Seasonal Humidity and Heat settings

[msstatecoletrain]

Hello,
I've been on CPAP treatment for 1.5 years so I am still learning the intricacies of my condition. One thing I have noticed is that during the winter, I get better sleep versus the summer. I think this is reflected in my AHI and how I "feel". I live in South Mississippi so humidity is pretty much a constant. Do you folks have to change your comfort settings even though my machine is in "auto"? Could this be due to the fact it's cooler and less humid in my home versus the summer? In the winter, I keep it anywhere from 66-68 degrees at night versus the summer of 74-75. I have my comfort settings for the heated tube at 1, and humidity at a 5. OR could it be something unrelated like leaking from my mask as I've had difficulty with that. Any suggestions? I also attached my latest daily sleep report when it was a warm Spring night.

screenshot-20200330-163708.png (86.74 KiB) Viewed 2016 times

[LSAT]

I am in the North and I keep my humidity at 3 winter and summer. You do what makes you the most comfortable. It doesn't matter what others do.

[Pugsy]

I pretty much leave the humidity the same no matter what the setting or time of year.
My nasal mucosa like for me to not go changing the humidity it gets...if it rains and the humidity is higher in my house the machine won't use as much water as it uses when it doesn't rain and the humidity is lower.

Now I do change the hose air temperature because I don't really like warm air in the summer like I do in the winter.
In the winter I will set the hose air temp between 80 and 86 degrees because I keep my house on the cold side...low 60s sometimes and that cold air going up my mask into my nose doesn't feel so good and in fact will disturb my sleep.
In the summer I will turn the hose air temp down to as low as it will go and still prevent condensation in the mask.

I can tell you right now that if I had to try to sleep in a house with the ambient temperature being in the mid 70s...I would have a very difficult time sleeping even if I wasn't using cpap at all.
My mother is 87 and she keeps her house way too hot for my comfort. No way I could ever sleep in her house at those warm temps.

[Julie]

If you're happy with 5 for humidity - I personally would be so congested, even living in a drier climate, that I can't believe you're happy there!

[sptrout]

I live near Houston so we have similar climates; hot and humid. My humidity setting for about 8 months of the year is "off". Actually, I remove the humidifier and replace it with ResMed`s bypass module. No need for any additional moisture (and the heat needed to create it) for us deep southerners.

[Pugsy]

Everyone's nose (nasal mucosa) is different in terms what it needs in added moisture (or not) to be happy and content.
And just because someone lives in a humid area doesn't necessarily mean that their nose doesn't need near maximum added moisture.

The nasal mucosa reacts different to the air flow going through the nose among individuals and how much it dries out.
So the ambient humidity may not play as big of a part as the drying affects of the air flow going over the mucosa. Maybe one person's nose just dries out more easily than the other....even if they live in a rain forest.

Heck, we have households where a couple are both on cpap and one prefers no added water and the spouse prefers maximum humidity to keep their nose happy.
They are using the same ambient air but one's preferred added humidity setting is markedly different from the other person.

It's another one of those things related to cpap that has a really big YMMV sticker on it.

Also...don't assume that the humidity outside is what might be inside a house....unless the windows are always open the inside the house humidity is very likely to be different and sometimes a lot different.
Air conditioners dry out the air....furnaces dry out the air...wood heat definitely will dry out the air.
If you live in a hot climate...even if it is relatively humid...chances are people will be using air conditioners.

If you live on the east side of the state of Washington...their ambient humidity isn't nearly as high as the west side and there's a lot of Washington on the east side of the mountains which block all that sea moisture from getting inland.

Lots of variables to factor in along with the biggest variable...what the nasal mucosa needs to be happy.

[zonker]

And just because someone lives in a humid area doesn't necessarily mean that their nose doesn't need near maximum added moisture.

this is almost me. even though i live in a humid climate (55% humidity inside right now) i have the humidity on the machine is set to 1 and my tube temp is 83.

it's what makes the inside of my nose happy!!

[joeack1]

"Now I do change the hose air temperature because I don't really like warm air in the summer like I do in the winter.
In the winter I will set the hose air temp between 80 and 86 degrees because I keep my house on the cold side...low 60s sometimes and that cold air going up my mask into my nose doesn't feel so good and in fact will disturb my sleep. In the summer I will turn the hose air temp down to as low as it will go and still prevent condensation in the mask."

Pugsy are you saying you can drop the tube temp much lower, but keep humidity setting high and not get rain out? I currently use a resmed airsense 10 autoset and have tube temp at 84 and humidity at 6, my nose prefers the higher humidity or I get congested. Temps are changing and of late I can tell I would prefer a lower tube temp, but have been concerned dropping as thought would get rain out?

[Pugsy]

Pugsy are you saying you can drop the tube temp much lower, but keep humidity setting high and not get rain out? I currently use a resmed airsense 10 autoset and have tube temp at 84 and humidity at 6, my nose prefers the higher humidity or I get congested. Temps are changing and of late I can tell I would prefer a lower tube temp, but have been concerned dropping as thought would get rain out?

That's exactly what I am saying we can do. I do it and have been doing it since my first heated hose machine a few years ago.

You can turn the hose all the way down to the lowest heat number...now obviously it can't lower the ambient temperature in the bedroom but it can at least not add heat so it's not quite so warm. So if you set it for 60 degrees (which I think is the lowest for a ResMed machine) and your ambient bedroom temp is 68 degrees ....it simply won't heat up the air in the hose.

