Two nights in, several quesltions

Hello everyone,
I am extremely happy to have my CPAP machine. The first night, I was somewhat restless and my mouth kept falling open and I woke up with a dry mouth. I have been sleeping on my back for the past six months due to arthritis pain in my hips. The second night with my machine I slept on my side with a little pillow next to my chin, and I only turned over once. Very little hip pain. Slept the whole night through! What a relief.

Except that both mornings I had loud and vigorous sneezing spells for hours. I took an allergy pill today and cleared up by noon.
Has anyone had this sneezing problem?

My machine is a Dreamstation Auto CPAP, and it's set to 12. I used the ramp the first night, but last night just started on 12.

My mask is a Dreamwear Nasal Pillow.

After I slept on my side, I noticed air leaking from the hose on the top of my head. Is it an exhaust hole? My nasal pillow has exhaust holes.

The humidifier heater is not turned on. Is it supposed to be on?

The only thing I get on my CPAP screen is how many hours of sleep I got with it on. Last night I had 7.5 (wow!) Isn't the screen supposed to tell me other statistics?

My initial sleep study showed I had an RDI of 104.8, and lowest oxygen saturation was 75%. I'm anxious to see my numbers improve.

Thank you in advance for any answers.

The sneezing could be from lack of adequate moisture if the humidifier isn't even turned on.
Google "cpap rhinitis" and start reading.
Some people need a lot of added moisture and some people need minimal to non added moisture.
I had the same thing happen when I set the humidity level too low and a couple of other times when the water chamber ran dry during the night because I forgot to add water.

The DreamWear has 2 place for exhaust vent holes....near the nose and on top of the head where the hose attaches....so that air venting is normal.

Hi Sasse,
You asked about the data capabilities of your machine:

"The only thing I get on my CPAP screen is how many hours of sleep I got with it on. Last night I had 7.5 (wow!) Isn't the screen supposed to tell me other statistics?"

I don't know your machine's data capabilities, but I'm sure that it can provide more data than that.
Does it have a position for an SD Card?

sasse.g.a@gmail.com wrote:
My machine is a Dreamstation Auto CPAP, and it's set to 12.
. . .
The humidifier heater is not turned on. Is it supposed to be on?

The only thing I get on my CPAP screen is how many hours of sleep I got with it on. Last night I had 7.5 (wow!) Isn't the screen supposed to tell me other statistics?

Welcome to the forum.

Humidification is a comfort feature that the patient can choose to have on or off, depending on personal preference. See page 5 (Menu Navigation and Optional Humidification Settings - blower is on) of the User Manual for details of how to make adjustments, and also page 11 if you want to use the Preheat feature.

If you want to see a little more data than just the hours of sleep, scroll to the My Info section, click on the icon, then scroll through those screens. See page 11 in the manual. Note that the 90% Pressure number is the pressure you were at or below for that night, assuming you are using your Dreamstation in Auto mode. If it is set to Cpap mode, which yours may be given you quote only one pressure setting, then it will use only the one pressure all night.

If you want a lot more data, you can download (free) the Sleepyhead program which many of us use to monitor our progress.
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead
You'll need an SD card in the Dreamstation; look under the door where the filters are to see if you have one already installed (right side of machine, as you face the lcd screen). If not, you can pick one up easily at your favourite computer supplies retailer. Feel free to post questions to the forum about your data; several members, especially Pugsy, are adept at interpreting the graphs. Someone will likely be by to give you info links on how to post images; I haven't tried that yet myself, so I don't have those links handy.

Please go into the User Control Panel (link at top left of cpaptalk.com page when you are logged in), click on Profile / Edit equipment, and enter your machine and mask information. These entries will then show at the foot of your future posts, as they are important information for anyone who responds to your queries, and will save you the trouble of repeatedly answering the questions "what is your machine? what is your mask?"

Good luck as you move ahead,
Jean

P.S. I note you use an email address as your login. Have you considered the risks to your personal privacy by doing so? Most of us have chosen a login/screen name that protects our private contact information. Just saying . . .