Wet nose

I'm waking up feeling like a puppy dog: The part of my nose that fits against the pillows is WET when I wake up. Not merely damp, but WET.

At its best, it's merely annoying. At its worst, it aggravates the lips when they are badly chapped.

Any ideas on what's causing this?

Possibly useful background information:

Humidifier is set at 1 or 2 most nights. We keep the bedroom cold at night (low 60s). Hose is in a hose cozy and routed under the covers. Pillows are in a nose cozy---which gets pretty damp from the wet nose by morning. And I tend to sleep with my head under the covers. Allergies are acting up. Taking Zyrtec when the pollen count is above 4.0 or 5.0. And doing a nightly nasal/sinus rinse [i.e. neti pot] about 30--60 minutes before bed.

Do I need more time between the neti pot and bed?

Rainout??? Condensation from steam. This is caused by the room being cool at night.

2 suggestions:
Snuggle hose from cpap.com
Padacheek has has something similar

Starlette

are you using classic mode on your humidifier or the new format of it (supposedly reduces rainout but I wouldn't know as I don't have one)?

Starlette wrote:Rainout??? Condensation from steam. This is caused by the room being cool at night.

2 suggestions:
Snuggle hose from cpap.com
Padacheek has has something similar

Starlette

Hose is already in a snuggle hose cozy. I alternate weeks between a heavy duty snuggle hose from Padacheek (which was on the hose this week) and a lighter weight one that I got at my DME at the time I picked up the Resmed S9 I used to have. And the hose is under the covers. The condensation doesn't seem to be in the pillows as much as trapped between my nares and the pillows.

cflame1 wrote:are you using classic mode on your humidifier or the new format of it (supposedly reduces rainout but I wouldn't know as I don't have one)?

Currently using the new format that is supposed to reduce rainout. All winter long I've had no problems with rainout---even when I've had the humidifier set as high as 4. Only thing I can think of that's really changed is spring allergies and the neti pot.

Sounds like you're doing everything you can. Could it be nasal discharge or perspiration?

I find the wet dog nose feeling is much improved with the padacheeks barrel cover, but it's not gone entirely. There is still condensation in my pillows and I think a little tiny bit on the nasal pillow cones which can't be covered with the padacheek cozy.

I think this is one of the reasons I'm not so eager to go back to the Swift nasal pillows, as much as I love them. I LIKE not having a damp nose in the FF mask (when I can get the darned thing sealed!).

You might try running the humidifier on classic mode. That gives more heat to the water, and thus the air is a bit warmer and less likely to condense when it hits your warm nose. I've been running that mode all winter, and I think I'm getting less wet nose with it (could be the placebo effect!). I wouldn't call the airflow warm, but it's not arctic cold anymore.

Robysue, I feel for you, I hate that wet dog nose! Do you have a cozy for the short slinky hose? , from Pad a Cheek of course., We keep our bedroom pretty cold. Earlier neti pot might be a good idea . Kathy

mayondair wrote:Robysue, I feel for you, I hate that wet dog nose! Do you have a cozy for the short slinky hose? , from Pad a Cheek of course., We keep our bedroom pretty cold. Earlier neti pot might be a good idea . Kathy

I pull the main hose cozy all the way up over the short hose and then cover then bare naked end of the main hose (that is attached to the machine) with a pair of socks. Maybe I'll spring for the short hose cover too though.

As I said in the original post---the wet dog nose is new: I had no problems with wet nose or rainout during the coldest winter months. The problem has started in the last couple of weeks. Turning the humidifier down to 1 has helped---and so far the nose doesn't object to less humidity. It's a real good bet that by the time summer comes I'll be using passover mode for the humidifier. But by that point, I'll really be worried about wet nose being caused by sweating since we don't have an A/C unit that genuinely works in the sense of keeping the house comfortable: And sweating could very well trigger yet another rash or set of chapping on my face. Oh well---I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Today I can ski one more time ....

I would do the neti pot thing earlier in the evening just to see if the additional moisture was from residual irrigation water or, if your allergies permit, omit the neti pot rinse one night.

Robysue - You're right. I had the wet nose happen last night. I was wondering what was going on. Took off the pillows and down came drips of water out of my nose. I said, "Not tonight pillows", and switched over to my ComfortGel Blue mask.
Robysue, what have you found out so far to eliminate the wet dog nose? I'd like to find out.

Thanks.
Starlette

Starlette,

I'm still working on diagnosing the wet nose problem. It started just a few nights ago when we were on vacation in the Adirondacks, but last night was really terrible. Can't say anything as far as the machine, humidifier setting, mask, and hose has changed. All winter long, I've had little or no problems with rainout. And no problems with a too wet nose. Itchy nose, yes. Sore nose, yes. Dried out nose, yes. But a wet nose? This is new to me and it started less than a week and a half ago.

