New with a dumb question

[cherokee74]

Ok, needless to say my supply reps are hard to get a hold off. It's a dumb question but I need to know about humidity settings. My cpap was set on 4 by rep and my nose felt congested and dry. So I googled manual on how to change setting went up to 5. Nose still feels little congested but also runs (clear, sorry for visual). Can someone explain to me in dumb blonde terms humidity settings please? Too low settings causes? Too high causes?
Thank you!!

[Pugsy]

It's not so much a too high causes this or too low causes that for everyone.
Each person is an individual and there are some people who do better with lower humidity settings and there are some people who do better with higher settings.

We usually tell people to experiment to see what works for them.
Since you have already tried higher....you might try lower and see how your nose reacts.

What your nasal mucosa need to be happy may or may not be what mine needs to be happy. If you try lower and your symptoms worsen..you will have your answer. That one usually is pretty quick.
Improving sometimes takes a few nights...
I once tried lower....bad mistake and it was immediately known...took me 4 nights to get my nasal mucosa happy again...it was a miserable 4 days.

[Julie]

You may have other nose trouble, whether a deviated septum, turbinates, etc. that cause problems, but I'd guess the added humidity (at a high setting) is causing the congestion. Why not try it at a lower (or off) setting for 1-2 nights and see how you feel.

[Goofproof]

Or you may need other help, I suffer in the day too, so I use OTC decongestants to help at night only. I find that XPAP air helps to keep me open also, and I don't use the HH at all anymore. Jim

[Wulfman...]

Ok, needless to say my supply reps are hard to get a hold off. It's a dumb question but I need to know about humidity settings. My cpap was set on 4 by rep and my nose felt congested and dry. So I googled manual on how to change setting went up to 5. Nose still feels little congested but also runs (clear, sorry for visual). Can someone explain to me in dumb blonde terms humidity settings please? Too low settings causes? Less congestion. Too high causes? More congestion.
Thank you!!

Den

.

[Captain_Midnight]

It is not a dumb question, as the results can be counter-intuitive for some patients.

Everyone responds differently; however through trial and error, I found that higher humidity causes more congestion, and lower causes less.

In my case (and I avoid giving advice, but I'll give a personal example) if I over-humidify, my nasal pathways seem to swell like steamed clams.

I try to humidify just enough to prevent dryness. For me, that's either no heat (just air passing over cool water) or setting 1. (I'm pretty much on the same wavelength as Wulfman Den, here)

Caution, this is not advice. Other posters here have found just the opposite to be true.

Hope this is useful, good luck finding the right setting.

.

[HerbM]

Definitely not a dumb question.

I learned from reading the answers.

Most questions people think of as 'dumb' are really 'naive' questions -- that is 'lacking in experience'.

Everyone's a newbie at a new thing once

(I still am a neophyte at this, and hopefully we will be in this positions hundreds of times more in life as we learn more new things.)

Thanks for asking so that I could read the answers -- and thanks for the explanations folks.

[cherokee74]

Thank you for all the help. It's greatly appreciated!