New-ish User, Terrible Results Taking a Nap

Thanks, I'll set my tube to 82 degrees and crank down my humidity. The N10 mask has those little filter holes near the nostrils and the past couple of mornings they've been wet and gurgling. Not enough to spray water in my nose, but enough to get my pillow wet when I lay on my side.

Since switching to the heated hose my AHI has been under 2.1 according to SleepHQ.

I did wake up at about 6AM this morning (about 90 minutes early for me) and had that same.. uncomfortable feeling with the air and my mask, plus feeling "full". Tough to describe other than saying it was all just too stuffy for me to keep wearing it and there was no way I could fall back asleep. It's a different feeling than when I put on the mask at night and start to fall asleep.

Based on my miserable sore throat yesterday I knew better than to take off the mask and sleep without it for 90 minutes - that beat me up all day and of course had me worried that I somehow caught COVID or the Flu because suddenly I had a sore throat. I chalked up the early wake time to the time change but this is the 2nd night in a row it's happened. If it happens again tomorrow morning I will turn off the machine and turn it back on to hopefully "reset" it to the comfort level it's at when I fall asleep.

Another so-so night for me. I fall asleep fine, but I was up at 5AM (2 hours early) with again, a very "full" feeling and I could not go back to sleep. Stinks because I have a busy day today and I'm out 2 hours of sleep. I slept fine, and feel okay this morning, but I know I'll be dragging at 9PM because I just didn't sleep long enough.

It's like I can't exhale properly, like my lungs feel full of air that I can't exhaust fully. If I remove my mask I find myself taking deep, fully inhaled breaths in an effort to "catch up". With the mask on in the morning, it feels like I'm hyper ventilating, like I can take in the air but can't get rid of it and thus can't really get into a rhythm.

I wonder if the nose pillow area is getting clogged up with too much condensation and that's preventing my exhales from giving me relief? I am not getting water in my nose pillows, but in the early morning as I struggle to go back to sleep, this thing is now definitely wet, sprinkling drips of water all over the place when I move it around. Also since I have no problems falling asleep with my mask (and when it's not all "watery" from 5+ hours of it running).

I can trace these bad mornings to either the start of the heated hose, or the start of using the P10.

My setup for the past couple of nights: P10 mask, Humidity 4, Heated Hose set to 76 degrees, hose cozy on the hose, starting pressure 9, ramp up at 6 for 20 minutes.

I think I'll go back to the non-heated hose and humidity of 5, plus lower starting pressure to 7 for a few nights and see how I do.

You heated hose is not heating enough for the amount of humidity you want.
Either drop the humidity, or raise the hose temp

https://www.resmed.com/en-us/sleep-apne ... ine-tubing

I totally agree with ozij

decker12 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 10:30 am

My setup for the past couple of nights: P10 mask, Humidity 4, Heated Hose set to 76 degrees,

decker12 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 10:30 am

I think I'll go back to the non-heated hose and humidity of 5,

If you increase the humidity and omit heating the air in the hose then you have greatly increased your chances of having more condensation in the mask or hose or both.
Just so you know.

Great to know! Thanks for the tips. I've only used the heated hose for a few days and clearly the "Auto" setting isn't working very well on it.

When put on Auto, I still get condensation.

When I put it on Manual, and set the hose temp to 78 and the Humidity to 5 or 4, I still get condensation.

When I don't use the heated hose, I get no condensation regardless if Humidity is set to 5 or 4.

I'm concerned about increasing the temperature much past 80, but I'll give it a try. Maybe temp at 80 and humidity at 3.

Thanks again for the advice. However I'm not sure about the waking up early and can't exhale type of feeling. That's my biggest concern right now. Is that going to be related to too much condensation in the nose piece?

If your mask uses a shorter hose attached to the long hose and the bulk of your condensation problem is at the mask level itself then you may want to add a short hose cozy to help keep the air warmer and longer so it has less chance of cooling down and condensation happening.

When we exhale our exhaled breath contains moisture and that goes into the mask and mixes with the incoming humidifier moisturized air and if the air in the mask cools much...condensation can happen just in the mask.

decker12 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 12:23 pm

However I'm not sure about the waking up early and can't exhale type of feeling. That's my biggest concern right now. Is that going to be related to too much condensation in the nose piece?

this pretty much describes what i feel right before the rain out occurs. have had it happen so often that i know, for me, it's a precursor. for which i'm thankful because i'd rather have that than a snoot full of water!

zonker wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:03 pm

decker12 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 12:23 pm

However I'm not sure about the waking up early and can't exhale type of feeling. That's my biggest concern right now. Is that going to be related to too much condensation in the nose piece?

this pretty much describes what i feel right before the rain out occurs. have had it happen so often that i know, for me, it's a precursor. for which i'm thankful because i'd rather have that than a snoot full of water!

