I seem to get a stuffy nose when the room air conditioner is on. I'm often awakened in the middle of the night from this. Has anyone else noticed this problem and is there a solution? Is central air better?
I seem to get a stuffy nose when the room air conditioner is on. I'm often awakened in the middle of the night from this. Has anyone else noticed this problem and is there a solution? Is central air better?
You can have the same problems from central AC as well. Make sure your window AC unit is cleaned throughly. My brother in Florida told us to take the casing off & use oven cleaner on the metal fins, then rinse & dry.
The best thing you can do though is use something like a Ayr Nasal Saline Rinse kit frequently. You'll have less colds in the winter too.
(I wish I had known about it --and used it--long before I had my sinuses reamed out surgically. No fun. Huge cavern now, and still get the occasional sinus infection when I slack off on the Ayr saline rinse. Can't be helped when you live in a blighted torpid area with lousy air quality & way high humidity.)
Also make sure that you yourself are properly hydrated, and that means drinking a lot of water; for myself, I have found that being dehydrated makes my sinus problems a lot worse.
I will try cleaning the air conditioner itself. I can blow it out with compressed air and give it a bath. The filter is new (3m Filtrete)
If you're able to measure humidity in the room or area, try to make sure it stays above 40% and below 50%. Even when rooms approach 40 (in the 40-45% range), my sinuses begin to dry out even when hydrated because AC units pull humidity from the air.
A trick an Army doc taught me to keep sinuses moist in really dry areas or rooms was to take a Q-tip and get the cotton area of it covered lightly in vaseline. Rub that around the interior of each nostril. The added moisture is wonderful if you've got dry sinuses and can get things moving again to reduce any felt sinus pressure.
It's amazing how moldy the insides of window AC units can get in a hot, steamy environment even if one regularly cleans the filters. Especially if they are a few years old.
That's interesting because the humidity drops to 43% when the air is running. Now I'm thinking the unit may be undersized, causing it to run all the time and pulling too much humidity out of the room. It is a dry irritation I'm feeling.
You should be replacing the filter at least once a year. I replace the filter in my central AC/Heating unit every season. I put a washable filter in the AC in the spring and switch it out for a paper type filter in the fall.
If you run your AC a lot then switching the filter out every 3 months would not be a bad idea either. I don't run my heating in the winter all that much since I heat with a wood stove. I use the paper filter for 2 seasons before replacing it. The one I put in for summer use gets washed out every 3 months or so just to make sure it is nice and clean.
I seem to get a stuffy nose when the room air conditioner is on. I'm often awakened in the middle of the night from this. Has anyone else noticed this problem and is there a solution? Is central air better?
That's interesting because the humidity drops to 43% when the air is running. Now I'm thinking the unit may be undersized, causing it to run all the time and pulling too much humidity out of the room. It is a dry irritation I'm feeling.
Typically allergies are worse with AC off. Like others have said, try cleaning the filter and as much as the interior as possible where the air flows though- as thoroughly as possible. Past season allergens could be trapped inside and now bothering you.
It could be the air conditioner is dehumidifying too much, but that would likely lead to dried out sinuses rather than a stuffy nose, but you never know. Can you be more descriptive about your stuffy nose (sorry I'm a pharmacist I get to ask questions like this)
It sounds like this is occurring only in your bedroom. You might want to try changing your bedsheets and such as it could be a dust allergy. Bedrooms hold a lot of dust due to all the rolling around in bed (the biggest % of dust comes from dead skin). The air conditioner could be a false association. Just a thought...
Have you been tested for allergies ever?
Thanks, great point there too. Hydration is definitely key to a properly function sinuses.And, as mentioned earlier, make sure you are drinking enough water.
I'll probably have a Mitsubishi mini-split air conditioner installed and get rid of the window units. Hopefully this will help me sleep better at night.