Hacker News Reader

slaymaker1907

Have you tried playing around with the humidity? If I have it set too low, that definitely makes a big difference. There are also other treatments for sleep apnea that you could look into which might work better.

View on HN

Heated humidification is a crux. You only "really" need it when you have a mouth leak ( or if it's awfully cold and dry in your bedroom, like an igloo?). It also vastly increases the amount of maintenance you have to do on your CPAP device. It makes your masks wear our quicker. It makes your hose more susceptible to growing mold etc.

The real trick is to fix your mouth leak. Getting on the right pressure helps with that. Fixing your sleeping position can help. Mouth tape can help. A cervical collar can help. Anything that will help you keep your mouth shut at night.

Humidification is necessary in any place where winter is cold. Cold air can't hold much absolute moisture, and as you warm it up to room temperature, the relative humidity of that air drops. In Canada you will often find the relative humidity of the room to be below 10% in winter, which is uncomfortable even in the absence of CPAP.

I don't use the heated hose, but the humidity is invaluable since my sinuses often end up clogged if I don't use it. However, I also live in a desert and regularly have ~20% humidity in my house.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com