4variety

I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations regarding pulse oximeters. I would like to record my heart rate and oxygen-saturation levels during sleep. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Hey Sierra, I'm sort of in the experimentation stage, and I was just wondering what is was about mouth taping that you deemed better than using the chin strap? I find when I use tape, I will somehow drool onto my face, which sometimes wakes me up and often makes my skin inflamed the following morning.

Hi there,

when do you typically experience indigestion? Too high of a CPAP pressure can cause you to swallow air essentially, which makes its way into your stomach and the remainder of your gastrointestinal track. They even have an official name for this: aerophagia. A significant number of people experience this due to using CPAP. I myself have experienced it when I use pressures that are higher than I need. When I lower pressure, it goes away.

@Slowbro

I think the first question is one that you could answer best. Would you be ok with perhaps experiencing some of the symptoms you experienced before, even if only temporarily? Panic attacks are a complicated topic.

Although there are traces of THC in CBD oil, the amounts are negligible, so you shouldn't expect any mind-altering.

The data on CBD is scarce, though it has been clinically proven to help with things such as seizures, arthritis, and inflammatory-based health complications. That said, there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence and personal stories out there, which shouldn't be ignored. For doctors to begin prescribing treatments in westernized medicine, there needs to be clinically-proven results that demonstrate sufficient benefit and minimized risk. Since CBD is relatively new, there isnt a lot of long term evidence nor evidence on humans, and so it may not be prescribed as much as it one day might. So, in short, although there may be benefits to taking CBD oil, there may also be problems lying unveiled in the dark. For example, CBD oil could react with other medications you may be taking, as this is yet to be fleshed out.

I live in Canada, and doctors here are permitted to prescribe CBD oil. I have personally used it to help me sleep. I found that it made me feel calmer, making for a better sleep; however, after a few days, it lost the ability to make me feel this way. I took more to compensate, which helped again, but I realized I would simply start taking more and more, so whether I needed more to experience the benefits or whether it was all in my head, I decided to stop taking it. I suggest getting medical-grade CBD oil if you decide to go for it. Try to avoid pot shops. They're often poorly regulated and inaccurate with their contents.

With all this in mind, I think perhaps the best course of action for you would be to have a conversation with a trusted healthcare professional if you're concerned about how CBD oil may effect you with respect to panic attacks.

Hi Steph, having difficulty falling asleep could originate from many different things. Is this something new you have been experiencing? How long have you been using this mask? Please try to explain your situation in more detail, as I'de very much like to provide with with what help I can, though it's a bit difficult without some more answers.

@Ruby

I have! I simply carried it on, along with my "carry-on", so I checked one bag, then onto the airplane I carried a fairly large backpack and my CPAP plus its accessories. I just put the CPAP at my feet and my bag in the overhead. As Sierra said, they will ask you to take out the CPAP from its case when going through security (they wanted me to remove the main part with the screen for whatever reason). I used to live in Germany, so I would like to add that they have different outlets over there! So dont forget your adapters.

@ElusiveSleep

Could you please share more about your sleep-apnea profile. 1) How long have you been using an MAD? 2) What's your AHI off treatment? 3) Is this a problem only with the new MAD? 4) Did you have a test to determine whether an MAD would be effective with you or not? 5) Have you and your sleep specialist found the optimal setting/titration for your MAD or are you still tinkering?

One thing I can comment on prior to learning more about you is this idea that snoring is inherently a bad thing. Your throat making noise isnt necessarily threatening. The only important thing at the end of the day is your oxygen-saturation levels in your blood, so if you're snoring disturbingly loud but simultaneously you're not experiencing drops in your oxygen-saturation level, then there is no problem (aside from any noise others may have to tolerate or mild inflammation of the tissue in the throat). With that said, yes, often drops in oxygen-saturation levels and snoring go hand-in-hand/correlate. My point in all this is, some people snore their entire lives and sleep soundly, never experiencing enough sleep disturbance nor being objectively diagnosed with sleep apnea due to lower oxygen-saturation levels.

