Tips on learning to nose breathe?

[junior49]

I've read about the benefits of nose breathing and am trying to learn to nose breathe when I sleep. I started with the quattro fx but the leaking wakes me up every night, even after lowering the pressure from 17 to 14 (as per doctor's suggestion). So I'm trying to switch to the mirage fx, which by the way, feels a lot more comfortable than the phillips easy life I tried several weeks ago. I use a chin strap but I find myself opening my mouth during sleep. My AHI is higher with the nasal mask, around 5-6, as opposed to 0-2 with ff mask, but I'm assuming that is from opening my mouth several times.

Anyway, anyone who has successfully switched from mouth breathing to nose breathing please share your tips. I'm assuming it's not impossible. I was thinking about maybe getting a snoring mouthguard. I read a review on amazon that said they have little if any difference from normal athletic mouthguards you can buy at a sporting goods store for a few bucks.

[GumbyCT]

Start with making sure you can breath thru your nose while awake.
Close your mouth and breath thru your nose for 60 seconds while holding your fingers in both ears. Do you hear any disturbances?

IF you can't breath thru your nose you need to fix that first.

fwiw - there is a guy I know who uses surgical tubing to correct his deviation. Claims he has been doing it for yrs. Cut a piece just long enuff so you can grab it to remove it. Flare one end over so it doesn't go in too far and doesn't just fall out. You will have to find the diameter of tubing that fits your nose. He says he uses this when working outside and having troubles breathing. ymmv

I read a review on amazon that said they have little if any difference from normal athletic mouthguards you can buy at a sporting goods store for a few bucks.

I started with a sports mouthguard after reading a post on here how to use one to train your tongue to stay at the roof of your mouth. You will need something to keep it in during the day.

It's not an over nite process but yea it can be done.

Then I moved to a nasal mask before trying nasal pillows.

[Janknitz]

Plant your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Do this all day, every day, except when eating or talking. In a day or three you will be a trained nose breather. And yes, this carries over to your sleep.

[junior49]

Start with making sure you can breath thru your nose while awake.
Close your mouth and breath thru your nose for 60 seconds while holding your fingers in both ears. Do you hear any disturbances?

Ok, I can do that. Sometimes I have to "catch up" with my breath but it just takes a deep breath or 2. And no disturbances. I do have to rinse my sinuses every few days and I found that a breathe-right helps quite a bit. I also tried Nasivent but I don't like it because it doesn't seem right to bypass the nasal hairs, even though the cpap has a filter and humidifier.

The Nasivent I think is similar to what your friend who uses surgical tubing.

I started with a sports mouthguard after reading a post on here how to use one to train your tongue to stay at the roof of your mouth. You will need something to keep it in during the day.

It's not an over nite process but yea it can be done.

I'll do a search and see if I can find that. Thanks for the input, greatly appreciated. I am curious if those "snoreguards" are really in fact just regular mouthguards. If so, they're pretty expensive.

[junior49]

Plant your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Do this all day, every day, except when eating or talking. In a day or three you will be a trained nose breather. And yes, this carries over to your sleep.

Ok, I just started. That's what I found myself doing while trying nose-breathe while falling asleep last night, was sticking my tongue to the roof of my mouth. So will your tongue just stay there when you sleep after a while? Seems like it would relax when asleep and fall back to normal position, or does the cpap help with that?

[Janknitz]

"Ok, I just started. That's what I found myself doing while trying nose-breathe while falling asleep last night, was sticking my tongue to the roof of my mouth. So will your tongue just stay there when you sleep after a while? Seems like it would relax when asleep and fall back to normal position, or does the cpap help with that?"

I found my tongue quickly learned to stay there. It doesn't work for everybody, but I thought I was a dedicated mouth breather and I was surprised to find I can keep the tongue there all night. It worked for me.

[GumbyCT]

The Nasivent I think is similar to what your friend who uses surgical tubing.

I had not heard of this Nasivent but it sure does look like what he has described. To be clear, he says he only uses this tube in the deviated side. Also he uses it with a FFM.

There is a nasal prong mask which some here swear by -
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/innome ... e-kit.html

Here is a link to the Nasivent - at $25 I see why he uses the surgical tubing -
http://www.amazon.com/Nasivent-Silicone ... B0038IYKHK

Ok, I can do that. Sometimes I have to "catch up" with my breath but it just takes a deep breath or 2. And no disturbances.

I would say IF you have to "catch up" - you need to get that fixed or looked at first.

Not getting enuff air is why we "automatically" mouth breath. W/o fixing the "catch up" part you will continue to mouth breath.

They say the basic flaw in the human anatomy is that air, food, AND water all share the same passage way.

[nanwilson]

I've tried all the tricks...nothing works. I can start sleeping with my tongue on the roof of my mouth, but soon I open my big yap and I am breathing through my mouth. No big deal, thats what a ffm is for...to either breath through your nose or your mouth. There are many of us that mouth breath and its okay.

[GumbyCT]

I've tried all the tricks...nothing works. I can start sleeping with my tongue on the roof of my mouth, but soon I open my big yap and I am breathing through my mouth. No big deal, thats what a ffm is for...to either breath through your nose or your mouth. There are many of us that mouth breath and its okay.

Nan are you aware if you are mouth breathing during the day?

[DocWeezy]

Lifelong mouth breather here. In my case, I still can't breathe through my nose very well during the day--no obstructions, just have small nasal passages. HOWEVER, that being said, I did learn to only nose breathe at night--the pressure from the cpap air really helps so I can nose breathe easily at night where I can't so much during the day.

The tongue trick works really well--I can even have my mouth open/jaw drop and no air leaks out my mouth because my tongue is just kind of in place without effort.

In the beginning, I also tucked a small pillow under my chin to remind me to close my mouth. Taped for about 3 nights right at first, used the pillow for about a week, have had no problems since then. Leaks are rare and low.

During the learning phase, I also told myself over and over as I was falling asleep that my mouth stayed shut because I had so much great air from the mask. Mentally pictured me sleeping with my mouth closed, etc.

Not sure exactly which one worked, or if it was the combination of all of them; however, I'm grateful for being able to use a nose pillow mask because it really really really helped my claustrophobia and comfort issues.

Weezy

[Janknitz]

Do this test:

Put your tongue firmly on the roof of your mouth and keep it there. Now plug your nose, but don't move your tongue. Can you breathe? If you cannot, you have a good seal there, and that should help you breathe exclusively through your nose.

I'm curious to see if anybody can still breathe with their tongue there--there might be some people who can't seal that oropharynx because of some sort of structural or neurological issue--and maybe they will always leak and need FF masks. But people who can seal the oropharynx off with that tongue position would have a better chance of being able to use a nasal mask.

When I have nasal congestion, I find it pretty miserable to breathe through my mouth, even in a FF mask. It STILL dries me out pretty badly. Sure glad I don't have to sleep that way every night!

[GumbyCT]

I started with a sports mouthguard after reading a post on here how to use one to train your tongue to stay at the roof of your mouth. You will need something to keep it in during the day.

This talks about the mouthguard I mentioned.
Read this link and the links in it.

Note: Rested Gal has many posts with a collection of links.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=60809&p=570524&hili ... rd#p570524

Or you can "drill down" like I did. Try it now. Go to Advanced Search found on the top of each forum page
search.php
1st search term was "boil"
now watch how many are eliminated
2nd search word was "tongue" cuz I knew he had to mention it
and how many more are eliminate here
3rd was mouthguard

HTH

Lotsa good stuff in this forum