Events Registered before I am Asleep

Hi, I have been using a CPAP machine for about 4 months now. (Resmed Airsense 10) I was diagnosed with Apnea with a reading of 37. My average AHI is now 0.7 but leaks are at an average of 23. Which seems to be down to me breathing through my mouth whilst asleep as I can wake up 2 or 3 times a night with very dry mouth. I am currently using nasal pillows and sometimes nasal mask. My specialist has recommended changing my CPAP machine to another model which has a better humidifier. They will be changing this next week. With my current machine, if I use the humidifier with a setting of 6, I get rainouts. My question is, last night I went to bed using my nasal pillows and after a short while, I was feeling a burning sensation in one nostril, so I thought I would change over to the nasal mask. But, when I switched off the machine I noticed that the time used was just 16 minutes and the events per hour reading was 7.5. Now, I had not fallen to sleep during these 16 minutes, so why 7.5 already?

Can't explain the 7.5 AHI while awake... who knows? I think you should consider that MORE humidity likely won't help your dry mouth. Keeping your mouth closed will. I wear an MMA mouthguard (you dip it in hot water and then bite down on it to form it) to keep my jaw from going slack. I am not convinced changing machines will make a difference as far as the dry mouth. I often just turn my humidity off completely as it only helps keep the nose and lips from getting dried out if using a full face mask. Rainouts can occur for a couple reasons. Loop your air supply hose over something up higher and the hose will stop collecting water. Also NEVER overfill the water tank and the machine will blow water instead of air (don't ask me how I am sure about this hehe)> Rainouts are also known to occur when the water is heater in the humidifier tank and the room temp is very cold. Do a little searching on subjects of interest to you on this forum and you will soon get a better sense of what works for some and what doesn't and when your specialist sends you into a new direction, you will have a better sense of whether that direction will actually work. Good luck!

I hinted/suggested at least half a dozen times to my specialist for me to try out a chin strap but he just got on the phone to the guys that support my equipment and told them to give me a machine with a better humidifier. On my current Airsense 10, there did seem to be a marginal improvement at setting 6, but then I got the rainouts.
I have been doing lots of googling about my condition as it would be nice if I could have a full nights sleep instead of waking up 3-5 times a night with dry mouth or mask leaks. I have read about the mouthguards and lozenges etc but I will go with the specialists recommendations first before trying other remedies.

I had a problem with my mask too and went to talk to my sleep specialist about it. All I got was that he cleaned his mask (he also has sleep apnea) with a lilac scented dish soap. The next time I went in ready to do battle and was insistant that he listen to what I was saying and we finally got somewhere. You should take your Google search (from reputable sources) to show him. Be prepared though for him to get defensive. Try to talk calmly and reasonably because in the long run this is YOUR life and YOUR issues and YOU know what is going on with your body. He may be a professional but he also needs to listen to you.