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CPAP Intolerance

Sleep Health | Last Active: Sep 4, 2023 | Replies (63)

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@csherman66

The chin strap never worked for me and I tried several different ones.
Some things I have done that have allowed me not to have to use the CPAP mask:
1. Elevate my head on the bed with 2 medium thick pillows or 1 fat 5 1/2" thick pillow. You can put books under the head of the bed to elevate it. I have one of those sleep number beds so can easily elevate the head. I try to keep it as high as possible w/o being in an awkward position and hurting my back.
2. Put pillow under my knees to keep my lower back from hurting from sleeping w/ head elevated.
3. I'm a back sleeper and uncomfortable on my sides or stomach but try sometimes to sleep on my sides which is definitely recommended for apnea
4. I have always been a mouth breather at night since childhood. Was desperate to find something that would keep my mouth closed and tried several different tapes that pulled skin off my face.

On Amazon I found 3M Micropore S. The 1" high is 2770-1 and the 2" high is 2770-2. Both are 5.5 yds long. Last time I ordered, they only sold by the box w/ 12 rolls of the 1" size and 6 of the 2" size. It does not pull the skin off around my mouth and sometimes I even use the 1" size on other parts of my face to "iron" out little wrinkles while I sleep.
I use the 2" high for my mouth. After I apply I blow out to see if there are any areas that are loose - if so, I put some 1" tape on those areas.
I use Snore Lab app on my iphone every night and get a snore score every morning. The score represents the amount of time I spent snoring after I have deleted all noises that werent snoring - the app shows me EVERY sound EVERY SECOND I am sleeping including my husband getting up and showering.
It is easy to listen to and delete sounds that obviously are not snoring. I've done it long enough, that I can delete nonsnoring events just by looking at the results. When you snore, it looks very different than if you make a noise turning over, or someone rings the doorbell, or any other noise that occurs during the night.
Often my scores are between 0 and 3 which are low and GREAT so I dont have to use the CPAP. Snore Lab says score of 25 is Ok but I dont think so.
The app has helped me notice that often the interval between snores is very regular, like 4 seconds between each snore. I am trying to find a technician type who analyzes sleep studies to see if that indicates normal snoring or obstructive apnea snoring. I dont yet delete that regular interval snoring from the daily results and still get very low result w/ mouth taped.

PS - A dentist who specialized in oral devices made one for me and I used it for a long time, but I kept on getting cuts inside my mouth from the metal pieces on it, had to put special band on it to try to keep mouth from opening which didnt work that well and results were not as good as w/ the tape. Once the dentist got paid for the appliance, he wasnt that helpful. Also worried that if I kept on adjusting it to make it pull my lower jaw further forward, I would get TMJ. Hope this is helpful and clear. I just joined so not sure if I can give you my email address for questions - let me know if you know if I can. I will look for a Reply just in case you do reply.

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Replies to "The chin strap never worked for me and I tried several different ones. Some things I..."

Welcome @csherman66, Thanks for sharing such a detailed experience. I am still using a CPAP and I also elevate the head of my bed, as well as use a small pillow under or between my legs depending on how I'm sleeping. Sleeping on my back makes things much worse for me, so I have a lot of movement at night, side to side switching with some time spent on my back depending on if I'm having pain in my back or side.

Just an FYI, members who want to share personal contact information can do so using the private message function of Connect. Since Connect is a public forum available to anyone on the Internet you should not type your email address in a post for your own privacy.

I've tried the mouth tape too, even the stuff that doesn't rip your skin off 🙂 but it was just too uncomfortable for me. I don't think the Snore app would help me but it is an interesting treatment and one of those that may hold a lot promise for those with obstructive sleep apnea. From what little research I've done on the topic, it sounds like there is no scientific consensus on how to measure and define snoring. It would be interesting to have a sleep study done while using the same setup and the sleep app to see if the results are comparable. I had 55+ OSAs in my sleep study at Mayo.

Here are a few of the research papers I found from 2023:

"Numerous studies have investigated both obstructive sleep apnea and snoring. However, the methods of measuring snoring and snoring-related concepts vary across studies. To understand the pathophysiology underlying obstructive sleep apnea and address sleep-related diseases, consensus in the academic community on how to measure and define snoring is required."
--- How to measure snoring: A systematic review: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-2399908/v1

"The development of these apps and devices has a great future, but today are not as accurate as other traditional options. This new technology offers accessible, inexpensive, and continuous at home data monitoring of obstructive sleep apnea, but still does not count with proper testing and their validation may be unreliable."
--- A systematic review of smartphone applications and devices for obstructive sleep apnea:
https://www.scielo.br/j/bjorl/a/nsjKzkhkYbFLSfw7XFFjZBR/.
You mentioned you do not have to use a CPAP. Have you been diagnosed with a type of sleep apnea or just figured out how to reduce the snoring?