[Treatment] Dry Mouth Question

[Turborob2005]

So Hello all once again... 1 month in now.. and have worked out the normal new to CPAP noob kinks except for one. I still am waking up in the middle of the night to desert mouth... Traditionally Im a nose breather but sometimes I wake up.. mouth open and SUPER crazy dry mouth.. My machine supports the humidifier and i have set the settings around 5 and im still getting dry mouth like crazy... I set it any higher and half way through the night... I hear sounds coming out of the tube and i have to swing the moisture out the tube and go back to bed.. If I could just combat this one last thing Everything would be perfect now .

And on an off note.... My Clinician set my machine to 4/20 the usual set up and After 2 weeks of less than 4/5 events per hour I took it upon myself to set it at 4/16 and still 3/5 events per hour.. Was there any thing wrong with that.. As the small pressure loss has stopped my full face mask from flapping (is that a term lol) while maintaining events per hour with no rise...

Thank everyone for any insight of any of this craziness ...

Rob..

[OpalRose]

I don't think humidity is the issue. Turning it up too high may cause you rainout.

It seems that you are mouth breathing, your jaw is dropping while you sleep. You will need to use a chin strap, or a soft cervical collar, or start to train yourself to use the tongue seal technique.

Place your tongue to the roof of mouth with tip of tongue behind front teeth. Suck upwards gently.
This places your tongue in a natural position which will stop air from escaping. This takes practice to master.

This air that is escaping from your mouth is what makes your mouth feel as if it is filled with cotton.

As far as your machine being set wide open is not helping. I don't know what the makeup of your Apnea events are, but I would raise the minimum pressure up to 6.

Can you let us know what your 90% pressure is, and the breakdown of events: Obstructives, hypopneas, clear airways?

You will do better if you used #SleepyHead software.

[brianwood619]

Rob the only thing I need to know is, do you have a climateline hose (one that is heated). Here's why I ask. I have my humidifier set at 5.0
If the air temp in your bedroom is cooler this is what is causing the washout in your air tube. Try turning the tube heat up to around 80 degrees to combat this problem.

My house drops to 65 degrees at night which is why mine is set at 81 degrees. I use a full face mask because my jaw was dropping open with a nasal mask.

Resmed also has an auto function that all you have to do is select the tube temperature and it figures out the best setting to keep the air you breath at around 80% humidity. I found this not comfortable as I like more humidity.

Mine set the way it is I have no dry mouth issues and I know when I roll onto my back at night my mouth opens inside my full face mask, which is why I got it.

Let us know if this helps

[Sleeprider]

Rob, there are a number of suggestions that are possible with your issues. First, download #Sleepyhead. It is much easier to interpret than Resscan, and can help you to correlate the residual events to pressures and other factors. The fact you have already started to fine-tune settings means you will eventually optimize your therapy, and Sleepyhead is just an easier tool to help you do that.

If you normally don't mouth breath, give the Resmed Airfit P10 pillows mask a try. If you don't have coverage for another mask right now, you can find them on Amazon relatively inexpensively. Nasal therapy is MUCH more comfortable and less disruptive to your sleep.

Check your comfort settings. If humidity is on Auto, switch it to manual. This will give you more humidity and hose temperature control options. Get the heated hose. If you have good insurance coverage, just ask your doctor to prescribe it based on the fact you are getting condensation, and it should be covered. If your coverage has high deductibles, then just search the best price on a Resmed Climateline Tube. They are not that expensive compared to comfort delivered. Also consider getting a fleece hose cover. It sure beats laying on, or contacting a hard plastic hose at night.

[Turborob2005]

Thank you for your reply here are the doodads that sleepyhead reported.

Here are the most recent information that it reported.
Recent
AHI 3.95 last 30 days 4.42
Obstructive 1.27 last 30 days 1.90
Hypopnea 2.55 last 30 days 1.97
Clear airway .13 last 30 days .45
RERA .51 last 30 days .51

average leak rate 9 last 30 days 7.30
90% leak rate 20.40
% time above leak threashold 6.50
avg pressure 12.87 last 30 days 12.62
min pressure 4.16 last 30 days 4.02
90% pressure 15.80 last 30 days 15.75
average epap 10.96 last 30 days 10.72
min epap 4.02
max 14.00


but its all greek to me lol

[Sleeprider]

It's fairly simple. You have 30 days of information summarized here, and that is very useful. You are averaging about 4.4 events per hour over the last month, and half are obstructive apnea, and half are hypopnea which is an obstructive volume reduction. There are a couple clear apnea events, but that is negligible. Your machine is set to the default wide-open settings with a minimum pressure of 4 and maximum of 20. That's something that needs to change if you want to optimize your results and probably get more comfortable.

Although your start off at a pressure of 4.0, the machine increases pressure pretty quickly to your average of nearly 13 cm, and 90% of the time it is below 15.75. So that is the real therapeutic range. You would likely benefit from increasing the minimum pressure to 11.0, and while it's less important, you could probably set the maximum pressure to 16. Your leak rate is acceptable, but needs improvement. That is the most likely cause of your dry mouth. We still don't know what your settings for exhale pressure relief (EPR) are, and whether you are using automatic humidity settings or manual.

If you want to post some Sleepyhead charts and the summary stats, these links tell you how to organize and post that information:
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ganization
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...pnea_Board

Overall, you are doing pretty good considering your machine is not setup for you. Some other things that matter are the average hours of use you are getting per night and whether your sleep is fairly continuous or fragmented. Are upi aware of where the mask is leaking? Other than dry mouth, how are you feeling so far?