Most effective ways for avoiding rolling onto back?

I know this has been an issue for many people, but I'm wondering if there has been any consensus on effective measures for avoiding the supine position during sleep. Unfortunately, I move a lot in my sleep, so it happens every now and then.

The problem is that my sleep apnea is virtually untreatable in the supine position. The apneas I experience there greatly disturb my sleep and my well being, even though my overall AHI is decent.The difference in required pressure must be enormous, because I can't tolerate any sort of higher pressure than around my titration (~8). In fact, it seems to make apneas worse in non-supine positions, and barely dents the ones in the supine. I would consider trying APAP, but due to the doctors in my insurance network, the DMEs in my network, and my insurance itself, it's not covered and no one has a loan machine either.

Has anyone had luck training themselves not to roll onto the back?

My backsleeping habit was very ingrained so I wear a small backpack every night.

There is a training effect and I have discontinued the backpack before. However, after a few months I find certain periods during the night I roll onto my back and on my reports I can see about 35 apneas per hour during those periods.

Now I have just resolved to wear the backpack every night.

Bloody hell. That's a pain. Nevertheless, that's better than experiencing apneas.

The best way I find to stop myself is to roll up a bit of the duvet cover behind me to create a small wall / barrier. Some nights its only about 80% effect though. If that doesn't work I put a big fluffed up feather pillow behind me to stop me rolling back over.

You could rig yourself up with one of those electric dog collars to shock you into side sleeping conformity.

I had untreated apnea for so long (prolly 25+ years) that my body automatically got trained to sleeping on side/stomach in order just to survive each night.

Once I started CPAP, it sort'a forced me to sleep less on stomach and more on side.

pandaspandaspandas wrote:Bloody hell. That's a pain. Nevertheless, that's better than experiencing apneas.

If you don't like the backpack idea, you could invest in a new mattress.

So, how do you go about wearing the backpack? What do you usually put in it?

Here is an old post of mine:

roster wrote:
I had a decades long ingrained habit of backsleeping so I also needed something foolproof. I can tell you what I wore for 15 months that was foolproof. I wore a CamelBak hydration pak ( http://www.camelbak.com/en/sports-recre ... packs.aspx )
I did not want to put water in it for fear of a leak. You do need something in it to give it some bulk. Maybe balled up newspapers will work. I took an emtpy rigid 20-ounce water bottle and stuffed it into the bladder. With this setup, I could not roll onto my back and it was lightweight and comfortable enough that I wore it nightly for 15 months. The good news is eventually I was trained and did not need the CamelBak. Occasionally, I will wear the pack for a couple of nights to reinforce the training. (Edit: I have gone back to the backpack because the backsleeping habit returns too often.)

I also suggest you consider sleeping in the Falcon position viewtopic.php?f=1&t=43663 .

Here is another device: http://www.zzomasleep.com/about.htm

If you have a backpack, try it. If you don't have a backpack, you should consider buying a Zzoma positional sleeper.

Here is a thread that mentions the Zzoma - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46705&p=419977&hilit=zzoma#p419977

I like that one about wearing a bra backwards with tennis balls. Might even be fun when you are awake at parties.

The backpack method was too difficult for me. It wasn't entirely effective and caused some strain on my shoulders from my movements in sleep. However, I ended up buying the Zzoma. My apnea index is now zero combined with CPAP. It was the shifting to the supine position that was really killing me.

Too bad there aren't any devices that cure narcolepsy. Two sleep disorders can be difficult to manage.

If you have a night shirt, you can sew a sock on to its back and put a few tennis balls inside.

I had tried most of the traditional advice. Sewing objects in a shirt, wearing a backpack, creating a barrier so that I couldn't roll over, and so on. For me, these things only caused me back and shoulder irritation. Admittedly, I thought the Zzoma was a bit gimmicky when Rooster first mentioned it, but it works like a charm for me.

When i try to sleep on my side for long periods it hurts my chest and muscles in my shoulders. I have never been comfortable for too long sleeping on my side. I try though.

I too got a Zzoma a few months back and thought it was doing the trick. But over time I found I was able to roll in such a way as to get onto my back and slide the Zzoma around 90-degrees so the bulky thing is at my side instead of my back. I woke up this way a few times and eventually decided I would either have to put on the Zzoma so tight that it is very uncomfortable, or else find another solution. The tennis balls trick (or in my case croquet balls!!!) is also not 100% effective. Sometimes I just lay on them anyway (and get a sore back out of it). Yes, it is possible to sleep on your back laying directly on a couple of big hard croquet balls. But I wouldn't advise it.

Lately, I'm just starting to experiment with a rigged-up restraint system that ties an arm down at the wrist at the side of the bed. Something like this was recommended on a similar thread. I thought it was just a joke.

brain_cloud wrote:I too got a Zzoma a few months back and thought it was doing the trick. But over time I found I was able to roll in such a way as to get onto my back and slide the Zzoma around 90-degrees so the bulky thing is at my side instead of my back. I woke up this way a few times and eventually decided I would either have to put on the Zzoma so tight that it is very uncomfortable, or else find another solution. The tennis balls trick (or in my case croquet balls!!!) is also not 100% effective. Sometimes I just lay on them anyway (and get a sore back out of it). Yes, it is possible to sleep on your back laying directly on a couple of big hard croquet balls. But I wouldn't advise it.

Lately, I'm just starting to experiment with a rigged-up restraint system that ties an arm down at the wrist at the side of the bed. Something like this was recommended on a similar thread. I thought it was just a joke.

Geez. It seems as though our bodies want us to stop breathing.

I had a sleep center give me an inflatable bladder pack, much like the backpack idea but not heavy like a backpack I would guess. A quick google doesn't find it but I'm sure they can be found somewhere online. Unfortunately I would end up waking in the morning with the pack on the floor so I didn't keep it.