Why is the use of a humidifier (with heated hose) so important?

Since the machine obviously is not changing air humidity, what makes pretty much everybody use a humidifier?

I mean, if you are fine breathing room air (whatever its humidity is), why does it change when breathing slightly pressurized air through a mask? Does airflow increase that much that it makes your nose dry out (considering the use of a nasal pillow mask)?

Can anybody tell about a direct comparison of use with and without humidifier?

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I assume the heated hose is only to prevent condensation and rainout when using a humidifier, or is there any use of a heated hose without humidifier?

I mean, why would anybody want to inhale air warmer than room temperature (it was mentioned somewhere for the Dreamstation, that you can connect the heated hose directly to the main unit, when not using the humidifier add-on)?

Google "cpap rhinitis".

I don't know why if our nose is happy with our bedroom ambient humidity during the day why it becomes unhappy with that humidity once we add in cpap pressure but it just does for some people.
Not all people but enough people that using the humidifier is fairly standard practice. In the US most often heated humidity is part of the RX...it's that common.
Now some people don't like or need more moisture but most will need at least some if not a lot more.
My nose needs pretty much the maximum amount that the humidifier can crank out. I have tried a lower setting along with inadvertently trying it without added moisture when I forget to add water to the chamber and it goes dry during the night.
The symptoms I get when my nasal mucosa get too dry....picture the most horrible allergy attack symptoms you can imagine and that's what I get.

bonum.noctem wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:02 am

I assume the heated hose is only to prevent condensation and rainout when using a humidifier, or is there any use of a heated hose without humidifier?

Yeah...prevention of what I call ice cube nose syndrome. Usually a product of the winter months when I typically keep the ambient house temp is on the cool side. I often turn the house temp down to 55 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.
Saves on heating costs plus I just like to snuggle under the covers with cooler temps. That and the fact that my old house is so poorly insulated that when it is really cold outside the furnace can't do a decent job anyway. That cold of air going up my nose (I use a nasal pillow mask) caused discomfort in my nose...it hurt and woke me often from the discomfort and anything that causes wake ups is unwanted.
So in addition to preventing rain out...just the comfort side of things if someone happens to keep the ambient temps lower for some reason or other.
Would it be less annoying if I didn't use a nasal pillow mask...maybe but I don't want to use another mask type.

Plus my preference for maximum humidity delivery and cooler bed room temps...prime recipe for rain out anyway.
I use a heated hose year round. It allows for more consistent humidity delivery (which my nasal mucosa seems to want and need) and I just vary the hose air temps depending on the season. Warmer for winter and cooler for summer and the humidity delivered to my nose never changes. My nose doesn't like change in terms of humidity.

I get horrible sinus headaches without the humidity cranked up. The heated hose stops condensation. Last winter, before I got a heated hose, I woke up in the middle on the night with condensation blowing out of the vent on my mask and spraying water all over my bed.

And I get congestion and cold symptoms if I use the humidifier with or without heat... it's almost always humid enough where I live so that I just don't need or use it at all.

Another potential advantage to the heated hose even if the humidifier isn't used...There is moisture in our exhaled breath and if the conditions are just right in the bedroom (ambient temps cool enough) you can get condensation in just the mask. Won't hurt you but highly annoying because it can make a lot of noise or give you a cold shower spray out the vent holes.
I know people who don't even have the humidifier attached and they get rain out in the mask from their own exhaled breath.

As far as humidity needs for the nasal mucosa. It's widely varied. I know households where the husband and wife are both on cpap. So same ambient humidity but one person want's maximum humidity and the other might not want any added moisture. There is no right or wrong to the humidity choice...there's only whatever works for the individual and keeps the nasal mucosa for that person happy.

Let me start by saying that some CPAP users love it, some hate it, and there's every shade in-between.

The concept is that the increased pressure of the air that you're breathing can dry out your sinuses more than the ambient atmospheric pressure. Raising the humidity of the pressurized air can - at least partially - compensate for this. The heated hose is designed to prevent the water from condensing in the hose and either hitting you in the face or draining back to the reservoir.

The study I read said that the slightly higher pressure of a CPAP inhibits the saliva glands, that is, the secretion pressure of the glands is less than the typical pump pressure.

In humid areas, such as on my boat or travelling to Florida I don't even bother bringing the humidifier. At home I usually use medium humidity, but the actual amount of water used varies with the ambient humidity.