3rd night + travel questions

Well I made it through night 3, but it wasn't as good as the previous 2. The first night was at home, Night 2 was on the road as was last night.

I woke up about 3:30 am after getting to bed around 10:30. I seemed to have a little more trouble getting comfortable than I had the previous nights. When I woke up, my sinuses were a little swollen and I was having difficulty breathing through my nose. After about 45 minutes of trying to get back to sleep, I pretty much gave it up for the night. I was watching TV and did fall asleep for an hour or so before a phone call woke me up at 7:00am.

My first question is could the sinus thing be a matter of just getting the humidity level adjusted correctly. My tech suggested starting at 1 and going from there. That was a level that she said most people around where I live use because the general humidity level is fairly high most of the time. Night 1 it seemed to work pretty well, and night 2 on the road did too. This week I'm in Baton Rouge, LA, so is there any trick to finding the right humidity level and once you find what works, will it vary according to the area I'm in? I would imagine conditions such as how well any given hotel A/C and heating works also will affect it, so it may just be a crap shoot from week to week.

Another thing that I've found in my travels is that the pillows vary a lot from hotel to hotel. I find that most of them use really soft pillows and the way they mash down is not comfortable for me at all. I have to carry enough stuff on the plane that it's not practical for me to carry one with me. I'm going to ask if they have any foam pillows that are a bit firmer so that may help with that issue and then I might be able to roll over on my side from time to time.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

The humidity that you'll need will vary by where you are and how much humidity is in the room that you're sleeping in. I know that I can give myself more humidity (and not get rainout), by running a humidifier in my bedroom.

Does the humidity level matter? Does the hotel a/c make a difference? You bet it does! I even find that from one hotel to another it makes a difference. Most hotels do not humidify their air, so they tend to be much drier during winter months. And if they keep the rooms very cool during the summer, it can dry the air more than you might imagine.

So, tinkering with the heated humidifier (as you figured out) will help. You might also want to try a prescription for something like flonase. (Stay AWAY from the Over The Counter nasal sprays other than a nasal nasal saline spray which I use. The other OTC sprays can make it much, much worse. And it is a nuisance to wean yourself off of the OTC sprays.) A nasal saline spray often helps me when my sinuses congest. But I rarely travel with a humidifier (unless I travel to a very dry region). Of course, I am very accustomed to the positive airway pressure, since I used it for almost every night during the past 18 years.

Also, I offer a odd word of caution. It is counter-intuitive, but increasing the humidity too high will also cause nasal congestion!

I normally just stack pillows to get the height I need. But you might want to look into purchasing an inflatable pillow from a camping store. That might help.

So, congratulations for the first two nights. And remember that some nights like the third will come. Just be patient. You will get used to living with the increased pressure.

JohnBFisher wrote:I normally just stack pillows to get the height I need. But you might want to look into purchasing an inflatable pillow from a camping store. That might help.

Like JBF, I sometimes can manage just right by stacking 2 of those thin, soft hotel pillows. If that's too high, try stacking a couple of clean, dry bath towels folded under your pillow or in the pillow case. I used inflatable camping pillows when backpacking in the past, and did fine for those brief periods of use (sans cpap) when I think I probably stayed in motion by changing positions all night. I tried using that pillow early in my cpap use, and found it to be really way too firm--the pressure hurt my ears by mashing them too hard while side-sleeping (which is the only way I sleep now, to further insure decrease of events).

Thanks for the suggestions.

I haven't really had any problem with the pressure at all. Sometimes I wake up and want to shift to another position and with the soft pillows, I'm finding it difficult to lay on my side because the soft mushy pillows dislodge my mask when my head sinks into it.

I was able to get a couple of firmer pillows from the hotel for tonight so I'll see if that helps at all. I'm guessing that it might. I'll let you know tomorrow.

If it doesn't work, I'll also try the towel trick and see if I can come up with some other tricks as well.