Rainout is annoying but it won't kill you but it can sure disrupt sleep. The only time my husband has ever been woke up with my cpap use is when water forms in the hose. Man...a couple of teaspoons of water sounds like a freight train I think.
So we have to walk a fine line sometimes but walk it we can. Takes a bit of trial and error and experimenting but we can do it.

As long as the water doesn't wake me up much...I don't really care if my nasal mask gets a little water in it. I wake up with a wet nose fairly often but if that is the worst it is...I don't care. For me anyway its when the condensation is so bad it accumulates in the hose and causes a lot of racket that I have a problem with it....wakes me up and everyone here should know by now that anything that wakes me up is bad for me.....my sleep is already very fragile because of other health issues.

For moisture at the mask level only...sometimes adding a mask liner if possible will help absorb the moisture and make it potentially less annoying.

I don't change my humidity level very often. My nasal mucosa would have me snorting water if I could do that and in fact right before bedtime I always give the mucosa a little shot of simply saline to help hydrate them. Just something I have done for years.

I do change the hose air temp quite dramatically though..... much cooler in the summer than in the winter. I work on finding the point for hose air temp that will at least keep the condensation out of the hose because that's the most annoying noise to wake up to.
If the tip of my noise gets a little damp...I don't care as long as it doesn't wake me up.

[joeack1]

Thanks Pugsy!! Will def start playing with tube temp settings, appreciate the guidance.

[Wulfman...]

I've had my heated humidity turned off since I started therapy 15 years ago and just use "passover" (cool) humidity year round. (and I live in a dry, mountainous, northwestern area)
I just HATE warm, humid air at night. The cooler air keeps my nasal passages clearer.


Den

.

[chunkyfrog]

I use my Climateline year around--setting is always the same.
Last night, I hooked up the new machine--with a new hose, and new mask.
And all the same settings, though it was a task.

[[[Booger! It looks like myAir is on the new menu--once you click on it,
no way out except to click yes or unplug. OF COURSE, I unplugged it!
My DME left essentials to ON, but I fixed that.
They also left Smartstart off--also fixed!
Those knuckleheads also left EPR off]]]
Now should/will I give them an earful?
Should I start a poll?

[rossitron]

Hello everyone.
I am on my second night with a CPAP Machine and it has greatly reduced my episodes, but a quick question. and I know it might seem a silly one, but ill ask it anyway My lungs feel like they have run an ultra marathon. I used to run 5 & 8k regularly but they never felt like this afterwards. Is this normal?

Thanks

[Pugsy]

Hello everyone.
I am on my second night with a CPAP Machine and it has greatly reduced my episodes, but a quick question. and I know it might seem a silly one, but ill ask it anyway My lungs feel like they have run an ultra marathon. I used to run 5 & 8k regularly but they never felt like this afterwards. Is this normal?

Thanks

Having a little soreness in your chest wall muscles when you inhale and exhale. A little discomfort with inhale and exhale? Feeling a little "tight"?
Actually it is fairly normal because essentially your chest wall muscles have been doing a different kind of exercise or "work" because of the extra effort required to exhale against pressure.
The muscles haven't ever worked like this before. It's no different than what happens we go to the gym and start doing some exercise that targets muscles we never really targeted before.

And as with any new exercise....the more we do it the less it hurts. So this will pass and normally fairly quickly.

Now if you start having a lot of worsening or real pain or shortness of breath....do at least call your doctor and alert him to the issue but minor discomfort is normal.

Normally we suggest people that if it's very bad...go to the ER and make sure the heart is okay but with what is going on right now the ER is the last place people should go unless something is really really bad.

If a person has ever had costochroniditis, which is an inflammation of the chest wall muscles, this is what this discomfort feels like.
Most of the time it's very mild and no big deal but if it gets severe ....call your doctor.

[maffle]

Hello,

I am struggling now for 6 months and cant get my therapy to work. I am honestly feeling desperate and want to give up. Is is a pure nightmare for me. I just cant fall asleep with the mask/air flow, mostly for several reasons. I tried 4 different masks so far, and none worked. Deactivated the totally not working auto ramp of the Resmed S10, set it to off, deactivated auto cpap, which also is a pure joke and doesnt work at all and put it on fixed cpap. But this is a different story. Not sure why, but the auto cpap of the S10 doesnt work for me. The magical "detects if you sleep" totally does not work at all for me. The machine just rises the pressure more and more even after 5 minutes already, and it gets just so uncomfortable that falling asleep is a nogo. Maybe the reason for this is that I have a very flat breathing curve because of my depression. It happens a lot of times too just during the day, that I stop breathing because I find breathing "annoying" and I tend to breath flat all the day, which is bad I know... but I kinda learned this over 15 years of having depression I guess.

I wonder if a climateline tube would maybe help me, and the air is too cold for my nose. The issue is that I develop a horrible pain after 30-60 minutes wearing the mask in/around my nose, and I cant fall asleep. Sometimes I lay in bed for 3 hours and am so tired, my eyes hurt so much of wanting to sleep, that I remove the mask, and then fall asleep in 5 minutes. It basically is a 100% "stay awake" mechanism for me with the mask/airflow, it keeps me awake 100%, and I tried literally everything so far. Everything except a heated tube. My room temperature is around 67/68°F (20°C), not sure if this might still be "too cold" for some people, could that be, that a heated tube might help fall asleep?