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I can't see any reason not to turn up the humidifier, if it's on 3 turn it to 4 and see if it improves. If you go too high you'll get condensation in your mask and tube, which is unpleasant, especially if you have a cold bedroom.
It's a comfort thing.
Many thanks the bedroom is warm i tryed 4 last night not as bad this morning just woke me up a few times it kilss trying to prize my mouth open l/o/l
what are the other settings for 1 - 2 and 5 etc
Susan - the settings represent the amount of heat it puts into the water in the humidifier, the higher the setting the more humidity you receive.
A humidifer is for your comfort so you find the right setting for you by experimenting. If 3 or 4 still leaves you with a dry mouth, turn it up to 5. Go as high or as low as you like. On a hot, sticky summer night you may want to reduce the humidification. On a cold winter night you may want it at max, 5.
Two things to consider: there may be a compromise about the max setting you can have all night if your nights are long - you want to avoid drying the chamber out as this gives hard scale - so you use the max setting consistent with having at least a drop of water left each morning, or the vast majority of mornings.
Second thing to consider is rain-out. Come winter time and cold or cool bedroom, the high humidity of the CPAP air will start to condense as it passes through the cold tube on the way to your mask. You'll get gurgling from a water bunged tube and/or dropletrs of water being blown into your mask - not nice. Now, a lot of people will tell you to turn down the humidifier setting to control the amount of water condensing. I say that approach is totally wrong. You know how much humidification you are comfortable with and to reduce that level is to increase your discomfort, dry mouth, etc. The real way round rain-out is a heated hose - you get humidification at the level you like and a gently warmed air flow, full of moisture. Here is the cheapest available, made in UK - http://www.eu-pap.co.uk/hybernite-heated-breathing-tube.html
You can trust me on this - a heated hose is worth its weight in gold on cold winter's nights! Hm! some folk report that they cannot stand to breathe warm air and for them a heated hose is a no-no.
Oh my! I just looked at this heated hose lift and it is very expensive. Another gadget to have to plug in as well. I used to have a dry mouth and rain out too but increasing the cpap settings really helped. The hose huggie is a clever and inexpensive little invention - makes the whole thing much less sterile too. My brilliant new S9 apap machine with huimidifier has come with a regular non heated hose and a heated hose. At this time of year (so humid) I dodn't even need to use the humidifier and haven't felt the need to use the heated hose yet either. To be honest, the regular hose and a soft cover plus the clever and inexpensive little hose lift (which I have raved about ever since its invention) help with comfort and allow us to use the hoses we get through the NHS. It certainly is worth trying this less expensive solution before spending out lots of money. I also found (and still find) that the height of the machine and hose in relation to the face and mask makes a lot of difference to the amount of rain out and comfort. You just have to experiment. Hope you get sorted Susan and welcome to the forum.
Rosemary
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