@dorlow

Hey Dorlow, I can certainly understand your frustration with using CPAP. I have "mild sleep apnea" (AHI of 8 from a level-three sleep study that included me sleeping on my back for a portion of the study), so I'm also motivated to seek out alternatives that dont include CPAP-dependency. I wrote a post called "Always Fatigued - Does anyone have advice? Please read." if you'de like a better idea of my situation. My first question would be, what is your AHI and how do you feel after a night of sleep without any MAD or CPAP? Have you tried any sleep-hygiene or behaviour modifications? If so, please share which ones you have! Looking forward to hearing back from you

@SleepDent: Tomorrow I will call the sleep specialist's office to request my report, and then get back to you. Is there anyway to glean information from my CPAP data that may provide us with information indicative of UARS? It's very interesting that you've mentioned this possibility. I've done a quick search on the internet, and it sounds well-aligned with what I feel I am experiencing. I do already have a MAD, but I did not take one of those tests to see if 1) whether a MAD could be an effective treatment option 2) Which titration setting is the most effective. In addition, I stopped using it each time after about 2 weeks of use when the quality of sleep worsened to a point where I was motivated to return to CPAP, but I've always wondered if perhaps I should give the device more time before concluding whether it's effective or not. In addition, I've only tried three titration settings (moving my mandible outwards more each time). My theory is that my threshold for arousal is lower after using the CPAP for a while (as it makes for a more peaceful though not always refreshing sleep), so when I return to using the MAD, lower levels of sleep disturbance, however that may look, may have greater consequences with respect to arousal than had I not used the CPAP prior to the MAD. Although I cant arrive at any conclusions, I feel as though my poor quality of sleep, whether that be obstructive sleep apnea or UARS, is at least partially from some abnormality of my soft palate/retropalatal region, rather than the region at the back of the tongue. The fact that mild sleep apnea is more often a consequence of abnormality in the retropalatal rather than retrolingual region is also supported by the paper I'll link here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/resp.12913

I was hoping to also get your thoughts on mandibular advancement devices that have a whole at the front to allow for mouth breathing when needed. I find I have very poor nasal patency (which may have gotten me into this mess from earlier years), so I have very narrow nostrils and pretty much any congestion will completely block my airflow, which is why I'de like to hear what the ENT has to say about my turbinates, for example. This is all to say that I feel that if I have open nasal passages, then sleep disturbances occur far less frequently, but I always seem to wake up in the night, whether an hour in or closer to morning, to find that my nasal passages are congested and, in extension, I experience poor nasal patency. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to look into my case.

@Sierra. First off, my apologies for the late reply. I think you raise a good point. In fact, I took a level-one sleep study not too long ago (which is where they wire you up in every way possible e.g. heartrate, brainwaves, audio, video, oxygen saturation, etc.), and, prior to the night when I was tested, I had been using a mandibular advancement device as well as CPAP. My AHI for the level-one sleep study was 4.2!; however, I noted in the questionnaire they provide the next morning and tell you here that it was an unusually low AHI for me, or so I would like to believe. I only woke up once that night. Of course, living in Canada where there are dangerously long waitlists for specialist consultations, I felt the doctor was somewhat dismissive, which is probably partly also because I dont think I voiced myself in a way that reflected how engrossed I am with trying to improve the quality of my sleep and that I see it as "robbing me of my youth". One thing I believe was overlooked was the variable that I had been using the CPAP right up until the night I was tested, which I have read and was told afterwards by my dentist who designed the MAD that it could have allowed me to go into the study without the inflammation and tissue swelling that may have otherwise been present had I been snoring/sleeping without CPAP. I've been privileged with the opportunity to see an ENT in a few months to discuss potential less-intrusive surgery options, so I'm looking forward to listening closely to what they have to add. Thank you sincerely for taking the time to share your thoughts on this subject, as well as for sharing the link.