Can using CPAP cure night time congestion?

I had posted a couple days about this puzzling nasal congestion issue I have had for a while. I can breathe through both nostrils pretty much most of the time during the day. However I will occasionally get stuffed up on one side or the other during the day . But at night, I will get stuffed up, usually one side but lately it started being both sides which makes it nearly impossible for me to breathe at night. I went to doctor and was told I have sinusitis and given Flonase which has so far, given me maybe one night of clear breathing. I have no history of allergies and rarely get colds. I am healthy other than being about 20 pounds overweight and the suspected (waiting for sleep study appointment) sleep apnea which I suppose is not very healthy. So I am curious if anyone else who has sleep apnea suffers from something similar and whether or not getting treatment for sleep apnea has helped it to resolve.

Have you got your humidifier turned up? Try turning it down, or off altogether. It's only a convenience, not 'therapy', and if you live in a humid area (as I do), or central htg's not on, or you just don't need it, don't use it because it can certainly cause congestion. However, if you do live in a very dry area and have not turned it up much, try doing that as dryness might make you feel 'congested' according to some users.

For me, it's a pressure thing. At 8 my nose stops up, but at 10 my nose stays open. I like 10.

CPAP definitely clears up my congestion. During the day, if I find my nose clogged up, I will sometimes put on my CPAP and it unclogs my nose. I'm guessing the pressure reduces swelling of the tissues in my nose.

Some people have the opposite reaction and get stuffed up on CPAP.

I think in 10 years of CPAP, I've never been unable to use my nasal mask due to congestion. I used to wake up with my nose clogged all the time.

In my case I have vasomotor and not allergic rhinitis. The "vasomotor" is affected by the flow of air and its temperature. In the past I tried nasal sprays but they did not help. Presently, I get stuffy as soon as I start the CPAP. I need to stop the machine and blow up my nose (with Bounty towel paper) until both my nostrils are COMPLETELY clear. I may repeat it two or three more times. Afterwards my nose stays clear for the rest of the night.

OK, I am not one of those who have anatomical malformations in their noses and/or sinuses and who need medical (surgical?) intervention. See the following:


{from Mayo Clinic}

Sinus problems


Inflammation and infection






Just about everyone has experienced sinus congestion at some point, often in conjunction with a cold caused by a virus. It's unpleasant, but the congestion usually goes away within a week or so as the body fights off the illness.

However, sinus congestion and a feeling of sickness can linger or worsen. This may mean that a bacterial infection has developed within congested sinus passages. Your immune system can usually fight off this infection, too, but your doctor may prescribe an antibiotic medication to help clear it.

Still, not all sinus problems are this straightforward. Sinus infections can recur on a frequent basis, and sinus inflammation (sinusitis) can smolder indefinitely. In these cases, a wider range of diagnostic tests and treatment options are often used.
Blocked passages:
Your sinuses are a network of air-filled chambers in the bones around your nose. The sinuses make mucus, which cleans and moisturizes your nasal passages. Lining the inside of your sinuses are little hairs (cilia) that are constantly sweeping the mucus through small openings (ostia) that drain into your nose and throat.

Tips to feel better:
Whether acute sinusitis is caused by a viral or bacterial infection, you may be able to relieve symptoms with:
Warm compresses applied to the face or by breathing steam from a pot of hot water or a warm shower.


Nonprescription pain relievers such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others).


Short-term use of nonprescription nasal sprays or oral decongestants. These can help shrink sinus tissues, possibly helping to relieve sinus pressure or encourage sinus drainage. However, when used for more than three days continuously, nasal sprays can have a rebound effect and make congestion worse. Oral decongestants can cause high blood pressure and elevated pulse rate, and can worsen urinary outflow from prostate enlargement.


Nasal irrigation. While this may help relieve symptoms it won't get rid of the infection sooner because the infected sinus cavities are usually blocked off.


Prescription nasal corticosteroid sprays. These may speed healing in some with bacterial sinus infections with milder symptoms or with allergies as an underlying cause.


Self-care, including drinking plenty of fluids to help thin mucus and avoiding alcohol and tobacco smoke, which can contribute to inflammation.

Sinus trouble typically begins when the sinuses become irritated and inflamed, causing sinus tissues to swell. Expansion of tissues can narrow or close off the ostia, making it hard for mucus to drain out of sinus cavities.

Once drainage is blocked, mucus and air pressure build, causing a feeling of stuffiness and congestion. The stagnant, moist environment of a blocked sinus cavity gives bacteria a place to thrive and a secondary bacterial sinus infection can develop.
Varied causes
Causes of sinus inflammation may include:
The common cold — This is caused by a virus and is the most frequent cause of sinusitis. Your body can typically fight off this infection within seven to 10 days, and your sinuses return to feeling normal. However, between 0.5 and 2 percent of viral colds go on to become bacterial sinus infections.


Nasal allergies (allergic rhinitis) — This may cause recurrent, seasonal or constant (chronic) sinus inflammation and swelling.


Fungal infections — Chronic inflammation may be caused by an inflammatory reaction to fungi inhaled from the air.


