First night using CPAP

Being diagnosed with OSA and needing a CPAP at 24 was a bit of a surprise.

I got my CPAP yesterday for my 'week trial' and felt great that i was finally going to get my sleepiness sorted. I went to bed at a reasonable time and fell asleep pretty quickly and easily, however woke up nearly every hour and my nose was streaming!! I did not have a blocked nose before i went to bed. Has anyone else had this problem? I actually ended up taking the mask off and switching off the machine at about 1AM because i could not get any sleep due to the streaming of my nose and being so uncomfortable.

Im really sad about this, my dad has OSA and said his CPAP instantly changed his life 14 years ago. I know everyone is different. What happened to everyone else and will i get used to it/will this stop?

Are you using the humidifier because you believe it's part of therapy? If so, turn it off or at least down. It's not therapy, but a facilitator for Cpap when local (or 'room') humidity is too low. You may find, depending on where you live (NJ, Seattle, etc. vs Arizona, Colo.) that you want more or less humidity at different times of the year, taking into account central heating in winter.

Also make sure you haven't located the machine on a table above or even just level with your head - have it a bit lower so humidifier water drains back to the machine instead of into the mask.

Llana2311 wrote: I went to bed at a reasonable time and fell asleep pretty quickly and easily, however woke up nearly every hour and my nose was streaming!! I did not have a blocked nose before i went to bed. Has anyone else had this problem? I actually ended up taking the mask off and switching off the machine at about 1AM because i could not get any sleep due to the streaming of my nose and being so uncomfortable.

Was your nose running (i.e. lots of nasal congestion) or was the problem water in the hose/mask hitting your nose?

As Julie says, the problem is probably related to the humidifier and whether you are/are not using it.

If you NOT using a humidifier or if the humidifier is set very low and you're talking about a running nose, then bumping the humidity level up may make the nose happier.

If you ARE using a humidifier and you're taking about water hitting your nose, the problem is probably rainout---i.e. condensation of the water in the hose and/or mask. Lots of things can be done in this case, but we need to know how you are running the hose from the machine to your nose and the relative placement of the machine.

If you ARE using a humidifier and you're talking about a running nose---i.e. the problem is too much nasal congestion, then your nose probably just doesn't like the current humidifier setting. If the setting is very low, try turning it up. If the setting is very high, try turning it down. If the setting is in the middle, you may need to try it both ways. The funny thing about humidity and noses is this: A nose reacts the same way to "too much humidity" and "too littel humidity"---it gets clogged up and starts to run. So you just have to experiment until you find the humidity level your particular nose wants/likes.