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Wow, this is an old thread, and I may have responded before, but try this trick:

Scratch where you normally get the itchies BEFORE you put your mask on. A really good, satisfying scratch. Then put the mask on. You may find you don't itch. It works on the theory of neurological accommodation. If you overwhelm the sensory nerves with a stimulus, they "accommodate" and your brain stops registering the stimulus. This is the same phenomenon as when you walk into a room with a strong smell but you stop noticing it after a short while.

So (theoretically) you won't feel the itch.

I'm grateful to find I'm not losing my mind, that this is a very common struggle. Two months ago I was tested and given a Resmed 11, although ten years ago I had an older machine and recall the very same issue. My nose would begin itching in the middle of the night. I started by turning up the humidity, but with a standard hose. I then thought I too much humidity was dissipating because the air was cooled down by the time it got to my face. I purchased a heated hose, at cost, to find it worked for a short time. Now, I'm getting texts from my provider stating that my use has drastically decreased because I'm taking the mask off at night due to frustration. I would wake up and either remove the clip-on tube to scratch through the hole or lift the mask up enough to scratch and then remove it if it kept going on.

What stands out is the recommendation to use some form of moisturizer. I'm going to try some Vaseline tonight and repost tomorrow / this week with an update.

UPDATE - This did work. However, my medical provider followed up and, when I told her what I did, she strongly suggested otherwise. Petroleum ruins the silicon mask. She recommended a cloth mask replacement. https://www.apriadirect.com/sleepweaver ... ircadiance

Sheriff Buford wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 08, 2014 4:53 am

If your nose itches... scratch it.... I used to use a pencil, but I found slipping a popsicle stick under the mask and itching works...

Sheriff

OK I have to tell this horrible story, since you mentioned scratching an itch with a pencil. Anyone remember the classic Bic pen with the removable plastic cap with extended pocket clip? In 1965 I broke my leg skiing and had a thigh-high cast with a bend at the knee. After awhile of course the inside of the cast created itching, so I stuck a Bic pen down there to scratch my leg, why not? But it was cap end first, and the cap came off!

The more we tried to get it out with butter knives, wires, etc. the farther down it went until it settled around the cast bend under my knee. I was only 11 so the family even turned me upside down and shook me, no help! But then it wasn't actually bothering me, so we just left that cap in there. Fast forward a month or two when the doc took the cast off.

I'll spare you the gory details but it was too late to stitch it up and now 58 years later I have an impressive scar in the exact shape of the Bic pen top.

Basic lesson is probably just "Don't be an idiot." Even with a pencil try not to stab yourself!

wow!