Pollutants — Exposure to tobacco smoke or air pollution can cause or worsen sinus inflammation.

Ostia blockage can have additional root causes, including:
Structural blockage — Small growths of tissue (nasal polyps) or narrow nasal passageways (deviated septum) may restrict or block nasal airways or sinus drainage.


Airplane travel — Rapid altitude or pressure changes can seal off a sinus cavity long enough for a bacterial infection to develop. A dose of nasal decongestant spray before a flight may help prevent this.


Other causes — Nonallergic rhinitis, a festering dental infection, immune system dysfunction, cystic fibrosis or an abnormality of cilia may lead to sinus problems.

Some conditions may be mistaken for sinusitis, including migraines or dental or jaw pain.
Viral vs. bacterial
Most cases of sinusitis are acute, meaning they come and go within less than a month. Acute sinusitis often begins with a common cold. Within the first several days of a cold, the cause of sinus congestion is usually viral. Antibiotic medications have no effect on viral infections and typically aren't recommended within the first week of developing a cold. However, the infection can shift to being bacterial, where antibiotics may have a role in treatment.

Determining if sinusitis is caused by a viral or bacterial infection is tricky. Congestion, facial pressure, drainage of mucus, cough, headache, ear pain, fatigue and feeling unwell can occur in both viral and bacterial infections. Still, the likelihood of having a bacterial sinus infection increases if you have:
Persistent symptoms lasting for seven days or more, particularly if they initially improve, then worsen


Thick, yellow or greenish mucus


Facial pain or tenderness over the sinuses, particularly if it's worse on one side of the face


Pain in the upper teeth, particularly on one side of the mouth

The body usually can fight off a bacterial sinus infection, especially if symptoms are mild. About 70 percent of the time, symptoms of acute bacterial sinus infections go away within two weeks without antibiotics.

If appropriate, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria. About 85 percent of those taking antibiotics for a bacterial infection are symptom-free within two weeks. Whether you are prescribed an antibiotic or not, treatment to relieve symptoms can help you feel better as healing occurs.
When it persists
An acute sinus infection can persist despite treatment, recur within a week or two of treatment or recur several times a year. In addition, chronic sinusitis lasting 12 weeks or longer can develop. Symptoms of chronic sinusitis are generally more subtle than those of acute sinusitis. Congestion, headaches, loss of smell and mucus drainage down the back of the throat may occur, but facial pain is often milder and you may not feel as sick.

Chronic sinusitis is often related to an immune system overreaction to something in the environment such as dust pollen or fungi. This irritation itself doesn't involve an infection, but acute bacterial infections can develop within the swollen sinuses.


Whether acute or chronic, persistent sinusitis often involves several tests to determine a cause. These may include allergy testing, visualization of the sinus passages using a thin, flexible scope (nasal endoscope) or imaging tests such as computerized tomography (CT) scans.

Treatment depends on the diagnosis. A stubborn acute bacterial infection may clear up with a different antibiotic or an antibiotic taken for a longer period of time. Short-term use of oral corticosteroids may calm inflammation or help shrink a problem polyp. If there's a structural problem, surgery using an endoscope and various small tools may sometimes be used to open up sinus passages by removing bone, tissue or polyps.

With chronic sinusitis, a cure usually isn't possible, but symptoms can often be well managed with:
Nasal corticosteroids — These are used daily to calm sinus inflammation.


Nasal irrigation — This involves gently squirting or pouring a warm, purified saltwater solution into your nose with a squeeze bottle, bulb syringe or neti pot. This can be very effective. Your doctor may recommend adding medication to the irrigation fluid to help fight inflammation or infection.


Allergy treatments — Avoiding allergens, taking antihistamine medication and being desensitized to an allergen with allergy shots are options for tackling inflammation due to allergic rhinitis.
Seeking care:
If you have sinusitis that has lasted seven to 10 days, see a doctor. If you have signs and symptoms such as severe pain, high fever, or double or blurred vision, seek immediate care. Complications include worsening of asthma, infection of the lining of the brain (meningitis) and vision problems.

I am the rebel here...

Originally I had some congestion issues. I decided to do some testing to see if I could find something that would help. The initial efforts using saline rinses seemed to help some, but I still work up with some minor congestion.

Taking the saline rinse one step further and noticing that I seemed to have greatly reduced congestion while sleeping on a salt water beach, I tried adding a small amount of salt to my humidifier water.

Before everyone gets all bent out of shape I actually tested my equipment and discovered that in spite of the general concept of humidification, some of the salt ions actualy were capable of making it past the humidifier and through the hose. The question remains if enough salt can make it through to make it theraputic. The other option for improvement is placebo.

I have only been using this for 4 years now, so there isn't any long term data. After 4 years I still remain congestion free. Either this is a very strong placebo or there actually may be something to this.

After 4 years I have not seen any adverse effects to my machine or humidifier tank. Nor any to hoses and mask. My unit comes apart for travel so the risk of spilling salt water on the machine is remote, but a machine would not tolerate salt water very well so this is not recommended if you can't keep track if you have water in the humidifier or not, or if you thrash your machine at night resulting in turn overs and split humidifier water.

