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Hot and Stuffy

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massapnea +0 points · over 1 year ago Original Poster

Hi all, I am 7-ish weeks in using my ResMed AirSense 11 machine and I am having very little success. Hoping I can leverage your wisdom.

Basically, I find it nearly impossible to fall asleep because upon exhale, the air in the mask feels stuffy and hot. This leaves me with a feeling claustrophobia / slight feeling of suffocation. The result is that I take the mask on and off until give up and sleep in another room with no mask so as to allow my partner to sleep. This is the new normal now. It sucks. Things I've tried:

  • Ice in the tray - This was the only time I was able to sleep. I would start the evening loading the tray with ice and water. The air was cool and I could sleep. I would wake up mid-evening totally parched in my mouth, but this was better than no sleep at all.
  • Changing the ramp up time, tube temperature, and humidity settings - None of these helped.
  • Physician lowering the max air pressure and reducing humidity - I cannot change the air pressure myself, he did. Did not help.

Obviously adding ice twice a night isn't sustainable. I've ordered a SD card so I can review/share data via OSCAR. Thank you for your input. I'm trying to be patient, but it's hard not to be frustrated.

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Sierra +0 points · over 1 year ago Sleep Patron

What are your current min and max pressure settings? Are you using EPR? What is it set at? Have you tried the ramp time set to Auto? Do you have a heated hose and have you tried the humidity at Auto?

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massapnea +0 points · over 1 year ago Original Poster

Thank you for your response.

"What are your current min and max pressure settings?" I can't see or adjust these settings. Apparently this can only be adjusted by my physician with this setup.

"Are you using EPR? What is it set at?" See above.

"Have you tried the ramp time set to Auto?" Yes.

"Do you have a heated hose" Yes.

"have you tried the humidity at Auto?" Yes.

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Sierra +0 points · over 1 year ago Sleep Patron

Have a look at this YouTube to see how to access the settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrSizofsmOA

My sense is that your minimum pressure may be too low. Unless you really need a lower pressure I think the ideal minimum pressure is 7 cm. And with that have EPR turned on and set to 3 cm. That way when you start it up you will get 7 cm on inhale with a reduction of 3 cm on exhale. So, you will get 7 cm on inhale and 4 cm (the minimum the machine will deliver) until you go to sleep. Then if your ramp is on Auto, the machine will switch to auto pressure control. This makes breathing more comfortable when going to sleep. To use these settings you have to have the minimum pressure set to 7 cm or higher.

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