Noob with a stuffy nose

Hi all, I'm glad I found this forum!
Last night was my 4th night using cpap. It's been going great except the last two nights I ended up with a stuffy nose and couldn't breath easily. The first time I thought I had the humidity too high (I live in the desert in Las Vegas) and last night I turned it down thinking it would help.
After about 15-20 minutes after going to bed last night, my right nostril seemed to be totally restricted and I felt like I couldn't breath. I got a little panicky and took off the mask a few times (Swift LT) before finally falling asleep with it on. When I took it off I tried breathing through my nose to see how restricted it was and it was not bad at all. So I don't know if I'm just psyching myself out and hyperventilating or if there is a real restriction.
My pressure is 6 and it seems lower than when I did the sleep study.
Is this normal for a new Cpap user? Should humidity be higher or lower if I am getting stuffy? How do I know if I have enough pressure or just imagining not being able to breath well (I think the pressure when you exhale makes it seem like you can't breath as well even though you can).
Thanks!

I think it's an individual thing--some people swear by increased humidity for a stuffy nose, but it seems to congest me more. I have my humidifier set at 1 right now. When there's rainout in my pillows (Swift LX for Her) it stuffs my nose too. So I often wake with a stuffy nose. I purchased fabric to make a hose snuggy this weekend, just have to sew it up.

I do a "quasi" nasal rinse before bed--really I just squirt Nasal Mist up there, and I take TWO allergy meds to control allergic sinusitis (Singlulair and Loratadine--generic Claritin). With those on board and the low humidity setting, I'm not having too much of a problem.

The stuffy nose was really upsetting in a nasal mask, I really felt like I was suffocating. It doesn't feel as terrifying with the swift.

I set the humidifier to 1 or use it in passover mode. My nose is a little stuffy when I go to bed, but after a few minutes on the cpap machine it opens up. A setting of 3 or more on the humidifier and I can't breath at all the next day.

Thanks for the help, I think my humidity was too high too. I will try 1 for the next few nights to see if it helps.
BTW, I haven't tried but I thought I was unable to control the pressure but it looks like others on this forum have adjusted theirs. I want to try it on 7 instead of 6. Is this something I can control or is it locked down on the machine?

savmac wrote:Thanks for the help, I think my humidity was too high too. I will try 1 for the next few nights to see if it helps.
BTW, I haven't tried but I thought I was unable to control the pressure but it looks like others on this forum have adjusted theirs. I want to try it on 7 instead of 6. Is this something I can control or is it locked down on the machine?

I think I remember how to do it. Change the screen to setup, hold down the ramp and the knob for 5 seconds until the machine beeps, then go to setup and change the pressure

I think that's right, but i'm not looking at the machine right now. There was a topic previously posted on how to change the settings.

I felt congested too when I first started. My problem was greatly improved by doing a nasal rinse; not a spry but a rinse. People call it a neti pot but I think mine says neli pot. Some look like actual little tea pots and some are just plastic container that you squeeze to rinse your sinuses. I didn't have sinus problems pre-cpap but I think it just slightly irritates mine to where I feel congested.

Here is a web MD link on it and you can search here too:
http://www.webmd.com/allergies/sinus-pa ... /neti-pots

Good luck,
Rob

Hi savmac,
More often than not, stuffy noses get caused by humidity being too high. I'm amazed that you can breathe at a pressure of six, but we're all different when it comes to pressure. It's a good idea to make sure your large leak rate is minimal before starting to change pressures. All the self-titration in the world means nothing if your large leak is out of control. Once you do start self-titrating, keep a record of your AHI. Try not to change the pressure too often. You need at least a week on one pressure setting to get a good idea of what your AHI at that setting will average. (Of course, this is not a professional opinion here.)

Good luck, and welcome.

Wow, thanks for the great info everyone! I just discovered the wiki too - tons of info (what did we do before the Internet?).
I actually have a neti pot that I use every once in a while. I will use it tonight to see if it helps. I also bought a hose cover from cpap.com so I will use that too when it gets here. I'll leave the pressure as is for now and the humidity at 1 and see how that does for a few nights. Then I will try upping the pressure if I don't see better results.