Wow! hmmm that’s interesting. I have to pay closer attention.

Decker- be mindful there will be a suitable combo of humidity and hose temp. You haven’t posted data in a while and there’s no telling if the sleep quality is improving at all?

I totally get the not wanting to get up two hours early. ever since the clock change my body is still waking at what would’ve been the same hour last week. Even earlier in fact.

sometimes i can manage to fall back to sleep if I try. I assume you try also but do you shut off the machine and restart the ramp process when you do?

I don’t know how much your indoor and outdoor climate is changing but I am anticipating a change of papping to go along with it.

Hello again,

Unfortunately I'm still getting up about 2 hours early since switching to the heated host. It's always after using the machine for roughly 6 hours, and I wake up tired so it really doesn't feel like I'm getting enough sleep. It really seems to be moisture related. The inside of the hose is wet as is the inside of the nose piece. It doesn't drip all over me nor go up my nose, but I think the moisture is creating some sort of humidity barrier for lack of a better word. When I wake up at 5AM I just can't seem to get enough air into my system nor return back to relaxed sleep breathing. This morning I turned the whole thing off, removed it from my face, and let it sit for 15 minutes before trying to wear it again. No luck and I gave up after 5 minutes of trying. Then I started my day before the sun came up instead of my usual 7AM.

I've tried the hose on Auto and Manual. On Manual, I tried 3 or 4 different temps / humidity levels and wasn't able to dial it in. Tonight I'll try the old non-heated hose and see if I'm still waking up early feeling "full" and like I can't breathe well enough to fall asleep.

If your mask uses a shorter hose attached to the long hose and the bulk of your condensation problem is at the mask level itself then you may want to add a short hose cozy to help keep the air warmer and longer so it has less chance of cooling down and condensation happening.

That's gotta be what's happening, because exactly right - my cozy is on the longer part of the hole, but not the shorter hose that the mask is attached to (it doesn't stretch that far unless I move it up from the main hose at the base of the unit). It is another thing to try though!

Also I found out I can't nap on a plane or sitting up anymore. Tried both at the airport and during the flight and just couldn't do it. That's really distressing to me, because it increases my dependence on my CPAP machine even further and chains any amount of sleep I need to it.

Good news is that my pillow problem has been solved! For YEARS (and before CPAP) I simply absolutely could not fall asleep unless I used a very specific type of pillow. I would bring this pillow everywhere with me, on vacation, on day trips, whatever - a huge pain. If I couldn't bring my pillow to the hotel I would just basically accept the fact I'll be tossing and turning all night long. Or I'd try to shove towels or something inside the pillow to make it work for me. Well, I was on vacation last week, and for the first time in years I just used whatever pillow the hotel provided, plugged in my machine, and fell right asleep! When I got home, I swapped out my special pillow for one I had in storage and again, fell right asleep with it!

So, win a few, lose a few. Tonight I'm going back to the non-heated hose with a Humidity setting of 5 which is what I was using a couple weeks ago.

decker12 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 15, 2022 5:36 pm

If your mask uses a shorter hose attached to the long hose and the bulk of your condensation problem is at the mask level itself then you may want to add a short hose cozy to help keep the air warmer and longer so it has less chance of cooling down and condensation happening.

That's gotta be what's happening, because exactly right - my cozy is on the longer part of the hole, but not the shorter hose that the mask is attached to (it doesn't stretch that far unless I move it up from the main hose at the base of the unit). It is another thing to try though!

Putting a hose cozy on the short hose should help.

Also: How do you run the hose from the machine to your mask? Is it on top of the bed covers? Hanging overhead? Or under the covers?

I ask because I run my hose under the covers (with hose cozies on the both the main hose and the short hose). I sleep in a cold bedroom and I don't have any serious problems with condensation in the nasal pillows.

I do get some condensation in the main hose sometimes---it collects in a low spot between the machine and where the hose comes under the covers. When the hose doesn't sag, I usually have little or no condensation even though I keep the humidifier on its max setting. So maybe once or twice a week I'll wake up to the sound of gurgling in the hose. I can just pull the low part of the hose up above the machine level and that causes the water to run back to the machine and it stops the gurgling and I can then get back to sleep without much problem.

