Posted by BostonBoy on November 25, 2001 at 09:51:36:

In Reply to: update on lump in throat posted by stillsotired on November 25, 2001 at 05:54:14:

Hose route management is important in preventing the kind of U-bend airflow restriction and gurgling that will wake you; and insulating the hose is the best way to minimize the effect of rainout in your mask.

Locate the heated humidifier on the floor as close to the bed as possible, so that the fall of the hose is nearly vertical, from where the mask end of the hose and swivel is suspended above your bed pillow, down to the humidifier chamber. The hose will need to be about 3 ft. long, for most bedside arrangements.

Then insulate the hose with the kind of pull-over insulating sleeve that you can buy from the CPAP- Man in the shopping mall you can access from the home page of this SleepNet site.

If your preference is for sleeping in a cool bedroom it is likely that you will also want to insulate the short hose that connects your mask to the supply hose from the humidifier. People often just use an old athletic sock for it. It is not necessary to insulate the hose from the CPAP to the humidifier.

You are then ready to fine tune the system by adjusting the control on the humidifier, to get a nice balance between the amount of humidification that makes your beathing most comfortable, and an amount ot rainout you can get along with. You'll probably get to your comfort zone faster by working up from a low setting than by starting from a high set point. For example, my humidifier has a scale of 0-9. I started at 2, went to 3 and 4, and dropped back to 3. I haven't had to touch the control since my second week.

Follow Ups:

---

Copyright ©1995-2005 Sleepnet.com., All rights reserved