Allergies keeping you awake? Here’s what you can do to help
Posted: 4th May 2022 | Posted by Costa
Allergies keeping you awake? Here’s what you can do to help
There’s nothing worse than a bad night’s sleep. You wake up in the morning feeling tired, grumpy, and angry at yourself for not being able to get some shut-eye. For some people, when their allergies hit, this is just an inevitability. They know they’ll be up all night with a stuffy nose or persistent cough.
Only 17% of people with allergies rate their sleep as optimal. And about half of all people have been woken up by their allergies and struggle to get back to sleep. That’s not a good feeling for anyone. But what is it that’s causing this exactly? And what can you do to make it better?
Causes of bad sleep
If you’re struggling to get to sleep, it could be because the allergens are right under your nose. Literally. There are likely two main causes that might be leading to your reaction: dust mites and pollen. Both will hang onto your bedding, clothing, and carpet, leaving you breathing them in all night.
You can read more about dust mites here, but the short of it is they live in our fabrics. Their skin and excrement is what sets our allergies off, and it’s not uncommon to find them in your bed. Pollen – which we also talked about recently – is going to affect anyone with hay fever. This has a tendency to cling to clothes and can easily come in through an open window.
So how can you make your sleep a little better?
Up your cleaning routine
The simplest trick is to increase how often you clean your bedroom. Since pollen and dust mites hang around on bedding, get into the habit of cleaning these regularly. You might have to play around with the idea to learn how frequently this needs to be. Also, vacuum more often if you have carpets, and don’t forget your curtains too.
Cleaning also applies to you. If you’ve been outside, pollen could stick to your hair. Switching to a night-time shower or bath will let you get that off your body instead of transferring it to your pillow. Speaking of which, hypoallergenic pillows and bedding exist, so if it’s a real problem, this is something you could invest in.
Keep pets out of the bedroom
This might be a sad tip, but a necessary one. Pets can just as easily get pollen caught in their fur. And just like with hair, this can be dispersed across your bedroom. Try a few nights of keeping them out of the room and see if that makes it better.
If you can’t bear the thought of sleeping without them, wash them more regularly too. Make sure to give them baths or, failing that, rub them down with a clean towel daily.
Don’t sleep with the windows open
As we get towards summer, this is going to be a hard pill to swallow. Nights are going to get hotter and humid. But by keeping your windows open, you’re just inviting pollen in. Really, you don’t want to open them at all throughout the day.
If this sounds like an unbearable idea, consider investing in an air purifier. This will extract allergens from the air, which will hopefully help you sleep a bit easier at night.
And those are our tips! We know a bad night’s sleep can have devastating effects on the next day. You shouldn’t have to put up with that. Hopefully our advice lets you catch a few more Zs. If not, talk to your doctor about allergy medication. Something like a nasal spray might work wonders. Whatever you can do to help you sleep peacefully is worth it.
Struggling to sleep at night because of your allergies? Talk to one of our specialists about it. We’re always here to listen to you and offer our advice. You can register as a new patient, or simply call us on 02031 433 449.