Often when you are down with a cough and cold, the symptoms get worse at night, disturbing your sleep and making you more uncomfortable. But does it happen to everyone, or have you just been singled out? Turns out, a few symptoms of the common cold actually do inflate at night. Why do colds and coughs get worse at nighttime? According to experts, studies have uncovered various factors regarding coughs and how they get affected according to the time of the day.
Your circadian rhythm - the way your internal process follows a 24-hour cycle gets affected greatly and the immunity cells – involved in healing and inflammation tend to rev up more towards the evening and overnight. According to doctors, this cell attack is what causes many of the symptoms of the common cold. Also, cortisol – your stress hormone is usually highest in the morning and then drops as the day ends—which makes the relationship between cortisol and inflammation complicated.
The irregular spike and lowdown play a role in making symptoms feel worse at night. Doctors say when you lie down at night – it becomes harder for the mucus in your nose to drain normally, leaving you to feel stuffy and unable to breathe and aggravating coughing. Along with these issues, your lungs also get affected by circadian rhythm - which makes the airways narrow at night – resulting in symptoms of cough and worsening of breathlessness.
Ways to manage and reduce nighttime coughing When it comes to getting over a cough, there.