Increasing humidity

[Dominus Atheos]

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, which is where you stop breathing when you are asleep, and I figure a probable root cause is the fact that my bedroom gets down to about 20% humidity some nights. So I need to fix this, but none of the solutions I've tried so far have helped.

Note, I'm not looking for recommendations for brands, only features.

I bought 3 humidifiers, one top-fill "warm mist" that had a fucking retarded design that caused it to leak and eventually fried it but was otherwise good, one refurbished chinese brand "ultrasonic" that I really liked because it sprayed a mist directly over my face all night that I could actually see and feel and I'm pretty sure really helped but was a huge pain to refill the tank until it crapped out after 3 months, and then another top-fill ultrasonic that I'm still using.

But apparently my house is really really dry, because even the current one isn't making a dent in the overall humidity, and I need that because I'm trying to use a cpap machine and mist spraying "directly over my face" isn't as useful when I'm wearing a face mask connected to a machine that I'm pretty sure isn't waterproof and probably shouldn't have mist sprayed on it or into the air intakes (although I did seriously consider that).

Other things I have tried is shutting the gas furnace vent and getting a space heater, and trying other ways of increasing the humidity of the room like buying a hotplate and placing a large pot of water on it and boiling it all off, hanging damp towels everywhere. The hotplate I bought wasn't powerful enough to do that though and damp towels didn't work great and hanging them everywhere every night was a pain. Right now I'm desperate enough that I left the large pot of water is directly in front of the space heater hoping it would evaporate at least a little.

Also all of these plans bought up another concern about how much power I can draw in one room before the electrical system catches on fire.

So right now I'm onto "large room" and "whole house" humidifiers but the problem I'm having is that nearly all of them are "evaporative" humidifiers and honestly those sound like bullshit to me. "It has a wick that absorbs water, then a fan blows air across the wick and absorbs moisture!" So it's literally the same concept as hanging a damp towel? I tried that already and it didn't work.

So please reassure me that evaporative humidifiers actually work, and help me brainstorm other ways to increase humidity.

[madd0ct0r]

Other things I have tried is shutting the gas furnace vent and getting a space heater

This is carbon monoxide special. Don't do it you will die.

[madd0ct0r]

On for the other:

https://thorax.bmj.com/content/54/8/711 suggests a plausibe mechanism - mucus drying in upper airway. If this is mechanisim AND you are wearing a mask, I think room humidity will be irrelevant - it's the humidity inside the mask that matter.

I'll also note "The relative humidity inside the body tent was maintained at or above 80% throughout the high humidity night." - is a fucking health hazard. Mould grows at 70%+ . Not something you want when you already have restricted breathing.

[houser2112]

There are humidifiers available that can be installed on a forced-air furnace, you might want to look into that.

[Enigma]

Or just get a CPAP with a built in humidifier like the one I have.

[Raw Shark]

My last long long-term Ex-GF used an evaporative humidifier to deal with the transition from San Francisco to Denver. I didn't notice a difference until she moved in with me and started insisting on sleeping with the bedroom door closed on account of our opposing schedules. The bedding was uncomfortably moist to me when I finally joined her after my post-work Netflix / Loud Music time, so in my experience I would say they work.