Hot Flash Hades

[memapenguin]

Last night was a nightmare.....hot flashes/night sweats all night long. The full face mask seemed to amplify the heat tenfold. Is there any way to get humidity without the extra heat? Or even better yet anyway to have cool/cold humidity? I was sweating so bad that the mask was sliding all over and leaking like a sieve, of course my machine said "0 % leaks" but trust me my bedroom sounded like congress of baboons had enjoyed a bean feast. As I have been having back to back hot flashes all day I doubt tonight will be much of an improvement. I have been setting the humidifier on 2 (I am in FL plenty of natural humidity) which has been just enough to keep my mouth from becoming the Sahara Desert, but last night I turned it off. I am still new to this so I am not sure if I get any benefit from the humidifier with the heat off or not but I can not handle even the lowest heat setting when I am having hot flashes/ night sweats. Any advice would be highly appreciated.

[chunkyfrog]

Mask liners Pad a Cheek, Even a home-cut t-shirt gasket: It absolutely quiets the baboon on your face.
The only thing quieter is a cloth mask. (Sleepweaver Advance or élan)
Baboons! I love the image--LMAO!

[Xney]

You can just turn the humidifier off (passive humidity where the air just passes over the water) if you have enough humidity in the air already - or not use a humidifier. The humidifier's purely for comfort and if you need it.

[Sal_In_Ga]

Best thing I ever did was get a small personal fan for my night table. The fan I use is about 5" in diameter. I started out with a portable fan with 8" in diameter that I set on the floor next to the bed. It worked, but the small one is my favorite. The fan, on its lowest setting, blows gently across me and helps to cool me down. An added bonus is white noise. When we travel Cpap and fan always go together. I just wish it would fit in my Cpap bag.

I have used the mask liners with a nasal mask..they worked well.

Life is good.

[JDS74]

Last night was a nightmare.....hot flashes/night sweats all night long.
Any advice would be highly appreciated.

You have my sympathies. I've been fighting "hot flashes" for eight years. Started out at about 7 or 8 a day in 2004 and has worked its way up to 25 to 27 per day on a bad day. Each one wakes me completely so my nights look like sequence of 60 to 90 minutes of sleep with five to ten minutes going back to sleep in between.

I think the suggestions about mask liners will help. I'm currently trying to fabricate a successful liner for my Oracle mask to solve your exact problem. The sweat makes the mask move around and causes substantial leaking. I've tried moleskin attached to the underside of the outer mask and it works quite well -- but after a couple of days, it falls off. I can't seem to find anything that will glue to and stay glued to the silicone that the masks are made from.

[Bons]

Menopausal pillows like chiari or chillow pillow help a lot.

[BlackSpinner]

Sleep naked. The body regulates more easily without clothes over it.

[mayondair]

Chillows are nice. http://www.ChillowStore.com/. Kathy

[Bons]

Naked lets the hose get trapped under the DDD's - the airway isn't the only part of me that's sagging

[BlackSpinner]

Naked lets the hose get trapped under the DDD's - the airway isn't the only part of me that's sagging

My hose is tucked in my arm pit - well away from the H's

[chunkyfrog]

Only C's here; Men actually look me in the eye--if they look at me at all.
Pet peeve: Padding, WHY? They're not cold!

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

chunkyfrog wrote: Only C's here; Men actually look me in the eye--if they look at me at all.

That is because you have such big, beautiful eyes; just look at your picture

chunkyfrog wrote: Pet peeve: Padding, WHY? They're not cold!

Now I am trying desperately to get the image out of my head of a green frog wearing a padded bra... <sigh>

John

[archangle]

Apnea can cause night sweats, so it may not be traditional hot flashes. It could be a side effect of apnea. Even us male apneacs sometimes get night sweat.

Humidifiers increase humidification by heating the water. You can turn down the heat, but you'll get less humidity.

Respironics makes an external unheated humidifier that will probably provide more humidification that a heated humidifier without heat. It has a larger surface area to pick up humidity.

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/respir ... -hose.html

Making the room cooler is another option, of course.

[oregondiver]

Last night was a nightmare.....hot flashes/night sweats all night long.
Any advice would be highly appreciated.

-- but after a couple of days, it falls off. I can't seem to find anything that will glue to and stay glued to the silicone that the masks are made from.

Try scar removal stuff bandages (think called scar med?). They are clear (at least the ones I use since I keloid to badly) and you cut to fit. They stay on for quite a while (7 days of showering when put on a person). I can only imagine how long they would last on the mask. But they are supple, smooth (like silicone), flexible and may provide that "grippiness" you seek?

[memapenguin]

Naked lets the hose get trapped under the DDD's - the airway isn't the only part of me that's sagging

My hose is tucked in my arm pit - well away from the H's

One of the reasons I don't sleep au natural is the same reason I rarely sleep on my back, I have a set of 40M's that lost the battle with gravity years ago but still have enough fight left to try to smother me in my sleep should I dare to roll onto my back. If I were to have a hot flash and those puppies were bare I am scared I would be be making a bad recreation of the scene in the movie Alien where the crew member had the alien stuck to his face.