You cough, cough, cough, and keep coughing…. You are so familiar with these coughs as they just follow a cold. Indeed, cold is one of the most common causes of cough.
You also know that in order to combat the coughing, you need to drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest. Unfortunately, when you go to bed, you can’t drink; then when you cough, you won’t be able to rest, so your coughing gets even worse.
“Coughing is our body’s response to an irritant,” explained Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner. “In fact, on the mucous membrane in our airways, there are many many little sweepers—cilia—help clean the dust and microorganism that we breathe in. When we have cold, the respiratory secretions, bacteria, and damaged white blood cells build up, which stimulate our mucous membrane and cause us to produce more coughs to clean the waste.”
Furthermore, when we are in sleeping position, the mucus from the nose and sinuses can drain down our throat and trigger coughs. That’s why coughing gets worse at night time that compromises our sleep and prolongs the healing.
So, is there anything that we can do to mitigate our coughs during sleeping time besides taking medicine?
“Actually there is,” TCM Practitioner said. “You can prop up on pillows or sleep on two to three pillows to help ease post-nasal drip, which reducing the need to clear your throat.”
However, we must pay attention to one important thing when we do so. TCM Practitioner warned that we shouldn’t just lift up our head; our neck and back must also be raised all together in order not to hurt the spine. We can simply sleep atop a slope created by several pillows, or use two pillows to create a “T” form to support our spine.
“After all, a “pillow slope” can not only ease night coughs, but also help relieve indigestion symptoms as it prevents stomach acid from ascending up into our esophagus, ” TCM Practitioner continued.
Image by congalaconga / Fabiana Boiman
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