Is less humidity required for a nasal over full face mask

[Gerryk]

I have been using the quattro full face mask and recently got a nasal mask to try. I go to bed and fall right to sleep. The first night I slept for about 4 and a half hours with the nasal mask until I woke up with a headache and my nose pretty much plugged up. I then put my quattro on and went back to sleep. Last night I tried again but this time turned the humidity from 2 to 3 thinking maybe the humidity was too low and caused the headache and congestion. But I woke up about 3 hours later with a headache and the same congestion again.

Now I am wondering if I should try again with the humidity turned down to 1 that perhaps I had it up too hight.

Does anyone else on here use both a nasal and full face mask? If you do, do you notice that you need less humidity with the nasal mask?

Gerry

[Julie]

I don't think headaches are related to humidity much, but I do think that people wearing only a nasal mask might want more humidity if they mouth breathe because they'd notice a very dry mouth in the a.m. vs wearing a full mask. I also think less humidity in general is better if you're congested, not more (unless you're deliberately inhaling from a medicated vaporisor ).

[ozij]

More humidity can cause stuffiness. A stuffed nose makes a mouth breather open their mouth more freqently. The amount and speed of the air rushing out of your mouth into the dryer room environment dries your mouth far more effieciently than air coming out of your mouth into the limited humid environment of your FFM. No amount of additional humidity can help the dry mouth of mouthbreather.

[hose head]

I use Swift LT and I keep the humidity turned down to below 2. I haven't used FF mask for long time so I can't comment about that.

m

[sagesteve]

What is happening with your nasal "inserts" is that your body creates more histamines...a fight off invaders body reaction. This is one reason people experience more mucus, sinus problems, hay fever type reactions. I take sinus pills and a good anti-histamine pill before bed and it helps keep the problem down. As time goes by? It IS possible to "get used" to the nasal therapy. I use my Quattro for naps in the afternoon.

[Gerryk]

This is a nasal mask, nothing goes in the nose. I had the same thing last night I can't recall now but I think I had the humidity down on 1 and still got stuffed up nose. But hey a stuffed up nose is normal for me so maybe I am pushing it trying to use this mask before I get my turbinates and deviated septum fixed.
I also know that I am not leaking through my mouth with this. I figured I would but I have been working on breathing just through my nose as much as possible.

Gerry

[roster]

Too little humidity will cause a dry (maybe even 'crusty') nasal airway. It will not cause congestion.

What is your room temperature and relative humidity?

[Gerryk]

Last night the room temp when I went to bed was 62 and humidity was about 42% steady throughout the night. When I got up this morning the temp in the room was 70, my wife must have turned it up in the middle of the night.

I did put a clean hose and humidifier tank in and changed the filters on the cpap. I have been working on not mouth breathing and have been breathing through my nose since early this summer, so I doubt it's just from breathing through my nose via the mask.

I have a feeling it's the humidifier adjusted wrong for using a nasal interface, which I have never used before.

Gerry

[sagesteve]

You have a nasal mask...you are forcing your body to create histamines! Anything around your nose is going to do this. Too much humidity will make it worse...take those anti-histamines and a Sudafed.

[roster]

You have a nasal mask...you are forcing your body to create histamines!

Steve,

I don't understand why you think a nasal mask causes your body to release histamines. By what mechanism does it do this with a properly working CPAP system? (I am assuming you mean "release histamines", since the body is constantly creating and storing histamines.)

[sagesteve]

When using any nasal mask that will touch the area of the nose, the columella, the columella-labial angle or junction and around alar-facial groove or junction, columellar artery...basically putting constant pressure on these areas during the night, you are signaling to the body that there is an invasion of some sort, especially in the respiratory system! The body fights back by releasing more histamines, an immune response. This is why many on this board suffer from constant sinus, mucus...hay fever type responses. Gerryk is the perfect example of this:
"I have been using the quattro full face mask and recently got a nasal mask to try. I go to bed and fall right to sleep. The first night I slept for about 4 and a half hours with the nasal mask until I woke up with a headache and my nose pretty much plugged up."
The full mask doesn't touch the nose areas we are talking about ( the bridge won't illicit an immune response). I started Cpap 2 years ago now. I started with the full face Quattro too. Got it working perfectly and very comfortably. Got tired of screwing up my face with the straps, gel pressure etc. There IS a definite reconfiguration going on when it comes to "beauty" with this mask I started looking into other alternatives and stumbled across the No Mask.

I immediatley noticed sinus problems, mucus build up, hay fever type reactions and snezzing after waking up...but hey, I looked purdy! So I started to really look into it because I NEVER have had sinus problems before (I'm 62) or such a reaction with the full face Quattro. Found out that over time the body CAN (not always) adjust to this histimine response from a nasal mask. I really like the No Mask but it requires a lot of maintenance. Again, looked into it and found the SleepWeaver cloth mask. LOVE it...BUT, there is still a response like we are talking about because there is real columella pressure with this particular mask. Looked into it again...found the answer. I trick my body by taking 1 Sudafed with 2 anti-histamines before bed. Have everyhting under control now. You can see the columella response by putting pressure on it with your finger for a good period of time!

[Gerryk]

It appears that the congestion was caused from too much moisture. I turned the heated humidifier off and I haven't had congestion those two nights. I also loved the feeling of cool air over the heated air.

Gerry

[rjjayrt]

Anatomically (wonder if I spelled that right) it is logical to assume that a nasal mask would require less humidity due to the vascularity of the nose(Bodys natural humidifier). I'm not entirely sure of the impact cpap would have on that function, but from my own experiences I seem to require more humidity when using my FlexiFit 431 FFM than I do when I'm wearing my Mirage nasal mask.

[jmelby]

I found that I need to have the humidifier on a lower setting with a nasal mask than with a full face mask--when I left it on the same setting that worked well for the FFM, I had rainout with the nasal mask.

[jlsmithseven]

Hey, sorry to revive this 12 year old thread but I have been experiencing a lot of nasal congestion from switching over to the Bleep Dreamports and was wondering what was causing it. It makes sense that the body sees something invading. I am going to switch to my full face mask again I think, but it's pretty uncomfortable and I have a dry mouth, but at least the therapy should be working. Am I right in assuming that there is nothing can be done for a mouth breather? I know quite a few people who wake up with a very dry mouth after using a full face mask, but it's really the only solution we have right? I tried so many different masks and the fact that one will cause your body to create a lot of mucus doesn't sound great. I don't want to do a saline rinse and take 3 different pills every night just to sleep. Any advice would be helpful, thank you.