I'm thinking it's using the neti pot (actually the sinus rinse bottle put out by the same folks who make one version of the neti pot) too close to bed. And perhaps for reasons that I don't understand that the temperature of my exhale breaths has gotten warmer since the room has not gotten any colder. However, I am sticking my head out of the covers some these days---so maybe the pillows themselves are surrounded by air that is indeed colder than they were when I had my head firmly under the covers. So maybe that's part of it. I'm also a bit hotter under the covers all over these days and the fearsome exhaust flow is bothering me less---mainly due to diligent lab ratting. But my last lab rat change re the exhaust flow occurred AFTER the wet nose problems started and it's too early to tell if this last change is aggravating the wet nose problem.

So for now I'm going to try to make a more conscious effort to do the neti pot earlier in the night. *sigh* I'd gotten used to being able to start working on getting to be about an hour before bedtime finally: About a month or two ago I started to notice putting Kaa together and washing my fae (when it is needed) no longer needed to be done several hours before bedtime. And since then, I'd been moving the bedtime routine closer and closer to my 1:15 to 1:30 bedtime. In the last couple of weeks, I'd been able to start "going to bed procedures" about one hour before bedtime, finish all of them by about 12:50 or 1:00 and read for a few minutes before going back to the bedroom and masking up. The start of the "going to bed" routine has been the neti pot. So moving that back another hour or two is depressing.

I've noticed the same problem the last few nights. I didn't change anything on my machine or my routine and I don't use a neti pot. The only thing I could think of was to change my humidity level. I had it on 4 and put it down to 2 and noticed less liquid in the nasal pillows. I'm new to this so I don't know anything about using hose covers, etc. I'm just now to the point where I keep the thing on all night!

Good luck on figuring out what is causing your problem.

robysue, how often do you clean your nose pillow. I was having the same problem a few weeks ago. I was not washing out the pillow at the time just wiping it off with mask wipes. I put my reading glassses on and took a close look at the pillow and notice an accumulation of moisture between the outside cone and inside cone. I started washing the pillow when I got out of bed in the morning and shaking out as much water as possible and then let it dry all day.

I don't no if this is your problem but I thought I would throw it out there.

Hi Roby, I have a runny nose during the days b/c of the CPAP. But, while on CPAP at nights I don't have problems like that or those that you described. I sneeze once or twice within five minutes after masking and that it. My room is at 75 F at all time so I don't use the climate hose. Humidifier is kept at 3.5 (low). In my opinion, the inhaled air should be on the dry side so it dries out your nose if it tends to run. My nose -running during the days depend on my activity. If am physically busy such as in a gym then no runs (air flow is higher). But if I sit by the computer, then O Boy. Apparently our noses need to acclimatize to new surroundings and CPAPing throws it off balance. As CPAPers we are getting used to higher air flow.

Sleeping with head covered is a NO NO in my family.

See more:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Sleep-Diso ... how/616413



p.s. I have never seen a neti or a nutty pot. But I grew up on a Billy Pot.

Janknitz, the pillow barrel is in a pillow barrel cozy from Padacheek. One of the first things I invested in actually since I really don't like the feel of the silicone touching my skin. I'm on my second set of pillow barrel cozies actually. Swap them out when they get too damp or at the end of the week when I swap hoses and hose covers.

marl64 and avi123: I too have turned the humidity down: first from 3 to 2 two or three weeks ago and then from 2 to 1 within the last week. Don't think the nose can take passover mode just yet since I'm now waking up with congestion (again). And this time I think it's from not having enough humidity. Had congestion from too much humidity when the humidifier was set to 4 earlier in the winter. Still looking for the sweet spot with this humidifier.

Kempo, I was the pillows every day, but also swap them out. Pillows have about 24 hours to dry before I use them the next time. And I do shake them vigorously.

Avi123: My nose is not really runny. Although in allergy season I sneeze, the nose doesn't run that often. The neti pot helps keep the snot cleared out and more importantly gets the pollen out of the mucous membranes in the nose. So that reduces allergy symptoms quite a bit. As for sleeping with my head under the covers---I'd rather not, but it's been the only way I have been able to fall asleep most of the winter---and with my head under the covers, I had no wet nose problems. Wet nose started when I started poking my head out of the covers like a bear waking from hibernation.

robysue wrote:I'm waking up feeling like a puppy dog: The part of my nose that fits against the pillows is WET when I wake up. Not merely damp, but WET.
Any ideas on what's causing this?
Do I need more time between the neti pot and bed?

Robysue, I think it's the warm moisture from the neti-pot, exhaled into the cooler air from the pillows, condensing around the inner cones. I got up at 4am and tried to get my nose unstuffed. Used the neti-pot and when I got back in bed, it wasn't long before I had that cold wet feeling and thought of this thread. I was still stuffy so I just got up.