04-26-2015, 05:16 PM
My Chinstrap Odyssey
So... here's the thing.
I love my cute little machine and mask. Together, they allow me to sleep through the night, awakening only occasionally to stretch, roll over, re-futz with my covers, and maybe once a night take a short out-of-bed "break." But fromt the time I lay down until I get puppy-awakened in the morning my cute little machine and mask keep pumping air into me and keeping me --- safe.
My O2 level, which during the day ranges from 91 or 92 while sitting around to maybe 84 or 85 when up and wandering around perks along at a very happy 93 all night long thanks in no small measure to my cute little machine. And the mask.... And the chinstrap I have been using to help keep everything working right.
But I do not actually share the same emotional attachment with my chinstrap as I do with my cute little machine and mask. It's a fine chinstrap and all that. I like it better than any of the other chinstraps I have tried. But, all the same, I'm just not all that enamored with wearing it.
I do wear it, or maybe I should say I have worn it, because it has been an effective way for me to reduce the air leakage from my mouth, and possibly my ears. I have a whole diatribe about using a chinstrap: Apply it gently, allow it to encourage your jaw to stay forward which then allows the tongue to find it's natural place at the roof off your mouth which makes the airway seal. I have advised thousands, yea even 10's, as to my idea of the right and perfect chinstrap and method of using it.
But I don't want to use it.
So I decided to take the plunge and see whether or not, with the passing of time, I could now happily put my chinstrip in the closet and go au naturel with merely my cute little machine and mask at night. So I did that. Three nights ago.
Night one: I woke up to take a "break" around 2:00am. That's when I decided to see if I could go without a chinstrap. Off it came. I haven't been Sleepyhead checking my results lately except maybe every week or 10 days. But I checked them after this momentous occasion. It was not a great result. Oh sure, my AHI was conspicuously absent, so that was fine, but the leakage after 2:00 am was awful. Then I noticed it was awful before 2:00 am. So clearly removing the chinstrap did not make anything worse. Awful was still awful.
Night two: Replaced mask with spare. New pillows (well, recycled from my bucket of pillows). No chinstrap. Leakage? Not good. But my mouth is staying very glued shut at night without the chinstrap. So the leakage has to be coming from the pillows. Not my cute little mouth.
Night three: Threw away the pillows from the night before, now using a new (recycled) set of pillows. Leakage? Not good. But I'm absolutely sure, that for the most part, my mouth airway is staying well closed. So something else must be going on.
Tonight I'll try a brand new mask and a brand new set of pillows and see where we are.
In the end, it really isn't too big a deal. My AHI is still setting on zero most of the time. I haven't been able to get it below that however. I'm completly enjoying my sleep at night, and am doing well during the day. So what if Sleepyhead is a little cranky about my leak rate?
It's all good.
...and if it proves to not be all good, then out will come the chinstrap again for a repeat engagement. It's a great tool to have that helps us with our therapy. But it's not like I'm married to it or anything.
I love my cute little machine and mask. Together, they allow me to sleep through the night, awakening only occasionally to stretch, roll over, re-futz with my covers, and maybe once a night take a short out-of-bed "break." But fromt the time I lay down until I get puppy-awakened in the morning my cute little machine and mask keep pumping air into me and keeping me --- safe.
My O2 level, which during the day ranges from 91 or 92 while sitting around to maybe 84 or 85 when up and wandering around perks along at a very happy 93 all night long thanks in no small measure to my cute little machine. And the mask.... And the chinstrap I have been using to help keep everything working right.
But I do not actually share the same emotional attachment with my chinstrap as I do with my cute little machine and mask. It's a fine chinstrap and all that. I like it better than any of the other chinstraps I have tried. But, all the same, I'm just not all that enamored with wearing it.
I do wear it, or maybe I should say I have worn it, because it has been an effective way for me to reduce the air leakage from my mouth, and possibly my ears. I have a whole diatribe about using a chinstrap: Apply it gently, allow it to encourage your jaw to stay forward which then allows the tongue to find it's natural place at the roof off your mouth which makes the airway seal. I have advised thousands, yea even 10's, as to my idea of the right and perfect chinstrap and method of using it.
But I don't want to use it.
So I decided to take the plunge and see whether or not, with the passing of time, I could now happily put my chinstrip in the closet and go au naturel with merely my cute little machine and mask at night. So I did that. Three nights ago.
Night one: I woke up to take a "break" around 2:00am. That's when I decided to see if I could go without a chinstrap. Off it came. I haven't been Sleepyhead checking my results lately except maybe every week or 10 days. But I checked them after this momentous occasion. It was not a great result. Oh sure, my AHI was conspicuously absent, so that was fine, but the leakage after 2:00 am was awful. Then I noticed it was awful before 2:00 am. So clearly removing the chinstrap did not make anything worse. Awful was still awful.
Night two: Replaced mask with spare. New pillows (well, recycled from my bucket of pillows). No chinstrap. Leakage? Not good. But my mouth is staying very glued shut at night without the chinstrap. So the leakage has to be coming from the pillows. Not my cute little mouth.
Night three: Threw away the pillows from the night before, now using a new (recycled) set of pillows. Leakage? Not good. But I'm absolutely sure, that for the most part, my mouth airway is staying well closed. So something else must be going on.
Tonight I'll try a brand new mask and a brand new set of pillows and see where we are.
In the end, it really isn't too big a deal. My AHI is still setting on zero most of the time. I haven't been able to get it below that however. I'm completly enjoying my sleep at night, and am doing well during the day. So what if Sleepyhead is a little cranky about my leak rate?
It's all good.
...and if it proves to not be all good, then out will come the chinstrap again for a repeat engagement. It's a great tool to have that helps us with our therapy. But it's not like I'm married to it or anything.
