humidity needs nasal vs. pillows

No doubt another dumb question but I am expecting my new Aloha in the mail tomorrow and I was wondering whether people leave the humidity level the same no matter what mask you are using. I was just told by my DME when asking about plugged ears and fuzzy headedness that I should raise the humidity level in my machine.

Because I like the temp low I am expecting rain out so I am picturing pillows filling up faster than a nasal mask. I am also getting a hose buddy with the mask order so the rain out will probably not really be a problem but it made me think there may be different needs according to what we are wearing on our faces.

Not sure whether it is related to the change to nasal pillows or not, but I generally do not use the humidifier, and I have been using pillows for quite a long time. The only time I will use any humidity is if I am very congested. My Aloha pillows will be arriving later this week/next week, and I am looking forward to that event!

What level of humidity are you using? It sounds contrary, but sometime lowering the humidity can work well - you just have to experiment!

I have my humidity on 5 with nasal pillows but the last few mornings I've woken up with condensation and wet nostrils. I lowered it to 3 last night but still woke up with a wet nose.

mlasham wrote:I have my humidity on 5 with nasal pillows but the last few mornings I've woken up with condensation and wet nostrils. I lowered it to 3 last night but still woke up with a wet nose.

Probably from the moisture in your own exhaled breath condensing in the nasal pillow.
If it persists you might want to add the barrel cozy...it does help insulate the nasal pillow which does help prevent the condensation. Besides...it is ultra comfy against the nose. I use it.
http://www.padacheek.com/PACSwiftII_Barrel_cozy.html

Hose cozy might help but I found that it wasn't much help for moisture from my own breath. Works good for moisture trying to condense in the hose though. Down side is that it does add a bit of weight to the hose.

If it continues to be extremely annoying...heated hose.
I finally bought this one this past fall because I am someone who needs high settings on the humidifier and hose cozy was not enough relief (and added weight to the hose). I still use the barrel cozy though....it is just so darn nice to have the silky material against my skin.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/hybern ... -hose.html I used it with my PR System One machine and it worked perfectly. I could use the high settings that my body likes....keep my bedroom very cool...and not have to snort water all night.
Also eliminates ice cube nose.

Edit to address OP question. I wouldn't change the humidifier setting when changing mask types until I saw a definite need.

Just found a great resource on humidity and how to handle it: https://www.cpap.com/cpap-faq/Humidifie ... cation2012. Options for heated hoses are improving!

Thanks everyone. Pugsy, Good idea about changing. I will leave it for now.

I'm having the same problem with my Swift FX pillows at the moment. To such an extent that I removed the humidifier from my Elite S9 in the hopes the condensation would be reduced. I was thinking of buying the barrel cozy (the reason I came to cpaptalk.com actually). I constantly wake up through the night itching at my wet nose (does that mean I'm healthy?). Should I go back to the humidifier and climate line instead of bypassing the humidifier and just using the SlimLine hose?

It's so hot and humid outside and regardless of the fact we have the a/c on, I figured I didn't need the humidifier on (and extra expense of distilled water).

Thoughts?

Firekeeper66 wrote:I'm having the same problem with my Swift FX pillows at the moment. To such an extent that I removed the humidifier from my Elite S9 in the hopes the condensation would be reduced. I was thinking of buying the barrel cozy (the reason I came to cpaptalk.com actually). I constantly wake up through the night itching at my wet nose (does that mean I'm healthy?). Should I go back to the humidifier and climate line instead of bypassing the humidifier and just using the SlimLine hose?

It's so hot and humid outside and regardless of the fact we have the a/c on, I figured I didn't need the humidifier on (and extra expense of distilled water).

Does eliminating the humidifier eliminate the rain out in the nasal pillows? If not then you know that the moisture is from your own exhaled breath. The barrel cozy will help.

If your nasal mucosa is okay without added moisture there is no real urgent need to use the humidifier if you don't want to.
Itchy nose, sneezes, congestion etc could indicate that the nasal mucosa is not happy with no added moisture.
Especially so with the use of air conditioning which also removes added moisture from the ambient room air.

Only you can tell if you really need or want the added moisture. You could also just use what we call passover mode. Humidifier is attached with water in the tank but humidifier turned off so that you get minimal added moisture coming in through the hose.

The need to have added moisture is highly personal. One person may need a lot more added moisture and the next person might do better with less. There is to "right or wrong" when it comes to humidifier use or settings. If rain out wasn't so annoying I would be happy snorting the water as my nasal mucosa happens to need a lot of moisture. Other people would hate it.

As you can see by my signature, I switch between masks frequently.
I leave all my machine settings the same except for mask type.
It works for me.

When I switched to nasal pillows from a mask, I found I wanted more humidity/head. (went from 2 to 4 on the settings)