Humidifier turned off

[Cokomo]

For the last week, my AHI has dropped from 5-10, to 1-3. I was going crazy trying to figure out why the improvement. I decided to check on the settings and found the humidifier was set @ 0 ..... I usually have it set on 5 on System One machine. Still not convinced, has anyone else ever seen better AHI numbers while not using humidifier? Thanks.

[Hawthorne]

I get good numbers when I use the humidifier in passive mode. That is, with water in the chamber but no heat.

I use it that way most of the year and only use a little heat (not more than 2) in the colder winter months. Because we have had a mild winter and we are now experiencing very warm temperatures (record breaking) with a humidex, I switched to passive mode on the weekend.

With this routine, I get very good AHIs all year round (almost always below 2 and, often, 1 or 0.5)

If yours is set at 0 but you have water in the chamber, you are using passive mode and it may work well for you, especially now that we are into Spring -depending on where you live and the current weather.

[Cokomo]

Thanks, I will try using no water tonight to see if anything changes. I am going for a full sleep study tomorrow night to determine if I would benefit from robot surgery, but will inquire about the whole humidifier issue.

[Cokomo]

Did not use the humidifier last night and the #'s are unchanged. Had some dry mouth so I will re-attach humidifier and keep it on 0 and experiment by moving the setting to 1 and 2. CA's are now 80% of AHI and wonder why? Going for full sleep study tonight and don't really have any questions otherthan about the clear airway increase.

My last sleep study was, in-home last December, with AHI of 64. What questions should I be asking? What should I be aware of? Info I should get? Many thanks for the help from many in this forum.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

CAs can be cause by excessive pressure. They also can be caused by rolling over in the night or by awake breathing. You should be able to view your waveforms using SleepyHead software to get a better understanding. Watching your O2 levels can also be quite informative. As well as the Zeo Sleep Monitor.

My first few nights on CPAP I had the humidifier at 2 based on the recommendation of the Chippie at the DME. After a few nights of experimentation I concluded that 5 (the max) was the appropriate setting. How do your sinuses feel in the morning? Mine felt terrible until cranking up the humidifier.

How are your leaks? Again, SleepHead can help you. Better controlled leaks will result in better AHIs. More info is always better than less. A single night is really not an indicator. Several nights might suggest a trend.

[Papit]

CAs can be cause by excessive pressure. They also can be caused by rolling over in the night or by awake breathing. . .

Yep. That's my experience too. ALSO, my graphs show a pronounced relationship between leaks and centrals. When leaks are well under control, centrals pretty much go bye-bye -- rather dramatically and vice versa. Turns out apparently that many graphed centrals are bogus. As I see it, the machine/algorithm isn't quite smart enough to more accurately discern real brain centrals from some kinds of leakages.

Re. humidification, depends highly on the person. I ran my H5i humidifierwithout water for a few days. Had no effect on my numbers or on my comfort. I'm a nose breather, not a mouth breather, and my throat doesn't get dry at night (unless I've eaten heavily salted food for dinner -- not a good idea of course). So then I removed the H5i entirely. Nothing changed. So I don't use it any more. Depends on the person. Some folks do just as well, if not better in some cases, in dry air.