During the day, it’s not too bad. You blow your nose a few times, keep working, and think it will only last three days or so.
Then you lie down. Within ten minutes, your nose is completely blocked, your mouth opens, and you’re lying there breathing like a bulldozer.
The next morning you feel worse than the day before, and that is exactly how a three-day cold turns into a week of bad nights.
Why a little swelling does so much
At its narrowest point, your nasal passage is only a few millimeters wide. A virus in your mucous membranes makes them swell, and extra mucus builds up.
A millimeter less space sounds like nothing. For the air that has to get through, it’s much more than that, because the narrower the passage, the greater the resistance. If you halve the opening, your body has to exert many times more force for the same amount of air.
That is why you still get through the day just fine, and then suddenly get nothing in bed.
Lying down makes it worse
As soon as you lie horizontally, more blood flows to your head and your mucous membranes swell even more. The margin you still had is then gone.
There’s one more thing.Your nose works in turns, with always one side resting. That resting side goes from partly blocked to completely blocked when you have a cold, and then you’re left with one nostril that has to do all the work on its own.
At that point, your body does what it always does when the resistance gets too high. Your mouth opens.
The cycle that costs you your night
Your mouth offers no resistance. The air rushes through in big gulps, so you start breathing faster and more shallowly than you should at rest.
Your body reads that as a mild alarm state. Your heart rate rises, your nervous system stays more alert, and you wake up briefly hundreds of times a night without remembering it. That keeps you stuck in the lighter stages, and that is why you can lie in bed for eight hours and still feel like you didn’t really sleep.
The drying out comes on top of that. Your throat becomes rough and irritated, you start coughing, and that coughing really does wake you up. That’s the part you feel in the morning, while the rest happened in your sleep.
And that is exactly what you need least right now. Your immune system does most of its work in deep sleep, so a night broken into pieces gives your virus more time.
Expect seven to ten days for a normal cold. How your nights go largely determines how those days feel.
What you can do about it
Rinse your nose with salt water before going to sleep. That removes mucus and crusts and moisturizes your mucous membrane, and you can do it as often as you like.
If you reach for a nasal spray with an active ingredient, limit it to a maximum of five days. Using it longer causes a rebound effect in which your nose gets more blocked than before you started.
Raise the head of your bed by a few centimeters and lie on your side. Less blood to your mucous membranes, less swelling, more space.
Keep the air in your bedroom moist and fresh. Dry heated air irritates mucous membranes that are already overstimulated, so crack a window open and, if needed, hang a wet towel over the radiator.
If your nose is completely blocked, leave the mouth tape alone. Your mouth is your only route to air at that moment, and it has to stay that way. Nasal strips are fine, because they pull your nostrils outward and keep your nasal passage open with a splint. Often that is enough to breathe through your nose again. As soon as your nose can handle it again, mouth tape is the way to keep your mouth closed so your breathing becomes calm and deep again.
The habit for this week
Rinse your nose with salt water before you get into bed. Every evening as long as you have a cold, and then just during heating season.
Add an extra pillow and lie on your side. Two actions that take half a minute.
Pay attention to your throat when you wake up. Rough and dry means your night went through your mouth, and that is the first thing that changes.
Every Night 1% Better.
Guy Veeke
PS: Are you over your cold and still sleeping badly?
Then it may be that mouth breathing has stuck around. The combination of nasal strips and mouth tape puts you back on your nose, so your nights start to pay off again.
