nothing but DRYNESS

[Eduh]

Hello all,

So I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea a few months ago and I am trying the CPAP machine treatment. I reached a point where I have NO IDEA what to do, and I am getting desperate. There is no doubt about the benefit from the therapy, but the dryness is so uncomfortable to me that I will wake up in the middle of the night everyday, take a long time to go back to sleep and most of the nights I end up taking the mask off.

I started with a phillips respironics machine with full face mask and everything was fine for a week, but then I started getting nothing but dry air. I've tried a lot of stuff (heated tubing, played with the humidity/heat settings) and nothing has worked so far.

I have changed to a resmed S9 machine with heated tubing, and same thing. Changed mask for a nasal mask, and this decreased the discomfort caused by dryness, but did not change the dryness itself (now instead of dry nose and mouth, I only have dry nose). I have set the humidity to every setting between 2.5 to 6.0 (highest). I have set the air temperature to every setting between 22 and 28 celsius (71 and 82 fahrenheit). I also pre-warm the humidifier before going to bed.

I live in a relatively cold place, but as I said, I tried the heated tubing and it didn't change anything (except for the fact that the air is now warm, which feels a bit better). A few of the nights I felt some water dripping down the mask when I moved (while the mask and air still seemed dry), which indicates rainout, but kind of hard to understand when I have the temperature setting to 28c (82f)... If I increase the temperature more I guess I'll feel like I'm in the desert.

One more change I tried was moving the machine from my bedside table to the floor, thinking that the warm (and moist) air would go up... did not help. I thought the tube rolling onto itself could cause that and tried untangling it, but did not help either. I have tried every single idea that I could think of (which obviously doesn't mean I have tried everything), and none of it seems to work or help at all.

any ideas, any thoughts, any suggestions please?

Thanks in advance!

[Wanker]

U could try putting some insulation around the heated tubing or some sort or cover over it , or buy of those room humidifier machines

[JDS74]

In the morning, how much water is left in the cpap humidifier tank?
It seems unlikely that two machines would have a humidifier failure after only a few days but it is possible.

Is/was there some environmental difference between the few nights that the dryness was not there and the nights in which is was? Room temperature? Outside temperature? Rainy night vs dry outside (affecting the room humidity)? What is the room temperature at night?

Adding a hose wrap to your setup would decrease the possibility of condensation in the hose removing moisture from the air flow but the heated tube should have controlled that. It wouldn't hurt to add a wrap anyway. As an experiment, you could go to a fabric store and purchase a couple of yards of medium thickness fleece. Then cut a piece about 8 inches wide and 6 feet long and wrap that around your hose. I used Velcro strips to secure the fabric around my hose. You didn't mention what masks your are using (it would be helpful to post the equipment list in your User Control Panel) but most have a short hose that connects the mask proper to the supply hose. Using another small piece of fleece wrap around that might help as well if the room temperature is quite low.

The last possibility that occurs to me is using a room humidifier to increase the room humidity as well. Keep the door closed so you are not trying to humidify the whole house.

[Julie]

You can also get Biotene at the drugstore.

[Eduh]

Hi guys.

Thanks for your replies. I forgot to mention in the previous post: I have a hose wrap on.

and there is less water in the tank. I don't think the problem is with the machine, I think there is either something I am doing wrong or there's something wrong with my body. The truth is I also wake up dry when I'm not using the machine, but I wouldn't expect that when there is a machine blowing warm and (virtually) moist air inside my nose and mouth...

The biotene is not a bad idea, I'll give it a try...

I am open to try pretty much anything...

[OkyDoky]

You could also try Ayr Nasal gel before masking up. They make both a spray and gel. I use the gel at night because it seems to last longer and then the next morning I use the spray.