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keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
#11
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
I just posted on another forum, that I've come to believe that a Full Face Mask, if you can use it, is the answer to letting air (and subsequent dry mouth) escape from your mouth.

I've had this issue for quite awhile and preferred a nasal mask, but when it was pointed out to me that the FFM creates a back pressure on the mouth that inhibits exhaling air flow, I tried my original FFM again, and it seemed to work.

It was not as comfortable as the nasal mask, but I was needing to tape my mouth to prevent exhaling. Monday I have an appointment for a mask fitting and I'm looking to try one with the same harness as my nasal mask.

We can only hope.....

Phil
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#12
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
(01-11-2014, 04:30 PM)Peter_C Wrote: Face hair = check
can't use a chinstrap = check
long-term user = check

Some folks this helps, other folks get rabid when I bring it up. While I do have a FFM that works OK for me, I really dislike using it. I prefer a nasal mask, and I've proven that all my leak issues is 'hissing' through my lips.

I use 'self=talk' on myself while I am falling asleep each night. Reminding myself to not breathe through my mouth, to keep my lips sealed, etc. Some folks have success with this, and some folks feel it is all bunk.

I do believe your mind does not know when you are joking or lying. If you tell yourself that you will die if you breathe the poison air, and that you must only breathe through your nose as your machine filters out the poison - you can try all sorts of self-talk. Nothing to lose here, and it may help.

It's not bunk; it's a very viable form of self-hypnosis.

You unconscious mind is generally VERY LITERAL (don't know you are joking) and tends to have trouble processing "negation", such as "Don't drop that bottle of milk" becomes a suggestion to actual drop it.


Possibly, as a master hypnotist, you will allow me to offer a suggestion that will even improve it some, or a lot for you.

If you will consider statements such as "Reminding myself to not breathe through my mouth" and avoid saying what you do NOT want, but rather (almost) always use a statement that expresses what you now do want your unconscious to do for you, such as:

"Keep my mouth closed and allowed the air to pass through my nose and comfortable down into may lungs and back out through my nose in order to obtain the greatest health benefits possible with my CPAP machine and mask."

You probably get the idea, and it might even be worth writing out about 3 minutes of such suggestions and sending them to me for review (I will if you ask.)

Smile Remember that I am only a hypnotist so this in only a suggestion that your unconscious mind is free to accept if it chooses to help you improve your health. Smile


Like you said, it's free to try such things and easy enough to do while you are waiting to fall asleep quickly.
Sweet Dreams,

HerbM
Sleep study AHI: 49 RDI: 60 -- APAP 10-11 w/AHI: 1.5 avg for 7-days (up due likely to hip replacement recovery)

"We can all breathe together or we will all suffocate alone."
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#13
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
Ya'll have no idea how much I hate being the "parent", the "voice of reason" but I feel like I just have to say something! Taping your mouth shut is just a terrible idea! If for some reason you should happen to vomit, you could very easily choke to death. As well I have had the electricity go out here on a few occasions recently and I breathed through my mouth until I was awake enough to remove the mask and breathe normally. I know taping seems like a good idea at the time, but Google Darwin Awards. there are a whole bunch of people who probably never thought they could be awarded such a prestigious award, and yet they did receive it...posthumously! I know folks will do what they will do, and please don't look to me as an example, but if you are going to do this, at least think about what the news story will look like the next day, should things go weirdly wrong!
Okay, I'm done!
Mike
As always, YMMV! You do not have to agree or disagree, I am not a professional so my mental meanderings are simply recollections of things from my own life.

PRS1 - Auto - A-Flex x2 - 12.50 - 20 - Humid x2 - Swift FX
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#14
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
Yeah, I agree. Mouth taping is not a good idea. For one, to get it to truly work, you'd have to tape the lips absolutely closed, else, air can still escape. And taping them completely closed is a huge risk.

If you can get it to work for yourself, okay, but please understand there are risks involved.
PaulaO

Take a deep breath and count to zen.




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#15
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
I agree and the risks are just as heavy as not using your machine every time you sleep.
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#16
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
(01-13-2014, 01:01 PM)apw5746 Wrote: I tried, last night, using my chin strap, and it didn't last five minutes. Anything that prevents me from opening my mouth freaks me out. By adjusting my nasal mask some, my AHI dropped to 2.8.

I use a nasal mask and a chin strap. I find the chin strap a little uncomfortable due to the material it's made from, so I encased it in an old sock. My wife insisted on washing it first for some reason... The sock that is.

Anyhow, the point of a chin strap is not to KEEP your mouth shut, but to ENCOURAGE your body to do that naturally. You can still open your mouth, drink water, make strange noises, whatever you want to do. It's just that with the chinstrap, gently fastened, not cinched down tightly, when you go to sleep your body will decide the relaxed position is with your mouth shut.

