Mouth Leaks and Congestion

Congestion can be caused by many different things. One way is through a mouth leak. As air blows out of your mouth, it dries your mouth out. In other words, this is dehydrating you. The body's natural reaction to this is congestion. So, what do you do?

What I do in the sleep lab setting is to increase the humidity and control the mouth leak. Humidity can be increased by going to a higher number on your heated humidifier. I usually start at a setting of 1 or 2. If somebody complains of congestion, I will increase it to 3 or 4. Sometimes I use 5 but only for a short time. To control the mouth leak, I usually add a chin strap. Sometimes I switch to a full face mask, but rarely.

At home, you probably don't have the liberty of going to the supply room and picking out different masks and chin straps. You probably don't even feel like getting up. No worries however, all is not lost! A simple trick is to put a pillow under your chin to keep your mouth closed. Luckily at home you CAN adjust your humidity setting too. If you are not sure how to, it is probably in the owners manual or look on your machine for a setting that goes from zero (0) to five (5). Zero is no heated humidity, but you will still be getting humidity as long as you have water in the reservoir. Setting 5 is the maximum heated humidity setting. It is okay to experiment with the humidity. At home, sometimes I need it high if I'm feeling congested or sometimes I need it low for when I don't want to breathe warm air. Experiment and you will find what you like!