Rainout help

[Love my Sleep]

I'm using a Resmed S9 elite with the humidifier turned off; water in chamber for Passover humidification and standard tubing. I cannot tolerate any heat or heated tubing. I sleep best with the room temp preferably in the mid 60's, however I'm being woke by significant rainout. Do any of you have any suggestions to help with rainout??

[robysue]

Is the rainout in the hose or in the pillows themselves?

It's hard to believe that running the humidifier in passover mode with a standard hose will lead to significant rainout in the hose even in the bedroom is in the mid-60s.

But---I can see how that set up could lead to significant rainout in the pillows themselves. If the rainout is in the pillows, but the hose is dry, the problem is being caused by condensation coming from the warm moist air you are exhaling into the cold nasal pillows. The air you exhale is at body temperature and pretty moist in terms of relative humidity. It hits the colder air in the mask, and because the air in the mask and the air coming from the hose is sooo much cooler than the air you're exhaling, the moisture in your exhalations immediately condenses and forms water droplets in the mask.

What to do? The first thing to try is using a barrel cozy from Padacheek. A barrel cozy is a fleece lined wrap for the nasal pillows themselves----it goes around the part of the pillows unit that is below the cones that touch your nostrils. This helps provide a bit of insulation and that can make a difference. It's possible to use two barrel cozies on the mask if you need more insulation.

Running the hose under the covers and next to your warm body will also help minimize the temperature difference between the air being blown in by the machine and the warm moist air you are exhaling into the mask. So that also can help with minimizing or eliminating the rainout in the pillows caused by your exhalations hitting colder, drier air.

[LSAT]

Remove the humidifier and connect the hose to the S9 unit itself.

[Love my Sleep]

Is the rainout in the hose or in the pillows themselves?

It's hard to believe that running the humidifier in passover mode with a standard hose will lead to significant rainout in the hose even in the bedroom is in the mid-60s.

But---I can see how that set up could lead to significant rainout in the pillows themselves. If the rainout is in the pillows, but the hose is dry, the problem is being caused by condensation coming from the warm moist air you are exhaling into the cold nasal pillows. The air you exhale is at body temperature and pretty moist in terms of relative humidity. It hits the colder air in the mask, and because the air in the mask and the air coming from the hose is sooo much cooler than the air you're exhaling, the moisture in your exhalations immediately condenses and forms water droplets in the mask.

Oh yes, it does appear to be just a problem in the mask. I will look into the barrel cozy. Thank you for your suggestions! I might be destined to choose between sleeplessness with warmer air or sleeplessness from rainout in my mask. I'll have to see which one is easiest to live with. luckily at least both alternatives as still better than sleeping without the mask at all.

[Love my Sleep]

Remove the humidifier and connect the hose to the S9 unit itself.

Hmmm worth a try especially since it doesn't involve warming anything.

How long did it take everyone to find the "sweet spot" that gave them the best sleep? It just seems like a million things to work out to get settle into a comfy sleep routine.

[robysue]

Remove the humidifier and connect the hose to the S9 unit itself.

Hmmm worth a try especially since it doesn't involve warming anything.

If the rainout is confined to the mask, removing the humidifier is not likely to do much---after all, you're already using the humidifier in passover mode. You may find that the machine is noisier without the humidifier attached. Or not. My brother can't stand any humidification and has his hose connected directly to the blower unit of his S8 and has no real problems with additional noise. I need humidification, but when camping I tried using my System One unit without the humidifier attached and I was shocked at how much louder the sounds were. The next night the humidifier went back on the machine (in passover mode) and that reduced the noise back down to what I was used to. But the nose was still too dry to take a third night of little or no humidification, and so since then, I've used the humidifier while camping even though it means finding a place to plug the dang battery in almost every day.

How long did it take everyone to find the "sweet spot" that gave them the best sleep? It just seems like a million things to work out to get settle into a comfy sleep routine.

How long to find the "sweet spot" is highly variable. I thought I had the sweet spot for humidification figured out in the first 3 months, but I didn't really fully sort out that my nose really wants the humidifier on its highest setting all the time until I'd been paping almost a year.

What happened with me was this: I found a routine that was "sort of working" pretty early on as far as getting the machine and mask put together every night. But since I still was dealing with other serious problems (aerophagia and insomnia mainly), I really didn't spend much time figuring out just what I needed in terms of a working bedtime routine and cleaning routine. Once I became a lot more relaxed about the cleaning of the equipment that helped a lot. I won't say my bedtime routine is "natural" yet, but at least it no longer keys me up and leaves more more awake than when I first started the process of going to bed.