I’m guessing it’s from dry air god me but even with humidifier I always have to blow my nose a bunch of times in the morning. Sometimes my lungs feel tight for a while after waking up. This happen to anybody else? Why does it happen for you?
I have nasal congestion due to allergies every morning so here’s some advice that might help you.
You can try a Neti pot morning and night. The NeilMed ones at Costco pharmacies are good.
Use distilled water or boil your own for 1-3 minutes depending on the elevation in the area.
Once the packets run out you can measure 1/8 tsp baking soda, 1/8 to 1/4 tsp non-iodized salt (e.g. sea salt).
For prescriptions, Omnaris might work for you too. Gets things moving and doesn’t have the congestive rebound effect that over-the-counter nasal decongestants do.
All the other advice about controlling allergens is on point too. You can try an anti-histamine (e.g. Aerius) for a week to see if your congestion goes away but allergy meds dry you out a bit by design and gum you up so maybe this won’t have the effect you’re seeking.
You can get a sleep study for apnea but I’d say only if you’ve had actual fatigue related symptoms, not just what you’ve described here.
You could get a breath test for your lungs. Maybe there’s mold at your place. That tightness should be enough reason to get checked out, tbh.
Best of luck!
I just use body temperature tap water with some salt (mine comes with a measuring cup, you don’t want to mess that up too much) and it’s working wonders when my nose is stuck (allergy, congestion from crap in the wind, “runny nose”).
Cheers
Unless your tap water is unusually, ridiculously pure, please at least use filtered water. Snorting bacteria directly into your sinuses can end very badly.
Yes exactly, a game changer for me as well.
I used to use tap water too. I have to highlight why distilled or boiled water is important though. Tap water isn’t sterile and there have been cases of microbes creating infections when used with Neti pots.
Naegleria fowleri is a brain-eating amoeba that has been linked to tap water usage in Neti pots, among other scenarios.
These cases are rare, to be fair, but still worth avoiding with distilled or boiled water. There could be other less fatal microbes junking things up, after all.
I live in France where we don’t have brain eating amoebae in the tap water.
You doesn’t inject the water, you just clean out shit that is overwhelming the system, safety wise it’s like gargling water if you don’t over do it.
I mean if you do live where there are brain eating things in the drinking water, yeah do buy sterile water and proceed accordingly for sure.
Fascinating. I had assumed it was everywhere but I looked it up and it does seem pretty rare globally. It has caused illness in countries nearby you though so be careful traveling :)
FYI certain brain barrier piercing amoebas are able to penetrate only when going through the nasal cavity. They are, weirdly enough, safe to drink.
Really appreciate Kate all the advice! I’ll try/look into these. The tightness is more like my lungs are really tired and I have to wake them up so they feel heavy.
Sounds like asthma or walking pneumonia even, but I’m no doctor. I recommend getting checked out.
The classic advice is to go see a doctor and with what you’ve described I’d recommend it.
To answer your question, yes I do. However, I have an autoimmune disorder that makes me have a constant runny nose unless I’m on some meds.
I have and nothing serious. It’s only in the morning. I have allergies but infrequently. Wondering if living in a different environment would make sense.
Okay cool, then yeah maybe the dry air. Dry, stale, dusty air fucks with my sinuses too, but idk if that’s my autoimmune or a normal thing people get. So I usually keep my house filter clean and run a fan and that seems to help me
Yeah I gotta use the air purifier in conjunction with the humidifier and see if that helps. Thanks. What’s the autoimmune you have, if you don’t mind my asking, so I can do a little research about it.
I’ve found cleaning my nose before bed has helped - remove the day’s snot and boogers rather than sleep with it!
Haha that makes sense. I don’t usually have anything in there to clean at the end of the day. Maybe I can do a nasal rinse though and see if that helps.
Maybe someone is sneaking into your room while you’re sleeping and stuffing dryer lint up your nose ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I’d believe it. I’ll set up some cameras. Thanks!
Well, I want to breathe easily, I guess.
Running the ac while sleeping does this to me.
reminder to clean AC air filters
(i need to clean mine…)Yeah. It gets worse with AC, but even without it I have to sneeze and blow my nose every morning. Takes at least 30 min to clear my sinuses up. I use a humidifier but minimally helpful.
