ResMed AirSense 10, cant use humidifier without side effects

Hi,

I am in the US and I have been using my ResMed AirSense 10 for around 2-3 years now. I have used it every night 4 - 10 hours depending how long I sleep, with zero breaks in between. I don't even take a nap without it.

Anyway I found that if I use the humidifier in it for even one night I get light-headedness the next day. The only way I can describe the feeling is like when take a bunch of deep breaths before you dive under water and you get a fuzzy head for a couple seconds. Anyway its like that and lasts the whole next day.

I have tried using the humidifier multiple times over the past few years and the results are always the same. It's a very reproduceable problem.
I was wondering if anyone else had experienced the same issue using the ResMed and if they found a solution.

Just a thought...If you are using your tap water in place of distilled, it may be something in the water that you are breathing.
You have put up with this for 2-3 years ?...Use a room humidifier.

No...I have never experienced what you are describing.

Wonder if it relates to the humidity setting itself. Have you tried various humidity settings?

I have used different sourced distilled water. I have also tried tap water. They do not seem to make a difference other than the tap water
leaves a thin film of minerals on my water tank that I then have to scrub off.

I have stepped through the humidifier settings on a daily / weekly basis to see if they made any difference. In addition, I have also changed the temperature settings. I was hoping for at least a small change. Unfortunately, I couldn't notice any difference at all. The symptoms were the same. It wasn't until I disabled the humidifier that I noticed a change.

I do use a separate humidifier in my bedroom since I am no longer using the built in humidifier and it does help a little with the dry lungs and throat but not nearly as much as using the built in humidifier.

I am willing to put up with just about any side effects from the machine which is why I wear it every night no matter where I go. I am doing my best to mitigate them.

The effects of not wearing the CPAP are so debilitating that it is juts not an option for me to sleep without it. Before CPap treatment my apnea had gotten so bad that I could not remember my own kids names. I would sleep for 10-12 hours and wake up feeling like I slept 2. I would require additional naps during the day. The effects got worse every month and it took me to a pretty dark place. Finally I was desperate and went to the Doctor.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:03 am

Before CPap treatment my apnea had gotten so bad that I could not remember my own kids names. I would sleep for 10-12 hours and wake up feeling like I slept 2. I would require additional naps during the day. The effects got worse every month and it took me to a pretty dark place. Finally I was desperate and went to the Doctor.

- A common story.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:53 pm

ResMed AirSense 10

Which model in the 10 series is it?
Which model mask do you use?
You mention dry throat and "dry lungs." Do you get dry mouth?
What is your AHI on the bad nights? Leak level?

Post the prescription too, the humidifer settings warm the air as well as humidifying it. I wonder if it's the heat. Do you use climateline (heated) tubing with it?

I get lightheadedness from a number of things but not from a humidifier on my S10:
- strap too tight which restricts blood flow to the brain
- shut up room gets very high CO2 levels, as I have gotten older I am more sensitive to this, door stays open, windows cracked, same effect as restricting blood flow to the brain.
- anything that interrupts the sleep, this would be my first guess as to what is going on here.

It is possible the humified moist air is actually causing the nasal passages to constrict, check the stats, did you have more events on the bad nights?

Since I no longer use the humdifier or heat, one of my nostrils is always closed. When I was using the humidifier both nostrils would stay open.
I do not suffer from dry mouth. Dry throat is not that bad but often my lungs feel dry during the day.

By closed nostril I mean my sinus on one side of my face will close and only allow me to breath through one nostril.

The mask I use is here: https://www.amazon.com/Airfit-Short-Ass ... 836&sr=8-6
It has nasal pillows.

The machine is listed here: https://www.thecpapshop.com/airsense-10 ... ap-machine

My sleep report is here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9uyyvaf12xokr ... t.pdf?dl=0

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:06 am

Since I no longer use the humdifier or heat, one of my nostrils is always closed.

may i suggest flonase?

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:06 am

My sleep report is here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9uyyvaf12xokr ... t.pdf?dl=0

Judging from the meager summary data that MyAir provides, you have good CPAP therapy. If you want to dive deeper, try using OSCAR and posting a Daily Details chart in this thread.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 12:06 am

By closed nostril I mean my sinus on one side of my face will close and only allow me to breath through one nostril.

Are you treating the congestion? Does the congestion alternate nostrils? You might get some ideas by reading the article excerpted below.

Awareness of the nasal cycle. It is normal for the nose to alternate being obstructed on one side, then change to being obstructed on the other. This is called the nasal cycle. The nasal cycle is normal, but being aware of the nasal cycle isn't typical and can indicate nasal obstruction.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-con ... c-20351710

I think the sinus thing is normal. It swaps sides ever day or two sometimes when i lay on one side it changes sides. Before cpap that would only happen when i was sick or when it got dry during the winter.

I downloaded OSCAR but i still need to figure where the memory card is in my resmed. i’ll probably need to get a Usb to memory card reader for my PC in order to get the file on there.

The doctor gave me some nasal spray for times when my nose was stuffy but it gags me when it gets in my throat so i stopped using it.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:10 pm

i still need to figure where the memory card is in my resmed

Look in the clinical manual on page 3. There is a schematic showing the location of the SD card slot --> https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

Some DMEs do not provide a card with the machine. A cheap generic SD card works fine.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:10 pm

i’ll probably need to get a Usb to memory card reader for my PC in order to get the file on there.

Are you sure your PC doesn't have a slot for an SD card? Many do, but they can be hard to see. If you are running Windows 10, click and hold "Start," then click "Device Manager" in the menu that appears. In the device manager, look for a device labeled “SD host adapter.” If you see it, your computer has a built-in SD card reader.

LSAT wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 24, 2021 8:24 am

Just a thought...If you are using your tap water in place of distilled, it may be something in the water that you are breathing.
You have put up with this for 2-3 years ?...Use a room humidifier.

Not only that, but reducing the level it's set to might help as well.

I keep mine set to 4 at least, higher if the weather is dry (as it CAN get here).

I tried the humidifier again on Thursday night. I put the humidity on auto. The temperature on auto as well. The side effects all of friday day were worse than I remembered (I haven't tried in about 6 months). Not only is it a feeling of light headedness but also a feeling of being a little short on breath and a little bit of weakness and vertigo as well.

I turned off the humidity but left on the heat on Friday night and emptied the water tank. This morning I felt fine again.

At the beginning of Friday night's sleep cycle, as I first lay down both nostrils were open. I found that during that time, as I was breathing out, I could not completely empty my lungs exhaling. At some point when I had a very little air left in my lungs on the exhale, the CPAP provided enough back pressure to prevent me from breathing out the little breath I had left. The result was I felt like I was taking shallower exhales. About 30 mins into to breathing dry air, my left nostril closed up. Strangely with one nostril closed I could fully exhale and there was no feeling of back pressure even when there was very little breath left. The result was a feeling of normal inhale / exhale breath lengths.

cpap78 wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:10 pm

I could not completely empty my lungs exhaling.

That's a good thing! Otherwise, you would have two collapsed lungs and would be in big trouble!

lol,agreed.

i did not mean that i could not fully collapse my lungs, that would be a rather painful medical emergency.

typically when you inhale and exhale it’s not a steady amount of volume displaced over time rather it is a larger amount of air initially followed by a slower moving smaller amount of air as you approach maximum or minimum safe lung capacity ending when some threshold is reached.

The experience i was describing is that at the minimum threshold i was allowed to reach on exhale was mechanically modified by the CPAP machine only when i was using both nostrils to breath.