singingkeys

Since before my teenage years, I have always had issues with my tongue. I always got bad canker sores on my actual tongue, jaws, lips, on the gums and even on the back of the throat itself a few times. Before I had my sleep study and had a quick interview with the sleep doctor, he told me that scalloped tongue "is a classic sign" of sleep apnea. I have also noticed that there are times when it doesn't happen and my tongue looks fine. Other days, I sleep horribly and it feels like my tongue is all swollen and I have these considerable teeth marks all the way around. On the mornings when I wake up with them, I retain them for the entire day that I'm awake.

I have considered getting a mouth guard to give it a try. I'm also getting curious if it is my poor sleep as a result of the tongue falling back and/or pressing downwards to open my airway or if I just have always had a bad habit or something. The possibility has been entertained that my tongue just might be "big" in general.

If you did have it, did it go away when you got on CPAP/APAP?

One question. Is your issue on inspiration or expiration? Expiration implies a different problem.

I am getting over a pretty bad cold. I should note that when I have a cold and have to blow my nose rather hard, the air in my upper throat area abruptly halts as I'm blowing because it feels like a flap in my throat area closes over upon the heavy exhale. Not sure if that's just loose tissue and if it is also what is happening when I'm sleeping or what. Could be an extended soft palate, extra tissue on it or whatever. I feel like it is an extra flap somewhere.

I'll be starting out using ResMed Air Sense 10 with nasal pillow mask, but pondering if I should also get a face mask for times when I have a cold/allergy and don't want something crammed into my nose. What do you all do when you're sick and still need it to sleep?

They have one like this that supposedly works for stomach, side and back sleepers using CPAP. Odd shape to it with a cutout on each side.

https://www.amazon.com/CPAP-Pillow-Adjustable-Height-Ergonomic/dp/B07DX7D2MC

So I tried the flat back cushion last night and it was terribly uncomfortable. I think I actually slept even worse because I kept waking up wondering what that was on my neck and trying to adjust it away. My neck hurt a little when I woke up. These things seem to be made for back sleepers only. Trying to sleep on your side or stomach is just one of those things that isn't happening very well. I wonder how typical that is? I also have a 4"-5" pillow that is rather stiff (called a Noffa pillow) and is basically a stiffer memory foam pillow that I bought a year or two ago to see if it would help my sleeping. I used to think that my pillow being too flat might have been causing obstruction of my airway. Now I'm thinking about going back to a little bit flatter and softer pillow. Still can't quite get used to that one. I would think that being too tall or too stiff could also have an adverse effect just like being not tall enough. It has me wondering if I'll feel this same way with CPAP.

My understanding is that stuff like an elongated palate can theoretically be fixed by laser surgery as one of the methods. The thing is...trying to chase that down and pinpoint the problem is a big issue. I wonder how they found out that they had Palatal Prolapse?

I like that the Dr. Dakota Snore Eliminator has a flat back compared to a regular cervical collar. The idea seems to be to keep the chin from pitching downwards and sort of reminds you and prevents it from happening when you're too tired to think about it while trying to sleep. I'll give it a try for the $15-$20 before I go for the APAP. I found a similar one like the Dr. Dakota one, but it is called The Eliminator Sleep Cushion and is basically the same thing with a flat back and strap and only the cushion part on the front to keep the chin from moving. It actually looks more comfortable in the photo compared to the Dr. Dakota one. For $12, it can't hurt to try that first.

It is unknown if my issue is with inspiration or expiration. I want to say inspiration, but sometimes it seems like both. It is like the soft palate (or maybe it is the adenoids, I don't know)...flaps over my airway both when breathing in and out when my throat is relaxed. I can make it do that partially when I'm sitting upright at any time of the day. Just not sure what it is exactly and the only option for that would be more surgery, which I don't want.

Possibly. They look a little uncomfortable to sleep with, but I could try. Would a soft collar work or is there a certain kind? I see that they use cervical collars to treat persistent apneas in people who are already on CPAP and still get apneas.

I guess at this point it doesn't so much matter what exactly is happening as long as I can identify and the machine helps. What I think happens is when I lay down and go into a deeper sleep stage, my soft pallet relaxes and becomes sort of flappy-like. As best as I can tell, I feel a little better when I sleep more on my stomach and turn my head to the side compared to just on my back. There have been a lot of times when I woke up and my brain was awake and alert enough to think it was my upper throat closing over and yet my body was still asleep and relaxed to the point where I could simply lay there and recreate it within seconds by letting my throat relax. At that point, it feels like the soft palate closes over my airway in what seems like a flap-like fashion. I'm not sure, maybe everyone has that ability...but it seems like I have an odd ability to move my soft palate open and closed just by thinking about it. For instance, sitting up in my computer chair right now...I can sort of control my soft palate and make it flap over and close the airway voluntarily. I'm wondering if purposefully doing that would strengthen some of the tissue in it that may have lost muscle mass over the years. On top of that, when I brush my teeth before bed...I tend to get a thick phlegm-like substance in my throat that forms because I guess the toothpaste irritates my throat or something. So I'm not sure if it is just some gunk that gets stuck in my throat and seems like apneas/hypopneas or like my throat closes over because it sticks the soft palate closed like a temporary glue.

Probably 2-3 weeks from now, I'll buy the Air Sense 10 and see what happens. On the nights when I do seem to sleep better due to sheer exhaustion, I have some pretty terrifying dreams. Starting to wonder if I'll have more of those when I get on the APAP. I've read that some people who get more REM sleep start having a lot of them when they get on the machine.

What is the correlation of neck size and weight for someone who isn't overweight? It looks like maybe a larger neck might have more fat that could constrict the airway when lying down with a head on a pillow.