How to Relieve Cough at Night

Having a cough at night is certainly very disturbing and can make the sufferer unable to sleep well. In fact, to be able to recover quickly, the body needs a lot of time to rest. However, you don't need to worry, because you can do how to relieve cough at night.

Coughing is the body's natural way of clearing the respiratory tract and throat of viruses, germs, pollution and dirt, such as dust, mucus and cigarette smoke. In addition, cough is also often felt when allergies, flu and asthma.

In some cases, coughs caused by irritation or infection in the respiratory tract will be felt more severe or more disturbing at night. If this is the case, the sufferer will find it difficult to rest because they cannot sleep well.

The cough that gets worse at night can be caused by several conditions, namely:

• Respiratory tract disorders, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, and upper respiratory tract infections.
• Tuberculosis.
• Stomach acid disease.
• Heart problems, such as heart valve disease or heart failure.
• Sleep apnea.
• Often smokes.
• Side effects of medicine, such as high blood pressure medicine, ACE inhibitors, NSAIDs and beta blockers.

How to Relieve Coughs at Night

To relieve the annoying cough at night, you can do the following:

1. Taking a bath with warm water before bed

Dry respiratory tract causes coughing at night to get worse. Taking a warm bath before bed can moisten the respiratory tract and relieve coughing. However, if your cough is caused by asthma, don't use this method. This is because the steam inhaled when bathing with warm water can actually worsen asthma symptoms.

2. Drink water or warm drinks before going to bed

Drinking water before bed can help thin the mucus in the respiratory tract so that it can relieve coughs at night. In addition to drinking water, drinking warm tea or lemon water mixed with honey can also be used as an option to relieve coughs. However, keep in mind that honey should only be given to adults and children who are more than 1 year old.

3. Sleep with your head elevated

The usual lying down position can cause you to cough more often. To overcome this, try sleeping with a higher pillow position because it can relieve the throat. In addition, sleeping with a higher head position can also prevent stomach acid from rising up into the throat which can trigger coughing.

4. Make sure your bed is clean

This is one of the tips that can help relieve coughing at night due to allergies. The most common allergy triggers are due to the presence of dust and mites. So, make sure your bed is clean. Change sheets, pillowcases, bolsters and blankets once a week or when they feel dirty.

5. Use a humidifier in the bedroom

How to alleviate cough at night can be by using a humidifier in the bedroom. Dry air in the room can also cause coughing. Therefore, you can use a humidifier to humidify the air in the bedroom. This can make you more comfortable and help relieve coughing.

6. Take cough medicine

Apart from doing the above methods, you can also take cough medicine to relieve coughing at night. You should take cough medicine according to the type of cough you are experiencing.

There are several types of cough medicine with different contents and functions, namely:

• Expectorant are cough medicines used to treat cough with phlegm. This cough medicine works by thinning phlegm or mucus so that the cough can subside.
• Antitussives are cough medicines used to treat dry coughs. This cough medicine works by reducing the stimuli that can trigger coughing, so that the frequency of coughing will decrease. An example of this cough medicine is dextromethorphan.
• Decongestants are cough medicines that can help relieve coughing at night. This cough medicine can relieve a stuffy nose and relieve pressure in the sinus cavities due to allergies or colds. Examples of these cough medicines are phenylephrine and pseudoephedrine.
• Antihistamines are cough medicines that can help with coughs due to allergies accompanied by symptoms of sneezing, itchy throat, and itchy and runny nose. Examples of these cough medicines are brompheniramine and chlorpheniramine.

Coughing at night is often annoying. However, be patient because basically, coughing is the body's way of getting rid of the cause of the cough itself. By doing some of the tips above and getting enough rest, usually a cough at night will subside within 1-2 weeks.

Even so, you should be alert if the cough at night gets worse, lasts more than 3 weeks, or is accompanied by a high fever, shortness of breath, phlegm that is green, yellow, or even accompanied by blood, and weight loss.

Perhaps, these symptoms could indicate the presence of a serious illness, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis or heart failure, which requires medical treatment. If you have a cough like that, then you should immediately consult a doctor to get the right treatment. Thus the explanation that we can write about how to relieve cough at night, hopefully the article above can be useful.