Note that this is not recommended for the faint of heart. You shouldn't put anything into your humidifier water according to the instructions.

I use about 1/8 teaspoon of natural sea salt in 1 liter of water and feed the humidifier tank from that. I use under 150 ml of water each night and when I wake up I toss any remaining water and fill with new just before I go to bed.

I use an S8 and don't know if any other machines would be able to transfer salt ions past the humidifier. My pressure is around 12 and lower pressures transfer less salt. This means that if you have a different machine and different pressure you would need to do your own testing to see what happens.

Once again this is not a recommendation. I just wanted to share that I have been congestion free for the past 4 years and that greatly improves the quality of my sleep.

HoseCrusher wrote: Taking the saline rinse one step further and noticing that I seemed to have greatly reduced congestion while sleeping on a salt water beach, I tried adding a small amount of salt to my humidifier water.

now you've gone and done it, the end of civilization as we know it!

How often are you using nasal rinses? What did you put in them? Saline? Alkolol?

Are you using much humidity at night - what humidity level and any climate hose temperature?

I use 3 rinses a day - with saline and alcohol. Veramyst every morning. Zyrtec on bad allergy days. S9 at 3.0 and heating off.

Using dryness to control congestion basically.

HoseCrusher wrote:I tried adding a small amount of salt to my humidifier water.

Dangit, you're going to breed some new form of swine flu/bird flu/shark flu hybrid virus that will wipe out humanity.

You're going to awaken Cthulhu.

englandsf wrote:How often are you using nasal rinses? What did you put in them? Saline? Alkolol?

Are you using much humidity at night - what humidity level and any climate hose temperature?

When my congestion cleared up I stopped using rinses. I am using the S8 and have the humidifier set on III which is half way.

song-of-the-siren wrote:I had posted a couple days about this puzzling nasal congestion issue I have had for a while. I can breathe through both nostrils pretty much most of the time during the day. However I will occasionally get stuffed up on one side or the other during the day . But at night, I will get stuffed up, usually one side but lately it started being both sides which makes it nearly impossible for me to breathe at night. I went to doctor and was told I have sinusitis and given Flonase which has so far, given me maybe one night of clear breathing. I have no history of allergies and rarely get colds. I am healthy other than being about 20 pounds overweight and the suspected (waiting for sleep study appointment) sleep apnea which I suppose is not very healthy. So I am curious if anyone else who has sleep apnea suffers from something similar and whether or not getting treatment for sleep apnea has helped it to resolve.

3 month Sleep Apnea person here with exactly the same problem as you.
BUT I NOW QUESTION since I was always a mouth breather if I was getting congested at night before and never realized it.
If you are a mouth breather it might be worth pondering.

Anyhow.
The ONLY 2 nights I have slept all the way through without any nasal congestion were the 2 nights I slept on my living room sofa. I have not since been able to replicate or figure out what is different, other than I use a fan in my bedroom for white noise and realize i might possibly be stirring up dust my vacuum missed so again, something to ponder.....

Otherwise i appear to be getting stuffed up about 45 min into my sleep. UP until this week, I was taking my mask off laying it on my chest and when id wake up an hour or so later, I would put it back on but I am now reaching a point where I have absolutely no recollection in my consciousness about taking it off at all and wake up in the morning 6 hours later and discover it off.
Just waiting to try one more test and if it fails giving into nasal rinse but hoping to get it figured out as i don't want to have to deal with that nightly.

So it turns out you are just like the many of us with this issue. Its common for everyone, not only those with Sleep Apnea.
Soe like a lot of humidity but in my case I turned all my humidity off as well as the heat as i felt it was contributing to the congestion.
you may have to try a few different things to see what works best for you ;(

For me, it's a pressure thing. At 8 my nose stops up, but at 10 my nose stays open. I like 10

Thats interesting. Are there any others discovering that a certain pressure number stops it from happening?
Am curious, what is the pressure amount that you are supposed to be at according to your sleep test?
I ask because due to a mistake on the DMEs behalf, i should have been at 13 but recently discovered i was at 10 and have stayed there until i can battle this but now u have just offered a potential reason to consider trying at my prescribed number

HoseCrusher

When my congestion cleared up I stopped using rinses. I am using the S8 and have the humidifier set on III which is half way

Would you mind telling me where you live?
I ask as I am curious as to your areas temperature, humidity level, etc.
I am in Toronto in the city, err, well just north in an area called Forest Hill so I am not surrounded by all cement but many trees but nevertheless still a city and a humid one in the summer.
Asking you only for comparison .....(looking for a miracle)

Sorry no miracles, just ideas that may help... or not.

I am on the west coast north of Seattle.

I don't think there is a down side to trying this but you need to make sure you keep the water out of the machine.

Try going back to rinsing (preferably with saline AND Alkolol) and use Fabreze anti allergen on your bed.

Try to get Flonase or something like it from your Dr.

Cut humidity to 2/6 level and turn off the heated hose if you have one.

Use the largest pillows you can (they may wedged your nose open) and try to keep headgear as loose as you can.

I have solved almost all congestion issues with management my nose "moisture" and I think that might help you.