The cardiologist told us to put some extra pillows or a rolled up blanket under the mattress to tilt it up a bit. This is for heart-related reasons. Before I try it I'm wondering if there could be a mask-related problem in doing this? I didn't bother asking him because he's the one who couldn't understand why the mask would leak at all during the night if it was fitted properly.

Dori....I don't think it would hurt with mask issues. I occasionally use a bed wedge to sleep with...if I'm feeling congested or something. Works fine...doesn't cause my mask to leak. Might try that instead of bunched up pillows. Got mine on sale at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Have you looked into the MedSlant pillow? I believe you wouldn't need to raise the mattress with one of those. I have one for reflux, and it works great!

http://www.medslant.com

I have a water bed so was definitely not going to be raising the head of the bed or the mattress. I got one of the following, but paid much less. I attached this link because of the detailed description. I bought off ebay and have seen it for half the price elsewhere also.

http://www.comforthouse.com/skincaretool.html

I found that trying to use pillows really screwed with my back and sometimes did interfere with mask fit. This is such a gradual rise there is no problem, plus you could take advantage of the raised edge to hang face/mask parts over (I don't do that, though). I use a pillow on top of the wedge.

Good ideas, thanks. I'll try an extra blanket or something underneath the mattress tonight to make sure the slant is not going to interfere with the mask(he's a restless sleeper) and then I'll look into one of those wedges. Ugggh! Another bed accessory to buy to go along with the 20 different bed pillows I bought!

You can also use 2x4's or 4x4's (cut to size) placed under the feet at the head of the bed to help also.

Thanks Gumby, that reminded me that I have a catalog that sells a set of blocks in either 2",3" or 4" heights that fit right over the legs of the bed frame. Good idea.

Because of acid reflux, I have to have my bed frame elevated 4 ". Bricks work fine. It really helps. I never thought about the affect on tCPAP therapy, though.:>)

It might even help with cpap since some people sleep apnea free while sitting up.

My wife and I both have GERD related issues and we have had the head of the bed raised about 5" for the past 7 years.
(Blocks under the headboard). It has caused no issues with my CPAP.

I'm not sure how much you are raising but when i raised my mattress I found than i had a tendency to kind of drop my chin into my chest during sleep. This changed the shape of my face and caused mask leaks, i had to tighten my bottom straps on my FFM to accommodate this.
Good luck

Uncle_Bob wrote:I'm not sure how much you are raising but when i raised my mattress I found than i had a tendency to kind of drop my chin into my chest during sleep. This changed the shape of my face and caused mask leaks, i had to tighten my bottom straps on my FFM to accommodate this.
Good luck

When I started using my wedge pillow, I noticed that too, so I bought a contoured memory foam pillow, which helps. I really want the Regenesis pillow from Pur-Sleep!

Uncle_Bob, Yes, that's why I raised that question and that's exactly what happened last night when I put extra pillows under the mattress to experiment,not by very much. Mike's chin did tend to drop down and I heard a lot of snoring during the night which woke me, so I pulled the pillows out, he raised his head position and the snoring stopped. His report showed that during that snoring phase he leaked more and his pressure hit the max (13cms)that whole time(about 2hrs). Afterwards, he slept at 11cms the rest of the night with good leak line. The cardiologist didn't really insist on raising the mattress as a health issue, he just mentioned it in passing so I'll leave well enough alone. Thanks.