05-10-2022, 08:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-10-2022, 10:43 AM by CorruptAlligator.)
Anybody having issues with congestion should look into their humidity setting
Good morning everyone,
I want to share my recent discovery related to humidity and humidifier setting on the A10 APAP.
So, it's now getting close to summer and some parts of the country, it's gotten much hotter than other places, and I live in that place. And this place has a very dry climate that the humidity can get very low. In addition, I have to use an air conditioner. The airconditioner really saps the air from any moisture.
Last couple years, I noticed that I have issues with sleep starting this time of the year, but I wasn't aware that it maybe humidity related, and that the dry air was causing sinus congestion.
This sinus congestion is very bad for me since I'm a nose breather, and I don't believe I even try to breath out of my mouth. This causes low oxygen saturation, and my heart likely pumps harder to make up for the lack of oxygen. And the most dangerous part is that I wake up with ear ringing loud in the middle of the night and difficult to go back to sleep for close to an hr.
And lately I had very high blood pressure. I have thought it may have been higher than recommended salt intake for someone sensative to salt like me, but it seems that the sleep quality was really causing my bp to go up.
It never occurred to me that my humidifier wasn't set correctly for my environment, and was causing congestion recently, and likely causing me to wake up with ringing (tinnitus) in my ears. Ringing maybe the result from teeth clinching from lack of air intake.
My tube temp was set to 70 and humidity was set to 4. This setting was fine until my ambient temperature went up and also got drier due to air conditioner.
This change of environment, I think my tube temperature should have been raised to 80 and set the humidity to auto. The temp on auto is 80 degrees from what I've heard, likely due to it being the temp that cause greater humidity in the air.
So, I set my machine to auto on both climate and humidity, and I haven't had congestion issue all night. Also, I have gotten heavy mucus build up in my sinus when I wake up, and it seems to be related to humidity during sleep.
So, recommend looking into your humidity setting and get it adjusted so that it actually provide useful humidity level. You may have humidity set to a certain level, but the tube temp is too low for any useful humidity level.
I welcome any other advice regarding the humidity and humidifier. To me, it's one of the most useful feature of the CPAP machine, and very important one for me personally.
Sometimes I suspect the filter causing low airflow, but the source of low airflow can be your sinus. Your sinus can be narrowing from inflammation from dry air. Your sinus is an important part of the air flow, you don't it to get blocked. If you are having low air intake, but high enough pressure, it can be your sinus blocking. And the machine may not detect as flow limitation.
Sometimes we get issues even when AHI is low or something changes for unknow reasons. This is one of those times for me. It's due to change in environment.
Very interesting discussion here, and it's refreshing to see people so experience with it.
It's so interesting what they say about holding off on seeing ENT. I was diagnosed with GERD for my symptoms, but I'm starting to think that it's just nasal congestion from lack of humidity when asleep.
I want to share my recent discovery related to humidity and humidifier setting on the A10 APAP.
So, it's now getting close to summer and some parts of the country, it's gotten much hotter than other places, and I live in that place. And this place has a very dry climate that the humidity can get very low. In addition, I have to use an air conditioner. The airconditioner really saps the air from any moisture.
Last couple years, I noticed that I have issues with sleep starting this time of the year, but I wasn't aware that it maybe humidity related, and that the dry air was causing sinus congestion.
This sinus congestion is very bad for me since I'm a nose breather, and I don't believe I even try to breath out of my mouth. This causes low oxygen saturation, and my heart likely pumps harder to make up for the lack of oxygen. And the most dangerous part is that I wake up with ear ringing loud in the middle of the night and difficult to go back to sleep for close to an hr.
And lately I had very high blood pressure. I have thought it may have been higher than recommended salt intake for someone sensative to salt like me, but it seems that the sleep quality was really causing my bp to go up.
It never occurred to me that my humidifier wasn't set correctly for my environment, and was causing congestion recently, and likely causing me to wake up with ringing (tinnitus) in my ears. Ringing maybe the result from teeth clinching from lack of air intake.
My tube temp was set to 70 and humidity was set to 4. This setting was fine until my ambient temperature went up and also got drier due to air conditioner.
This change of environment, I think my tube temperature should have been raised to 80 and set the humidity to auto. The temp on auto is 80 degrees from what I've heard, likely due to it being the temp that cause greater humidity in the air.
So, I set my machine to auto on both climate and humidity, and I haven't had congestion issue all night. Also, I have gotten heavy mucus build up in my sinus when I wake up, and it seems to be related to humidity during sleep.
So, recommend looking into your humidity setting and get it adjusted so that it actually provide useful humidity level. You may have humidity set to a certain level, but the tube temp is too low for any useful humidity level.
I welcome any other advice regarding the humidity and humidifier. To me, it's one of the most useful feature of the CPAP machine, and very important one for me personally.
Sometimes I suspect the filter causing low airflow, but the source of low airflow can be your sinus. Your sinus can be narrowing from inflammation from dry air. Your sinus is an important part of the air flow, you don't it to get blocked. If you are having low air intake, but high enough pressure, it can be your sinus blocking. And the machine may not detect as flow limitation.
Sometimes we get issues even when AHI is low or something changes for unknow reasons. This is one of those times for me. It's due to change in environment.
Very interesting discussion here, and it's refreshing to see people so experience with it.
It's so interesting what they say about holding off on seeing ENT. I was diagnosed with GERD for my symptoms, but I'm starting to think that it's just nasal congestion from lack of humidity when asleep.