One last thing: I think you're supposed to put the mask on first, then the chin strap? Nutz to that, I put the chin strap on then the mask so I don't have to futz with the chin strap when I get up in the night.
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#17
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
I got a new chin strap, and I'm finally use to it Sleep-well It's called the PurSome Ruby Red Chin Strap by Care Fusion. It's extra large, and adjustable. Even if I could tolerate a FFM, I'll always be mouth breather. I'm changing to the wisp nasal mask the end of next month. We'll see if that improves anything.

I too put one the chain strap first, then the mask. I get up at least 3 times, sometimes more, a night to use the toilet. Happens to old farts that have their prostate removed due to cancer :big wink:

I wear a mouth guard at night cause I grind my teeth. I find that in the morning, most of the time, under the covers as I spit it out sometime in the night. A FFM might stop that, but again, I'm not sure I could ever get used to one.
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#18
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
(02-23-2014, 06:57 PM)mjbearit Wrote: Ya'll have no idea how much I hate being the "parent", the "voice of reason" but I feel like I just have to say something! Taping your mouth shut is just a terrible idea! If for some reason you should happen to vomit, you could very easily choke to death. As well I have had the electricity go out here on a few occasions recently and I breathed through my mouth until I was awake enough to remove the mask and breathe normally. I know taping seems like a good idea at the time, but Google Darwin Awards. there are a whole bunch of people who probably never thought they could be awarded such a prestigious award, and yet they did receive it...posthumously! I know folks will do what they will do, and please don't look to me as an example, but if you are going to do this, at least think about what the news story will look like the next day, should things go weirdly wrong!
Okay, I'm done!
Mike
Mike, Your voice of reason sounds reasonable to me. I tried taping my lips closed with surgical tape. The feeling was claustrophobic panic and I lasted about half the night. Between the puffed up cheeks and leaks at the corners of little farts and the corners of my mouth, I felt almost as bad as I looked and sounded. Not a good idea at all.

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#19
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
I've switched to a FFM, simply because of my leak rates. It seems that most if not all of my leaks are from my mouth, and when using a non-FFM, I would have bad nights, so-so nights, and OK nights... but never good nights. After finally finding a FFM that woulds reasonably well for me, both my leak and AHI numbers have gotten much, much better.

After using the FFM night after night, I have finally gotten used to it, and my 'rest' is also getting better. I find that I really enjoyed using the 'Wisp', and that I can use nasal pillows, and the 'smallness' of the nasal pillows is very attractive to me. But sadly, for me it seems that I must use a FFM if I want consistent and low numbers.

I struggled with and can't use a chin strap. Self-talk randomly would work, and then it wouldn't work - is to hit-and-miss to rely on for me. I dislike the 'effort' of putting on and/or taking off the FFM (can't just slip it on over my head), can't talk with it on, can't call my dogs with it on, or chat with them during the night (I'm strange, but this is my life).

Seems like I want to have my cake, and be able to stare at it too...
*I* am not a DOCTOR or any type of Health Care Professional.  My thoughts/suggestions/ideas are strictly only my opinions.

"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your Soul, the other for your Freedom."
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#20
RE: keeping your mouth closed while sleeping
(02-24-2014, 01:13 PM)Peter_C Wrote: I've switched to a FFM, simply because of my leak rates. It seems that most if not all of my leaks are from my mouth, and when using a non-FFM, I would have bad nights, so-so nights, and OK nights... but never good nights. After finally finding a FFM that woulds reasonably well for me, both my leak and AHI numbers have gotten much, much better.

After using the FFM night after night, I have finally gotten used to it, and my 'rest' is also getting better. I find that I really enjoyed using the 'Wisp', and that I can use nasal pillows, and the 'smallness' of the nasal pillows is very attractive to me. But sadly, for me it seems that I must use a FFM if I want consistent and low numbers.

I struggled with and can't use a chin strap. Self-talk randomly would work, and then it wouldn't work - is to hit-and-miss to rely on for me. I dislike the 'effort' of putting on and/or taking off the FFM (can't just slip it on over my head), can't talk with it on, can't call my dogs with it on, or chat with them during the night (I'm strange, but this is my life).

Seems like I want to have my cake, and be able to stare at it too...

I'm with you almost all the way, especially when it come to talking to my cat. A FFM would put a halt to that. Plus the ease to take off my nasal pillows. However, my first ever sleep study was with a FFM, and it was the best night's sleep I ever had. When I got home it was all downhill from there. Couldn't, wouldn't, give a FFM other than a couple of nights a try

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