Newbie needs advice about noise

Sue Dnym wrote:...At the end of April, I'll hit the 3 month mark, which is when insurance will purchase the machine for me instead of renting it, so if it could be machine related, then I need to do something about that before the purchase goes through...

Sue, noise travels up the hose and depending on where your hose is sitting you will hear noise. Try asking to try the equivalent ResMed S9 machine because the hose in the S9 has designed to eliminate that source of noise. The ResMed machines are the quietest made for us hoseheads...check out the stats if you need more details. Ask to try it BEFORE your 3 months are up....DME might fight you over this but stick to your guns as that noise occasionally drives me nuts too...that new design makes the S9 even more attractive to me.

RLAUREN wrote:I us an MP3 player to fall a sleep with and but me back to sleep if I awake. This way the TV or noise does not bother my wife. Good luck, it gets better and it is worth it for the way you feel and react to the world around you.

Yes, that's one of my concerns, too, not to bother my husband with the tv/radio noise.
And thank you, RLAUREN, I can't stress enough how words of encouragement from those of you with experience to share (and success stories) make a huge difference to those of us just getting into this, especially when struggling.

I copied and pasted the following from another thread, I hope it's ok to do that

Sue Dnym wrote:
I'm still struggling with the noise of the machine, but my sleep deprivation has improved enough where I'm ready to make adjustments without using the ambien/zolpidem and using one of the suggestions from the thread I've linked to has already helped (turning the flex-c +3 down to 1).

cpapernewbie wrote:Hi Sue,

glad that you have tone down your C-Flex to 1. This approach has helped me in the past on top of putting the CAP machine on top of a thick plastic (like computer mouse pad)

You might want to disable this completely to decrease the noise further if needed. However I prefer using A-Flex, this suit me better in inhale & exhale comfort)

So much to still learn. Thank you, cpapernewbie. I was pleasantly surprised last night after turning the C-Flex+ from 3 to 1. I still have the breathing in sound, which doesn't bother me, but the high/low droning of the machine seemed much better. The combination drove me nuts.

I don't know if I can change my machine back and forth from C-Flex to A-Flex, I think that may be locked out at this point, but will check into it. As far as I can tell, all I can change is the C-Flex+ number.

Hose_Head wrote:
If you can use an MP3 player to deaden the noise, may I suggest that you try noise-cancelling headphones of the ear-bud type? Note that you don't have to plug them into a source such as an MP3 player. Just put them on and turn them on.

Hi there, Hose_Head! Could you please recommend a brand of these that you're happy with? I'm living in the dark ages yet and didn't know about not having to plug them into a source.

SleepingUgly wrote:I actually thought that the sound improved a bit when I changed to C-flex + 3 (not regular C-flex, but the +). That's the opposite of what someone else said, so you may have to try both and see what you think.

Thanks, SleepingUgly, As far as I know, mine has always been set to the C-Flex+ 3. It wasn't until I received replies in this thread that I even realized I could change anything on my machine. The change to C-Flex+1 helped last night. It's good to know I can make some of these changes myself, instead of having to run the machine or sd card in like I thought I'd have to.

Muse-Inc wrote: Sue, noise travels up the hose and depending on where your hose is sitting you will hear noise. Try asking to try the equivalent ResMed S9 machine because the hose in the S9 has designed to eliminate that source of noise. The ResMed machines are the quietest made for us hoseheads...check out the stats if you need more details. Ask to try it BEFORE your 3 months are up....DME might fight you over this but stick to your guns as that noise occasionally drives me nuts too...that new design makes the S9 even more attractive to me.

Thanks much, Muse-Inc, I had wondered how much the hose had to do with the noise level. I had taken the homemade sweater covering off it last week but put that back on again last night, hoping it might also help somewhat to reduce the noise. I'll check into inquiring about the ResMed S9 equivalent. I seem to be of the frame of mind that I have to do what they tell me to do, mainly out of ignorance. Knowledge is powerful stuff!

These were posts I moved here from the other thread, for future reference, regarding using a substitute for the Ambien/zolpidem (again, if I'm going against protocol by doing this, someone please let me know!):

cpapernewbie wrote:My suggestion is before ambien and its generic counterpart,try Melatonin. (google this and you will find that this substance is more natural to our body, in fact our body produce this, except that as we grow older, it produce less and less). I normally took hald or less of the 3 mg tablet. The price is very reasonable (about 2 cents each). This melatonin defintely will NOT kncok you down when sitting. It took about 1 hr to feel sleepy with melatonin and it will not make you drowsy

Some members in this forum have used this for years with no ill effect whatsoever. I have used this in the last 2 years on and off according to my need. No addiction effect and no side effect too. My 2 cents

pb5927317 wrote:

Sue I agree, Melatonin works great. You dont need anymore then 1mg. What can be really helpful is that I by the sublingal kind that you put under your tongue, it works great!

My sleep doc did zolpidem for me as well when I started. I am glad I did it. If had an empty stomach, it only took about 2 minutes to take effect. I did 5 mg pills and cut them in half......

Melatonin is just alot cheaper....

Also, OrthoMolecular makes a product called Natural ZZZ's that works great as well.

If I take anything to sleep better, my AHI increases some.

I thought my machine was pretty quite. I have a m series pro. Then I took it on travel and was like holy hell this thing is loud.

But it was sitting slightly above the bed instead of below. It was on hard wood and the back of the table was hard wood too so the sound would reflect off the hard wood.

At my house it sits slight below the bed on a soft mat and one side is the soft bed and the wall side is cloth drapes….

So the “acoustics” of the environment itself is something to think about.

Also, probably the sound is the only thing there and eventually it will grab your attention. I like the white noise idea and/or aromatherapy to give your mind something else to focus on. When you notice you are thinking about it… just gently think about the rain/wave machine…. kind of a mindfulness thing.

Good luck,
Rob