I attach one pillow which looked like a standard night and the two with the full mask .

How can i get the same result with the nasal pillows as I now have a red mark on my face
thanks

[Sleeprider]

Well, you are getting an impressive seal and low leak with the new mask. The FFM pressure is approaching 15 cm using the same settings, and only 13 with the pillows mask, but overall a much lower average pressure (9.2 vs 11.4). With the pillows mask you seem to have an abundance of mouth leak, which is disruptive, and leads to your sensation of being unable to exhale properly. As long as you don't maintain that seal that prevents the pressure from exiting your mouth, the FFM is the correct answer, but you probably need to loosen the straps a bit, and perhaps consider mask liners. A closer look at the leak rate shows your median leak is very good with nasal pillows, but the leak episodes are pretty bad. From July to present, did you ever change the nasal pillow cushion? Are you cleaning with a mild dish soap? Any creams or lotions in use? All of these can affect leak rate for the better or worse.

Unrelated to your question, you might get more meaningful summary data if you changed the data in Sleepyhead preferences from Median and 95% to Average and 90%.

[Sleep2Snore]

Hi unofon,
Just one comment on you using Nasal Pillows.
If your mouth was dry in the morning, could air have been escaping out of your mouth?
I find this is more likely to happen after 4 - 7am.
Now you are on a Full-faced mask this will no longer be a problem.
Also as said earlier, if you are not used to CPAP/APAP you need the pressure relief to be at max and reduce it if you feel it is to much, rather than do it the other way.

[BadGoodDeb]

BGD, what do your leak numbers look like with that? One of the big advantages of the Airfit P10 is the silent exhaust that does not blow on me or my wife. While you're welcome to alter the mask in any way that works for you, I am going to agree, no one should do this with a new mask.

Picking a random day from data that's already uploaded: median 8.4, 95% is 28.8, max 43.2 . The cpap's front panel shows a green smiley face every day; my AHI that day was 0.36. Pressures median 8.8, 95% 10.8, max 14.0

I'm not good at interpretting; what do you see in those numbers?

[Sleeprider]

The reported leaks are an adjusted calculation of leak above baseline in Resmed machines. Your leak rate is a bit higher than normal for nasal pillows but not anything i'd be too concerned with. You are probably over leak threshold of 24 L/min about 8-10% of the time, and the average leak is probably about twice what it would be if you did not alter the mask. Just for comparison sake, my average leak is 1.6 and 90% is 3.6 L/min. If your leak rate is frequently near zero then altering the mask may not have changed much, but if it is typically 4-5 then you have significantly increased the intentional leak.

You say it feels better, so your comfort and good sleep are really the bottom line. I would say the leaks at that level will not greatly affect the machine's ability to detect and report events, or provide the design mask pressure. If you like a more open flowing mask, you might want to look into the Swift FX.

[BadGoodDeb]

The Swift FX is exactly what I had before (and still have sitting on the spare pillow, for really bad nights) so I'm sure that's what I'm comparing it to.