In addition to other suggestions here (all good ones so far), maybe an allergy? Could be something about your pillow
Yeah I definitely have allergies. I have a foam pillow and cotton case. Maybe I need to do some deep cleaning in the room or start using an air filter.
In addition to those, consider getting a hypoallergenic mattress cover and hypoallergenic pillow covers. And wash your bed linens more frequently.
Check out bamboo pillows and pillow cases, they have natural hypoallergenic properties and it might suit you better. Or you could just get a bamboo pillow protector + pillow case, in case you don’t want to change your whole pillow out.
Do you take an antihistamine? I live on Zyrtec and would be miserable if I didn’t take it daily
I do a spray sometimes but I don’t wanna take meds every day.
Why? Meds are great
I’d prefer to fix the problem instead of blocking my body’s response to the stimuli.
If your body produces too much histamine in response to cotton or something else super common like dust mites, you aren’t going to remove all of that stuff from your environment
maybe i gotta to back to my allergist for something more permanent.
I’ve had the same thing for years. You should get checked for sleep apnea… I have it but unfortunately the CPAP machines don’t let me sleep. I cannot get used to it.
But I sneeze at least 50 times and blow my nose as much for one or two hours after waking up.
The rest of the day my sinuses are clear. I’ve asked Doctors and haven’t gotten any real solutions.
Damn. That would suck. I hope that’s not the case. I’ll ask my doctor about it. Would I be snoring a lot if I had it?
Yes, snoring and waking up from a dream where you were suffocating or couldn’t breathe for one reason or another. My girlfriend sometimes wakes me up because she thinks I’m choking. It’s also worse if you happened to drink that night.
I feel like this is something you should speak to a doctor about, like it could just be a quirk or it could be that fluid is accumulating in your respiratory system when you lay down which could be dangerous.
What’s that condition called? It doesn’t feel deep in my lungs. It just feels stuffy in my sinuses.
It’s not one condition, basically when your respiritory system is irritated it produces mucus, that’s why you get a runny nose when you have a cold for example, but anything going weird there can cause this reaction, infections, tumours, anything. When there’s an overproduction of mucus you might not notice when awake and upright as it drains away but when asleep laying down it can build up in certain areas. Your description of having to clear your nose and tightness on the lungs sounds like this could be whats happening and I feel like someone with a medical degree should have a look just to be sure it’s nothing sinister.
You tried drinking a lot of water before sleeping? Humidity alone doesn’t help.
I’ve been living with this for 20 years and only now seriously seeing an ENT to figure it out. One thing doc has me doing is a twice a day sinus rinse with a NeilMed sinus bottle. It has def improved things a lot.
I say see an ENT and they will probably take a swab to check for an infection. I had one and pill antibiotics didn’t help so he has me doing this rinse with an added antibiotic powder.
My parents do but I do not. I’m guessing we all have sleep apnea though. Definitely allergies. But, I do have a small air purifier in my room
I think it’s this one:
cool. i’ll try using the air purifier again. mine is pretty loud though. is that one pretty quiet?
It is unless you use the high setting, then it’s pretty loud. But I keep it on medium or even low
My morning shower collects a looot of nasal discharge…
So, I actually had this because of my humidifier. I was using an ultrasonic humidifier with tap water - I know distilled is recommended, but with how dry it is here, that would mean an insane amount of bottled water. But I noticed a film of white dust appearing around the room from the dispersed salts and whatnot. Turning off the humidifier (and later replacing it with an evaporative style) cleared up my daily stuffiness instantly.
Thanks! I use distilled water, but maybe I’ll try evaporative style.
The problem for me using my evaporative dehumidifier is cleaning off the minerals every week.
Yeah agreed. But I guess I’d rather do that than clean it off my walls (and lungs apparently?). Definitely recommend getting a bigger one than you need, though, so you can run the fan lower and the media takes a little longer to get crusty.
I have mild sleep apnea and a night device that improves my airways has eliminated my sinus congestion in the mornings. Talk to a dentist that specializes in sleep apnea.
Dentist!?!
Yeah, it is a mouth peice the pulls your lower jaw forward, opening your airway. I am trying one now. Only been two weeks though, so too early to know if it will work for me.
huh, TIL
