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A Mouth Breather Finally Sleeps Thru the Night
#1
A Mouth Breather Finally Sleeps Thru the Night
I FINALLY GOT through a WHOLE NIGHT...........LOL


Anyhow, I am a mouth breather and got a face mask and although I liked the feel of it and had little or no leakage, I still kept opening up my mouth which meant i kept waking up with dry cotton mouth that was so dry it took too long to hydrate again so I was by then fully awake and going from 8 hours sleep a night and feeling, as far as I know, perfectly well rested to a terrible sleep due to this dry mouth so many a time i just kept taking the mask off and turning the machine off after 2-3 hours of using it.
I didn't like doing that and felt i was failing at this Sleep Apnea but I had decided to go and get nasal pillows and a chin strap in 2 months and start over again.

But the hubby finally gave up on using the machine for himself since he has tried twice and felt claustrophobic both times but since the doctor says his is so mild, it apparently really doesn't matter if he uses it or not so for now, he's never used the machine and might just dump it BUT I decide to try and use his mask last night ad it worked PERFECTLY!!

He was prescribed Mirage FX Nasal Mask and apparently THIS might be the secret for I slept perfectly through the night and never woke up once last night, for the first time :grin:

Funnily enough I don't find that the Full Face Mask makes me feel claustrophobic but when I put on his Nasal Mask for the first time I did experience the claustrophobia he says he experienced which was why he could not use it.

Theres something funny about a Nasal Mask. If you open your mouth to breathe, right away your nose feels as if it will suffocate. You can't seem to breathe out of both places, although you can do much easier with a Full Face Mask so when I put it on, for the first time, in the first half hour, I did quickly take it off about 4x to catch my breathing. I can't quite explain what I mean but I noticed within a minute of wearing it, my nose got stuffy and it seemed harder to breathe through. Naturally I responded by opening my mouth and breathing through it but I couldn't seem to catch my berating properly.

Until I had an idea........I have always slept with 2 pillows so my neck naturally is on a bit of an angle, towards my chest, naturally.
For some reason I just had the feeling I had to remove a pillow and have my neck in a straighter position and it seemed to work for the next thing I knew it was this morning, 8 hours later, and I had slept all the way through and my mouth was fully closed. And I had somehow breathed through it all night with out opening my mouth for if I open it once, it remains open until I consciously close it but i must be awake to do so.

Bearing mind mind i have never been one to bound out of bed in the morning, I did this morning but after one night only, I can't point it towards the sleep apnea and my feeling better due to a full nights sleep for there could be a few other reasons so I will keep going it and see if it keeps happening.

But this morning was the first beautiful summer/spring like morning of the year. After a miserable winter, perhaps that had me bounding out of bed but I am not convinced I knew it was beautiful until I was up and in my living room possibly..

Two, I may have bounded just happy that the damn thing actually worked and I hadn't awakened with a dry mouth.

Three maybe seeping on one pillow only and having my neck aligned straighter due to this position helped me to sleep better? I can't say yet.

Last but not least, I have been a heavy smoker for many years and when I say heavy I MEAN heavy because i work at a computer all day long at home and being at a computer only increased the need for a cigarette to be there at all times BUT, 3 weeks ago after reading an article on the new trend of Vaping, Kevin and I went and bought a starter kit with 2 tanks, one for each of us and some oil to "VAPE" not smoke and as soon as we did, we have not bought any cigarettes since and already our lungs are cleaning themselves out. It is one hell of a great way to quit smoking so my lungs I am finding are naturally feeling better and I have been feeling less as if I have been hit over the head when I wake up which I put down to the heavy intake of smoke into my body than Sleep Apnea.
So that has now gone.


Anyhow for any other mouth breathers that are having a hard time with a Full Face mask, this might be worth trying out.
But until you do get used to breathing out of your nose only when awake, its a strange feeling which i never had on a FF mask so its the first time I have suffered any feelings of claustrophobia but as I said, it seems to go away as soon as you are lying down fairly flat and I suppose go to sleep.
I guess ones natural breathing just takes over??

Kevins suffers from mild allergies which I guess the season is happening now for us so added to his claustrophobia, his nose just seems to close down and he kept opening his mouth with this mask on although he's never been a mouth breather but I found at first my nose felt a bit stuffy as if I didn't have a strong intake of air coming into my nose and right away you open your mouth to get the rest in....its a somewhat scary feeling but I just had a strong feeling that id suffocate if I didn't open my mouth, although it went away after the pillow was taken away and I remember turning off of the tv but then I must have gone to sleep instantly as i don't remember anything after that..........till this morning.

As someone that finds it impossible to will myself to keep the mouth open and was about to get a chin strap to keep it closed, I am amazed that this worked.....Time will tell if it continues to do so. iF so, anyone else with mouth breathing issues might want to try one of these masks


Anyhow, it appears I type too quickly and before I know it its a full book of a post.........so hoping tonight and every other night will have this mask prove to be the mask that works for me for it certainly is NOT a full face mask and not sure why they promote these for mouth breathers.
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#2
RE: A Mouth Breather Finally Sleeps Thru the Night
Shelagh, that is great news. You must have felt so good when you woke and realised it was morning. I hope you have continued success with the nasal pillows. Sometimes we have to trial and error different things as you did with your bed pillows, that seemed to be your piece of magic.
Good on you for persevering as well.
Big congratulations on giving up the smoking to you and Kevin. That is no mean feat. Your body is certainly going through a lot of changes, all good ones.
I hope you continue to sleep well with your nasal mask.
Sleep Tight...
Gabby
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#3
RE: A Mouth Breather Finally Sleeps Thru the Night
Hi ShelaghDB,
It's great to hear that you found a mask that works for you; hopefully, your husband can find a mask that will work for him as well.
Good luck to you both on stopping smoking.
trish6hundred
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