Breathe Easier At Night

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Is there something about being horizontal that causes nasal congestion? Sometimes it seems it waits until my head hits the pillow to suddenly get blocked up, is there any way around this?❞

Short answer: yes

More useful answer: yes, though being horizontal is more an enabling factor than necessarily the root cause, and there are several ways to address it.

The reason that it makes a difference is because as you probably know, humans have an unusual arrangement of internal passageways there, in which pretty much everything that goes there (air, food, water, mucus, etc) can incorrectly get into each other’s places. In most animals, these passageways are much better (or in non-mammals, completely) separated.

In the case of congestion upon lying down, mucus that was previously away behind the nose and either staying in place or moving slowly downwards*, is now free to move slowly forwards, being an almost-flat decline, depending on the position and orientation of your head**.

*which sounds bad, but it’s supposed to do that—the entire way through our digestive system is, after the mouth, protected by one form of mucus or another.

**This is the key, or rather one of the keys, to improving things. A firm pillow with good support can be used to position the head such that this doesn’t happen, or at least not to the same extent, depending on your sleeping position preferences.

That said, sleeping at least somewhat on your side is still better than sleeping on your back: (see: Sleeping Positions & Your Heart & Brain) so you might want to consider a 45° angle.

An orthopedic pillow can help, like this one.

Causes beyond position

Allergies are a common one that people don’t think about when not suffering most of the time, and especially not during most of one’s waking hours.

“There are tiny unseen creatures eating your flesh” seems like medieval explanation, but in fact, dust mite allergies (they eat dead human skin cells, amongst other detritus) are a common cause, and they often accumulate inside bedding. For this reason, hypoallergenic bedding (which is less about the material itself not being allergenic, and more about not allowing dust mites to get inside it) can be a big help.

See also: What are house dust mites and how do I know if I’m allergic to them?

Of course, you could also simply take allergy medications, but as a general rule of thumb, it’s a lot better to treat the cause than the symptom, and certainly hypoallergenic bedding doesn’t have the risk of side effects that allergy meds have. Still, if you are going to medicate, then you might want to consider: Antihistamines’ Generation Gap ← because not all antihistamines are created equal

Disuse is another common cause. That may sound strange, but in reality a lot of people default to mouth-breathing when asleep, and the nostrils are more likely to get blocked up when not in use—then, being blocked, even if only partially, one is even more likely to default to mouth-breathing, in order to continue breathing.

Some people go to the arguably extreme method of mouth-taping (which is what it sounds like) to oblige their sleeping body to continue breathing through the nose, but if you can simply make a strong habit of breathing through your nose during the day, even at times when you might want to include your mouth for convenience (e.g. during moderate exercise), then because the “neurons that fire together, wire together” aspect of neuroplasticity works for the entire nervous system, your body will more easily keep up the habit of nose-breathing while sleeping—keeping your nasal airways clearer.

Indeed, we answered a related question quite a while ago, thus:

❝When going to sleep, I try to breathe through my nose (since everyone says that’s best). But when I wake I often find that I am breathing through my mouth. Is that normal, or should I have my nose checked out?❞

It is quite normal, but when it comes to health, “normal” does not always mean “optimal”.

• Good news: it is correctable!
• Bad news: it is correctable by what may be considered rather an extreme practice that comes with its own inconveniences and health risks.

Some people correct this by using medical tape to keep their mouth closed at night, ensuring nose-breathing. Advocates of this say that after using it for a while, nose-breathing in sleep will become automatic.

We know of no hard science to confirm this, and cannot even offer a personal anecdote on this one. Here are some pop-sci articles that do link to the (very few) studies that have been conducted:

• Mouth taping may be a trending sleep hack, but the science behind it is slim
• Mouth Taping for Sleep: Does it Work? And What are the Side Effects?

This writer’s personal approach is simply to do breathing exercises when going to sleep and first thing upon awakening, and settle for imperfection in this regard while asleep.

Lastly, there is the more general aspect of air quality. If we’ve taken care of hypoallergenic bedding, that’s great, but it will have limited benefit if the air itself is bringing undue particles into our noses as we sleep, which is prompting an immune response, and that immune response involves mucus. See also: What Is Mucus? And Why?

The fix for this latter matter is simple: Air Purifiers & Sleep

Sweet dreams!