Also I found out I can't nap on a plane or sitting up anymore. Tried both at the airport and during the flight and just couldn't do it. That's really distressing to me, because it increases my dependence on my CPAP machine even further and chains any amount of sleep I need to it.

So try to avoid red-eye flights when you can avoid them.

Also: How do you run the hose from the machine to your mask? Is it on top of the bed covers? Hanging overhead? Or under the covers?

My machine is on my night stand only about 3 feet from my head, w hen I roll to the other side the hose and cozy are on top of the blankets. When I sleep on my side facing the machine, most of the hose is bundling on the floor. I would guess that is contributing to it because the floor is going to be colder. I do have a little "clip holder" thing I can clip onto the side of my nightstand and feed the hose through it, so the hose doesn't touch the floor... but yeah I don't see how I could sleep with it under my blankets. But good ideas! I'm just hoping this condensation is the source of my problem with waking up too early and feeling like I can't use the machine anymore.

As I said I'll try it without the heated hose tonight and see how well it goes. I don't need the heat as much as I need to not wake up 2 hours early.

this could be an option too. I have some in my go bag. (thanks to whom ever it was here that brought them to my attention)

https://www.staples.com/Command-Cord-Bu ... uct_703425

So try to avoid red-eye flights when you can avoid them.

I already do this - it wasn't a red eye flight, I was just tired from getting up 2 hours early every day for the past week so I tried to snooze while waiting. However my point being is that since starting CPAP, I cannot get any sleep anywhere except when laying down with my machine. No couch, no car, no plane, no chair, nothing except when I have this machine and a power source for it. Not even for a 15 minutes nap, let alone the 60 minutes+ my body probably needs.

The gravity of this is just starting to sink in and it is increasing my anxiety, because there will absolutely be times I need to sleep where I won't have access to my machine. I am really hoping I'll be able to dial it in better because the past week I've been second guessing it all. I've been on it for 4 months and you guys have all had such great advice but I'm still just struggling.

Funny enough the one thing I don't have any trouble with - where other people seem to struggle - is the mask itself and trying to sleep with it. That I can handle fine.

Good news last night. Switched to the non-heated hose and set the Humdity to 5, and did not wake up at 5AM feeling stuffy and out of breath like I have all the previous week.

I also pulled the cozy up over the smaller hose that connects to the P10. Only weird thing is that I did end up somehow pulling my machine around quite a bit, to the point that it was perched a little bit off my nightstands like it was going to fall off. I also woke up with a sore back again, just like I do with the P30. So that's my next thing to figure out, why I have a sore back and if it's related to me actually getting too good sleep. Meaning maybe I'm not moving around because I'm sleeping so well and stuck in one position too much... just not sure.

Also my left nostril is kinda sore this morning, almost like I have the beginnings of a pimple on the lower left part of it (which I do not). Wonder if that's a sign of my mask being too tight. Odd because I have not adjusted the mask strips in weeks.

decker12 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 16, 2022 3:41 pm

Good news last night. Switched to the non-heated hose and set the Humdity to 5, and did not wake up at 5AM feeling stuffy and out of breath like I have all the previous week.

I also pulled the cozy up over the smaller hose that connects to the P10. Only weird thing is that I did end up somehow pulling my machine around quite a bit, to the point that it was perched a little bit off my nightstands like it was going to fall off.

I'd suggest getting a separate small cozy for the small, short hose. Padacheek sells them. Or you could take a clean sock and cut a hole in the toe and wrap that around the small hose. You can secure the sock with rubber bands at the top and bottom.

That way if you pull on the hose cozy near the mask, it's not pulling all the way back down the main hose and to the machine.

I also woke up with a sore back again, just like I do with the P30. So that's my next thing to figure out, why I have a sore back and if it's related to me actually getting too good sleep. Meaning maybe I'm not moving around because I'm sleeping so well and stuck in one position too much... just not sure.

You might try keeping track of whether you are waking up in the exact same position you fell asleep in.

Also my left nostril is kinda sore this morning, almost like I have the beginnings of a pimple on the lower left part of it (which I do not). Wonder if that's a sign of my mask being too tight. Odd because I have not adjusted the mask strips in weeks.

Could be the mask is too tight, but since you haven't adjusted the mask straps recently, you might want to clean the pillows themselves, particularly if its been a while.

Also, any chance the hard plastic part of the frame (with the mesh exhaust vents) was pushing against the left nostril because of the sleeping position you were in?

Also, any chance too much of the tip of the cone part of the nasal pillow got into the nostril? Or that it wasn't oriented in quite the right way?

Also it's worth checking to make sure the inner cones haven't collapsed.