Dry mouth all night long

Hello fellow sleep apnea peeps,

I am new to this forum, but not to sleep apnea. I was diagnosed last year but just got a Phillips Dream Station last week. One of my problems is that I sleep with my mouth open due to mainly nasal passages being stuffed up as I also have Ulcerative Colitis...fun times. Anyhow, I have a full face mask with my machine which has heated humidity, I also have a humidifier in the room while I sleep...but not enough humidity even at its highest setting. So my mouth is still bone dry...which means I have to unplug the mask, insert a straw through the hole and sip water at regular intervals all night, which naturally causes the need to get up and urinate all night as well Does anyone know of a machine that puts extra humidity into the mask for mouth breathers...Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
sleepyStan

You didn't say if you're also using a heated hose. This allows more humidity to be delivered by preventing rainout. There is a feature which restricts the humidity to prevent rain-out. If you use the correct heated hose, it will allow more. Also, you can disable the anti-rainout feature, but you risk rainout.

sleepyStan wrote:Hello fellow sleep apnea peeps,

I am new to this forum, but not to sleep apnea. I was diagnosed last year but just got a Phillips Dream Station last week. One of my problems is that I sleep with my mouth open due to mainly nasal passages being stuffed up as I also have Ulcerative Colitis...fun times. Anyhow, I have a full face mask with my machine which has heated humidity, I also have a humidifier in the room while I sleep...but not enough humidity even at its highest setting. So my mouth is still bone dry...which means I have to unplug the mask, insert a straw through the hole and sip water at regular intervals all night, which naturally causes the need to get up and urinate all night as well Does anyone know of a machine that puts extra humidity into the mask for mouth breathers...Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
sleepyStan

Did you know that higher levels of heated humidity can exacerbate nasal congestion? If you can't breathe through your nose, you're going to have to breathe through your mouth. That causes "dry mouth". Doesn't matter if you're wearing a full face mask, mouth-breathing = dry mouth. Some other medical conditions like diabetes or medications can also contribute to it, too.
You might TRY turning down (or off) your humidifier setting and doing nasal cleansing before bedtime to see if that helps.


Den

.

Do you use the heated hose with your machine or the non heated hose?
At what setting are you using now with whatever hose you are using?

These humidifiers were designed with the nasal cavity in mind to help add moisture to the nose...the oral cavity is much larger and for some people these machines even at maximum humidity can't keep up with the drying effects of mouth breathing for some people. Some people just get dry mouth easier than others for any number of reasons.

Now we could add a stand alone humidifier to be used in conjunction with the DreamStation humidifier...so that's an option but it comes with it's own potential issues for condensation happening in the long hose and you lose the heated hose with it but there is a different heated hose that could maybe be used.

There are a lot of full face mask users here complaining of dry mouth even with humidifier maxed out. Many have to add some sort of mouth moisturizing product like Biotene with various degrees of success. So you aren't alone.

If you aren't using a heated hose...get one because it will allow you to have greater moisture output and more control over the moisture. The default non heated hose humidification system on the Respironics machines doesn't put out all that much moisture even at max settings when compared to what it can do with a heated hose.

I don't think a second in-line humidifier would be of much value. No machine can deliver more humidity than the hose can hold!

D.H. wrote:I don't think a second in-line humidifier would be of much value. No machine can deliver more humidity than the hose can hold!

Actually I know someone who uses the second humidifier and all you have to do is make it so the hose doesn't cool off so much to release the moisture.
Actually easy to do...stand alone heated hose attached to the second humidifier.

Pugsy wrote:

D.H. wrote:I don't think a second in-line humidifier would be of much value. No machine can deliver more humidity than the hose can hold!

Actually I know someone who uses the second humidifier and all you have to do is make it so the hose doesn't cool off so much to release the moisture.
Actually easy to do...stand alone heated hose attached to the second humidifier.

I use my PR System One AutoSV humidifier as well as the HC150 stand alone humidifier. Thanks to JDS74, I learned how to use a small hose to connect my unit to the separate heater to which I attach a Hybernite heated hose.

Heat, humidity is a personal preference. I need that extra heat and humidity. I have very bad sinus issues and this is the only way I can survive. Tried the no and lower humidity routes...no way, Jose!!!

I also use the Xylimelt tablets that you place in your mouth. They help with saliva...my dentist today agreed with the use of them for CPAP. Get mine from Amazon