Nasal Pillows vs Nasal Masks, which worked best for you?

[Sleeprider]

Mouth breathing usually leaves a very dry mouth, and you know air has been passing from your mouth by the dryness. There is a characteristic wave pattern on Oscar graphs where an inspiration wave (sometimes smaller than normal) is present, but expiration is nearly absent, or just a quick spike into expiration with what appears to be zero-flow until inspiration. Nearly always this is mouth breathing or leak.

[koala1]

I’m using dreamwear nasal pillow now and has been using dreamwear nasal mask for a month before.

I had below problems with nasal mask:
1. Sweaty skin below nose and in result acne
2. Sometimes I was waking up becouse it was difficult to breathe

Nasal pillow mask doesn’t have those problems.
Also it delivers more air to the nose so in case you have nasal congestion it will be easy to get rid of it. My nose is clear after let’s say 30min of using mask.

[CorruptAlligator]

Last night I had nasal congestion issues. I have nasal congestion off and on, on rare occasions. I don't know what causes it. When I do get congestion, I notice that when I'm laying down, nasal congestion develops, and when I get upright, it dissipates. I think the humidifier helps with this so now it's rare when it occurs, but I wish I can figure out the root of the problem.

[SarcasticDave94]

Have you used Flonase spray? Or some other nasal spray?

[Geer1]

If you have any digestive issues (especially if they occur when you have nasal congestion) then I would try some food elimination diets for the common allergens (dairy, gluten, soy, nuts etc). My main source of congestion was dairy.

I was just thinking about it and I should try a nasal mask again. I haven't used one since I figured out the congestion/dairy and maybe I can use them now, before I couldn't control mouth leaks.

[CorruptAlligator]

It's likely food related.  Perhaps spice or too much food at night.  I do eat 3 hrs prior to bed.

My therapy has significantly improved my sleep quality from changing my mask type to nasal. 

Now, I get tired naturally at the right bed time and easily fall asleep and I get back to sleep easier after woken up and actually want more sleep in the morning now!  I only wake up 1 time in the night now, which is an improvement.  My AHI is consistently at .7 or lower, so my therapy feels like it's at the right point.

So, I recommend exploring masks.  I don't even wear a collar anymore.

[Geer1]

If you are curious this study has some info and pictures as to why FFM aren't as effective (especially in certain people).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4301251/

[CorruptAlligator]

Hi yall,

I recently got my P10 mask, and I like it.  I can now sleep on the side without leakage.  However, I'm getting a lot of centrals and don't know why.  I was expecting similar AHI as N20, nasal mask, but AHI was fairly high with the pillow.  

I like that I can just set it to minimum pressure of 7 without having issues of abrupt pressure that prevents me from falling asleep. This happens with the full-face mask and I hate it. I have to set it to lower pressure or auto-ramp to prevent it.

The reason why I had to move on from N20 nasal mask was because the bottom cushion would block air-flow, and I had wakon up with some pain in my chest likely due to lack of air, and I had difficulty to breathing with it.  Funny thing is, my AHI was still fairly low, and this told me that AHI isn't accurately detected by the machine with this mask.  

I feel like I slept much better with the pillows despite my AHI being much greater.  My AHI with the pillow is attached.  Perhaps I will have to get on the collar again (I was hoping not, for the N20 mask I didn't need it).  Let me know if you any comments about my OSCAR data.  Thanks.

[hegel]

I've had two nights with the n30 headgear on the p10 pillows and I much prefer the new headgear. I found Leukoplast cover roll stretch tape on amazon and it's great. I have a goatee so that complicates things.; this stretch tape is a perfect width (wide) so I don't have to shape it; and it doesn't loosen at night. It really adheres so there's a tiny ouch in the am when it comes off. If I need water I just take it half off and it reapplies fine.

So three nights back with my p10 and this tape and I'm sleeping really great. It's still early but I hope this keeps up. Best sleep in quite a while. Yahoo! I still get some leaks but my ahi is very low. Leaks are below 10. I get leaks with all my masks it seems.

I got the F abnd P Vitera but haven't been able to make it work in terms of leaks. Only used it for two nights however. I got it to address leaks. It'[s now waiting in the wings for if (when) the P10 stumbles.

[CorruptAlligator]

The P10 got updated with adjustable headstrap.