Coughing is pretty normal and can help clear out stuff from your lungs. Sometimes it’s even helpful for getting rid of germs and preventing sickness. But when you’re coughing at night, it can really mess with your sleep and make it hard to rest well.
Thankfully, there are a bunch of things you can try to stop that nighttime coughing. You can take medicine, tweak your lifestyle a bit, or try some natural remedies.
What Causes Coughing?
When you’re sick with a cold, sinus infection, or the flu, mucus can drip from your nose or sinuses into your throat while you’re lying down to sleep. This often makes you cough more at night because you feel the drip tickling your throat and want to clear it.
But there are other reasons you might cough and have trouble sleeping:
– Asthma: This can cause your lung airways to narrow and fill up with too much mucus. People with asthma might also have dry coughs because they’re not getting enough air when they breathe, and dust can make it worse.
– Allergies: If you have hay fever or other allergies, your nose might get stuffed up and drip into your throat, leading to coughing.
– Heartburn or GERD: Stomach acid can creep up into your esophagus and irritate the nerves there, causing you to cough, even if you’re not feeling heartburn or pain.
– Smoking: Smoking can cause mucus to build up in your lungs, making you cough. You might also feel the need to cough to clear out toxins from your airways.
– Certain blood pressure medications: Some ACE inhibitors can cause a dry cough that persists for some people.
Why Coughing Gets Worse at Night
Coughing can feel worse at night because of a few reasons. It might be because of issues with your lungs and airways, like infections, postnasal drip, allergies, or asthma.
According to Samuel Mathis, MD, from the University of Texas Medical Branch, things like lung infections make coughs worse at night. When we lie down, it helps the little ‘hairs’ in our lungs (cilia) move mucus out, and coughing is our body’s way of getting rid of extra mucus.
Another reason, is that during the day, moving around helps loosen trapped mucus. But when we lie down at night, it’s harder for our bodies to clear this mucus naturally.
This can lead to postnasal drip, where mucus collects in the back of the throat and causes coughing.
Remedies for Night Cough
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