Sleep apnea: how to improve breathing after sleeping on back

Hi what helps me is I count up to 4 or 5 while inhaling same exhale 4-5

Hello @lisawuriu, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @bigj and others. You mentioned you have sleep apnea but didn't say anything about using a CPAP or other treatment. I also have obstructive sleep apnea and am mostly a side sleeper. Sleeping on my back affects my sleep and breathing also. I wouldn't think that coffee or other stimulant would help the sleep but it may help you wake up and breathe better. The American Lung Association has some breathing exercises that might be helpful - https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/wellness/breathing-exercises.

Do you also use a CPAP?

You did everything right, Lisa, right up to the point where you removed your parachute. Then you fell.........hard. That's a metaphor, obviously, but...............it's apt even as an analogy.

Nobody here will dispute that you became uncomfortable, and the only solution you felt was quick and satisfactory would be a short interval without your 'parachute'. But.............you know what happened.

John mentioned PAP therapy, a therapy that has saved millions of lives over the past 35 years or more. I think you should be evaluated formally for obstructive sleep apnea, or if you were diagnosed already, you are not getting the treatment you need today. Something has changed if you are using a PAP machine and you still can't sleep on your back, although PAP therapy can't overcome collapsed airways and a tongue that relaxes and sags back into the airway, which happens most often on one's back.

If you need more oxygen, there are two solutions: avoid supine sleep positioning, or use a CPAP machine that is the right one for your 'flavour' of apnea, and that is set to deliver you the correct pressures. Note that a CPAP machine can include O2 sat detectors and also oxygen delivery if it is helpful/necessary. Even if you aren't going to use a PAP machine for therapy, you can get oxygen in a bottle and use a cannula under your nose.

@johnbishop
Yes I do
CPAP one of the best ways to deliver air it helps me a-lot I started with the lowest pressure to get used to it
Ps,
I was tested I stop breathing alot of times per hour with Cpap machine 2-5 per hour

@bigj Thanks, I'll give it a try.

@johnbishop Thanks, I'll try out some of those exercises. I've tried to use a CPAP, but for some reason, it makes me very dizzy, even after using it a short time.

@gloaming Thanks, I can't use a CPAP; even after using it a short time, I get very dizzy. Thank you for telling me about getting oxygen in a bottle and using a cannula under my nose. I'll check with my doctors to see about getting this.

@bigj I wish I could use a CPAP, but even on the lowest setting, it makes me very dizzy.

@lisawuriu The lowest setting on a CPAP machine is not therapy. The lowest setting is for 'pressure relief', such as when you want to relax and exhale after an intake. Some people find that the constant pressure, unchanged between inhalation and exhalation, is uncomfortable, and it's hard to breathe out. So, the engineers designed the programming to allow sensing of when you are about to exhale, and the machine's fan slows a little, meaning less flow. This is 'pressure relief.' However the heavy majority of PAP users need to have their machines deliver about 8 cm of water pressure, and from there it backs off two or three cm of pressure to allow you to exhale comfortably. Many users need far more pressure, though, even up to 18 cm H2O.

Your dizziness suggests to me that your machine was not set at the correct delivery pressures. Yes, it is bothersome, yes, it takes getting used to, but with some practice and perseverance you can enjoy sleep in comfort and not have to fear endangering yourself with hypoxia, low oxygen levels.

I am not a respiratory therapist, and not otherwise medically trained. I do use a CPAP machine and was able to 'take to it' right away...lucky me. I was advised to wear the mask AND hose attached much of the first two days (in the house, of course) and get used to having it on, but also breathing through it and hearing the sounds. By the second night, I just didn't care and wanted to sleep. I did find I have to tape across my mouth because my lips lose their tone and the forced air wants to rush out of my lips, which negates the pressure therapy that it meant to go down my trachea. Other than that surprise, and I have taped every night since (eight years now), my machine reliably delivers great therapy and my 'events' of hypopnea and apnea now run about 0.5 an hour, far below, and better, than the 30+ events of obstruction I experienced before diagnosis and during my titration in the sleep lab.

You must seek help with your PAP machine and deal with its complexity and your suspicions or past experiences. The alternative is something very bad. It's up to you, of course, but I would hope to encourage you to find some motivation and to put it behind you.

@gloaming Thanks for this info, I do have an appt in June with a sleep therapist, and I'll ask what I can do, and what is causing the dizziness. Good for you, for being able to use a CPAP.