What's your temp setting?

[AMK]

I've had to review my settings after waking up yesterday morning with so much water having accumulated in my nasal pillow that it had poured into my right sinus cavity, causing inflammation. That was a fun way to wake up. I'd been having rainout issues before, with water everywhere when I would take off my mask, but that was the first time it had gone into my sinuses. The season where I live changed abruptly, with chilly autumn seeming to arrive almost overnight, and the rainout got worse.

I use a Climateline tube with a fleece cozy on it and a short cozy on the mask tube. My room is 60-62 F. My sleep nurse has dismissed my problem as a room that's too cold in the winter.

My settings were 74 degrees and humidity level 2. After the sinus incident, I've changed that to 75 and 1. I seemed to be ok last night with no water everywhere. But I was curious what temp settings other people use. I really have no idea what range of temps is optimal for comfort.

[LSAT]

Depends on what part of the country (or world) the person is located. Also what temperature the room is kept at and the humidity level in that room....Comparisons are useless.

[Pugsy]

In the winter my bedroom temps will pretty much match yours or even less but I prefer maximum humidity so I will need hose air temps in the 80s to prevent condensation.
That's fine with me...for me it's more important to have the humidity my nose prefers than it is to have lower hose air temps. I use the same humidity setting year round and just alter hose air temp as needed for the seasons changing.
Summer gets a much lower temp setting so minimal warmth and winter gets almost maxed out temp setting.

Comparing temp settings, or humidity settings for that matter, doesn't really mean much because of the variable involved along with personal preferences.

Use whatever humidity setting you prefer and simply adjust the temp so that condensation is prevented and the temp is comfortable for you and don't worry about what the actual number is or compares to me or someone else.

[AMK]

Thanks, Pugsy. How exactly does your nose benefit from maximum humidity? How do you feel if you don't get enough humidity?

[knothead]

Hi AMK,
You have to be careful not to overfill the water tank also. (Don't ask me how I know...lol). Overfilling will most definitely cause rainout.

[AMK]

Thanks, Knothead. I actually only fill the water tank 1/4 full each night because my humidity setting uses so little water that I hate to waste it. I'll keep that in mind for if I raise my humidity!

[Pugsy]

How exactly does your nose benefit from maximum humidity? How do you feel if you don't get enough humidity?

First of all humidity needs will/can vary among cpap users.
I happen to need maximum moisture...when my nasal mucosa don't get enough moisture I have the most horrible allergy like symptoms (confirmed by a few times when the machine has gone dry during the night because I forgot to add water and a couple of times I tried a lower humidifier setting).
Symptoms were horrible congestion, drainage, pressure, sneezing, etc. Pretty much what you would expect with a bad cold or allergy attack.

The confusing thing about humidity needs and why it can vary so much is that some people have those same symptoms if the humidity is too high.

What happens with either too much or not enough humidity is the nasal mucosa respond like they would to anything irritating them...they start producing the histamines and swell up and get congested and start draining and we end up miserable.

The knee jerk response by some people rain out complaints is "lower the humidity setting" and often that works great for the rain out problem but creates another problem with nasal mucosa that get dried out and don't like it and you get the symptoms I get..it's misery for sure.
Now not everyone has a problem with a little drop in the humidity setting and their nasal mucosa are just fine with a little less moisture so it hurts nothing to simply lower the added moisture.

If your nose was happy this morning with the lower setting and you aren't experiencing any ugly allergy like symptoms then your nasal mucosa don't have a problem with the lower setting. You would know it if your nasal mucosa get unhappy....
I have to keep my nasal mucosa happy...if I can't breathe through my nose easily I am just plain miserable not only at night but during the day too.
The last time I forgot to top off the water and ran the water chamber dry and got those ugly symptoms it took 2 days for my nasal mucosa to get back to normal and it was a miserable 2 days.

[AMK]

Thanks for sharing your experience, Pugsy. I had no idea that humidity was so critical for some people. Very interesting. I might try a humidity of 2 again and raise the temp just to see how I feel, even though I have not gotten the symptoms you describe, just because I anticipate my house is going to get so much more dry as winter approaches. I have noticed in the past when my house is too dry that I'll get headaches. Old house, no modern appliances.

[Pugsy]

Old house, no modern appliances.

Maybe a bit like my old house. The one modern appliance I miss is a dishwasher but no matter how much I look I can't find a place for one. Teeny tiny kitchen and storage elsewhere is minimal because this old farmhouse is teeny tiny everywhere.

My bedroom gets a lot colder than the rest of the house no matter what the thermostat is set at because I have north and east facing windows and the seal on them is non existent and I doubt there is a stick of insulation in the walls.

If you use wood heat...for sure it's going to be dry this winter so be prepared to do what you need to feel comfortable and keep the nasal mucosa happy. Now maybe your nose isn't as pampered as mine and not so picky but just watch out.

We do have propane furnace and just got a new furnace last winter so at least I have that...but the thermostat is in the living room and in all honesty I rather like a cold bedroom and lots of bed covers as opposed to a warm bedroom.
When I go visit my daughter at Christmas the first thing I do is open the bedroom window a bit because she keep her house at 72 degrees at night and I simply can't sleep well with things that warm.

[AMK]

Hehehe...my house has a dishwasher. Me. Old joke, I know. I have never owned a dishwasher. I'm the same way, thermostat in the living room. I can't stand 72 in the winter even during the day. And I love a cold bedroom. Right now my house is 67.

[Pugsy]

I guess the nice thing about having a manual dishwasher (us) as opposed to the automatic machine kind is we are pretty much forced to keep the dishes washed up and not stored dirty in the dishwasher which I was guilty of on numerous occasions when I was lucky enough to have a dishwasher.