How do you train yourself not to open your mouth?

I have a mask that covers my nose and mouth but not the whole face. This morning my mouth opened and there was quite a lot of leakage. I can also tell that I am not as good feeling so I'm thinking I did not benefit too much last night.

Before this I wanted to try some of the nasal masks, being a little claustrophobic in my present mask. But now I am afraid I'll open my mouth with the nasal or pillow masks and never benefit and lose $100+ in the process.

To make things a little more confusing, when I did my sleep study with cpap I had nasal only. I did not open my mouth!

I was hoping for advice because I am confused. Thank you.

ProblemSleeper wrote: How do you train yourself not to open your mouth?

I have tried for years and it just doesn't work so I have given up.

The good thing is I am now so old that most people no longer try to beat me up when I spout off.

If the mask covers both your nose and mouth, you can open your mouth. You do not lose therapy by opening your mouth with any full face mask or hybrid. That is what they are for, many of us mouth breathe.
Cheers
N

nanwilson wrote:If the mask covers both your nose and mouth, you can open your mouth. You do not lose therapy by opening your mouth with any full face mask or hybrid. That is what they are for, many of us mouth breathe.
Cheers
N

Funny thing is I did not mouth breath at the sleep place and felt better than I have so far with the mask I currently have.

ProblemSleeper wrote:To make things a little more confusing, when I did my sleep study with cpap I had nasal only. I did not open my mouth!

I had a similar experience. Used a nasal mask quite successfully during my titration study. The study reported that I had a number of arousals of "unknown etiology." I know what most of them probably were, as you shall see shortly.

My first mask was a very unsuccessful nasal mask. At first, I was keeping my mouth closed, because when I opened my mouth a little, air would rush out, which would rouse me just enough to close my mouth. Didn't really fully awaken, but I knew I was almost awake.

Then later I started sleeping through the night without waking. So I thought, gee, I've learned how to keep my mouth shut while I sleep, because it's not waking me up any more.

Imagine my surprise when several months later, still feeling tired, I tried taping my mouth shut and felt so much better the next day.

The answer to the mystery, at least in my case, is that I had NEVER learned to keep my mouth shut while I was sleeping. But what my brain had learned to do was block out the sensation of air coming out of my mouth so that I didn't rouse but stayed asleep. So while I thought I had trained myself to keep my mouth shut while I'm asleep, I was only fooling myself.

Many people here have trained themselves to keep their mouth shut while they are sleeping. I don't know if this topic is searchable, so maybe some of them will explain how. I read their explanations and it wouldn't work for me, but apparently it works for some people.

What about a chin strap?

I, too have this little problem with my mouth.
It comes open without warning, day or night; often to disastrous results.
The stretchy chinstraps just are painful to the point of nausea--not very good if your mouth is sealed shut.
I recommend a Papcap if you cannot find a full-face mask that fits.

Good luck; and keep trying.

ProblemSleeper wrote:I have a mask that covers my nose and mouth but not the whole face. This morning my mouth opened and there was quite a lot of leakage.

I am not sure the members understand your problem. The way I am reading it you are using your Ultra Mirage full face mask and when you mouthbreathe the mask starts leaking. Please comment.

As has been said, it is OK to mouthbreathe when using a FFM - that is what they are for. But if the mask leaks, you need some advice to help prevent the leaks.

If this mask leaks only when you mouthbreathe, it may be that you have the wrong size mask or the headgear is not evenly and properly adjusted.

I have a Mirage Liberty - nasal pillows with mouth piece making it a FF mask. I still need to use a chinstrap with this mask because although I make every attempt to breathe through my nose, during the night my mouth will open and air will escape from my mouth. This is NOT breathing through my mouth, as I hoped would happen, although I thought it would when I had a sinus infection for a week. All I ended up with was desert mouth, but at least there was SOME therapy as opposed to none with my Swift FX.

I've been at this a mere 4 months, but still no sign that I'm keeping my mouth shut so it's a chinstrap no matter which mask I'm using. Some use tape on their mouths which might work for you, but I just can't bring myself to use tape (although my DH has offered).

Cheers,
xena

xenablue wrote:This is NOT breathing through my mouth, as I hoped would happen, although I thought it would when I had a sinus infection for a week. All I ended up with was desert mouth, but at least there was SOME therapy as opposed to none with my Swift FX.

xena

xena, I assure you if you are using that Liberty mask while asleep and your nose is blocked, your brain/body knows how to breathe through the mouth and is doing it. It may be when you are awake, your conscious mind is focusing on breathing and blocking mouthbreathing. But as soon as you fall asleep, the autonomic functions will have you breathing through your mouth.

I ended up buying the OptiLife because it has the chin strap. I hope all goes well. Nervous about the nose pillows and sleeping but hoping I can get over it. Thanks.

roster wrote:

ProblemSleeper wrote:I have a mask that covers my nose and mouth but not the whole face. This morning my mouth opened and there was quite a lot of leakage.

If this mask leaks only when you mouthbreathe, it may be that you have the wrong size mask or the headgear is not evenly and properly adjusted.

When my husband tried a Small UltraMirageFF and his mouth opened it slipped up too close to his mouth and it leaked like crazy. He doesn't have that problem with the Medium.

DoriC wrote:

roster wrote:

ProblemSleeper wrote:I have a mask that covers my nose and mouth but not the whole face. This morning my mouth opened and there was quite a lot of leakage.

If this mask leaks only when you mouthbreathe, it may be that you have the wrong size mask or the headgear is not evenly and properly adjusted.

When my husband tried a Small UltraMirageFF and his mouth opened it slipped up too close to his mouth and it leaked like crazy. He doesn't have that problem with the Medium.

I believe mine is the large.

ProblemSleeper wrote:I ended up buying the OptiLife because it has the chin strap. I hope all goes well. Nervous about the nose pillows and sleeping but hoping I can get over it. Thanks

Please bear in mind that the chin strap on the OptiLife is there to stabilize the mask and not to provide intense support to the chin.
If you only need minimal support to "remind" the mouth to stay closed it may be sufficient. Even the makers of the mask will say that the chin strap is not there by design to cure an open mouth.

Nose Pillows? Ah, really not a big deal. I used the Optilife during my titration study. Took only just a little bit of time to adjust to the air going directly up my nose. It was actually much more comfortable than the "over the nose only" pillow they wanted me to try first.

I used to tape my mouth when I first started. Did it for about 3 months. Started to "forget" and ended up just stopping. I rarely open my mouth now. Sometimes I will but when I look at the reports, I don't see huge times in huge leaks and no real event increase so I would assume that the time is relatively short lived and I don't worry about it.

Keep plugging away at each little issue. It does eventually all come together and become less of a hassle.

i ditched my Quattro and Quattro FX FFmask as could not manage the leaks and now using the soft gel nasal mask with seatec chin strap which help keeps mouth closed and breathing through the nose .