What to do if cough keeps you awake? We will understand in this article.
Coughing is a very unpleasant phenomenon, especially if it occurs at night, exhausts and prevents a person from fully resting. This is not an independent disease, but only its symptom. Protective functions are assigned to the cough, because through this phenomenon the bronchi and lungs are cleaned of sputum or foreign particles accumulated in them. The causes of nocturnal cough can be ordinary dust (as an allergic reaction) and a variety of serious pathologies. At night, when a person is in a horizontal position, the removal of sputum from the bronchi is difficult, as a result of which the attacks become longer and more persistent.
Why does cough keep you awake?
Causes of night cough
The sudden occurrence of cough syndrome without an established cause warns of the ingress of dust or other foreign elements into the respiratory tract. Exhausting paroxysmal cough during sleep, which lasts more than two weeks, indicates the presence of infection, and uninterrupted at night for several months - about its transition to the chronic stage.
A similar symptom does not always serve as a sign of a specific disease. In certain cases, the causes of coughing at night are caused by such factors:
- inhalation of gas with a pungent or pungent odor: cigarette smoke, campfire smoke, etc .;
- inhalation of dust, fine aerosol particles (flavoring, perfume, etc.);
- inhalation of too hot, cold or dry air.
In such cases, you do not need to worry and go to the doctors. To eliminate night cough in an adult, it is enough to eliminate irritants.
However, if there are no factors that irritate the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, and coughing attacks at night have been tormenting for quite a long time, it is necessary to determine its nature, which will help in diagnosing the disease and begin treatment. The causes and treatment of nocturnal cough are interrelated.
To make a diagnosis, you need to visit a specialist.
Dry cough
Sometimes a dry cough keeps you awake. Frequent attacks, sore throat, tickling, especially at night, in the absence or small amount of sputum are the main signs of a dry cough.
The cause of this kind of symptom may be the onset of a cold, when the mucous membranes in the airways become inflamed. But at the same time, such a cough at night may indicate the onset of allergies, chronic pathologies of the lungs and bronchi, heart failure, cancer, some pathologies of the stomach and tuberculosis.
Heart and gastrointestinal diseases
Diseases of the cardiovascular system are sometimes signaled by a dry night cough in an adult in combination with an increased heart rate and the occurrence of shortness of breath.
Disorders of the digestive tract (esophageal reflux), which may be associated with irritation of the esophagus receptors and the respiratory tract, where stomach acid can enter, are also sometimes accompanied by coughing.
Vocal cord inflammation
With the inflammatory process in the vocal cords, coughing at night is barking, dry. Abrasive, straining throat attacks can indicate the presence of tumors in the airways.
A prolonged dry cough, which is accompanied by nausea and vomiting, is a clear sign of whooping cough. Persistent dry can also indicate tuberculosis, pneumoconiosis, sarcoidosis, collagenosis of the lungs, beginning bronchitis.
The causes of wheezing night cough, which is accompanied by heaviness in the chest, often becomes a pathology such as bronchial asthma. With advanced forms of this ailment, coughing keeps you awake at night.
Moist cough
This type of cough can occur when a large amount of mucus accumulates in the bronchi, trachea and lungs, from which the body reflexively tries to get rid. The following diseases can be factors in the occurrence of wet cough at night, which becomes a continuation of dry cough:
- pneumonia;
- tuberculosis;
- viral diseases;
- rhinitis;
- sinusitis;
- swelling of the trachea or heart;
- pleuropneumonia;
- digestive pathology;
- oncological pathologies of the respiratory system.
Scanty thick sputum indicates tracheitis, bronchitis, or asthma. Mucus with an unpleasant odor is a symptom of a ruptured lung abscess. The cause of profuse sputum with pus is often focal pneumonia. On the color of sputum, you can also draw some conclusions about the alleged pathology. The yellow-orange color of the discharge indicates the development of pleuropneumonia. If there is an admixture of blood in the sputum, and the patient is chilling, the cause may be tuberculosis or cancer.
Viral pathologies
With viral pathologies, sputum production at night is most often accompanied by fever, nausea and dizziness. If a wet cough at night occurs without hyperthermia and other symptoms, then this may indicate the development of inflammatory processes in the respiratory tract, tuberculosis or oncology.
Causes of prolonged paroxysmal cough at night with sputum are also whooping cough and sinusitis. Inflammation of the nasopharynx is manifested by night sore throat and the development of cough. Sputum is present, but it is extremely difficult to get out. Due to the breakthrough of the hepatic abscess in the mucus, it is easy to detect impurities that look like small grains.
Patients often complain to the doctor that they cough when they are lying. What specialist can advise?
How to eliminate night cough?
This symptom occurs at night for a variety of reasons. It is impossible to make a diagnosis independently without a medical education. Therefore, if this symptom becomes stronger at night, does not stop tormenting the patient for a long time, you should consult a doctor to determine the reasons, so as not to start any disease and start timely therapy. To make a diagnosis, it is necessary to take blood and sputum tests, make an x-ray of the chest, bronchography and undergo fibrogastroduodenoscopy.
How to get rid of a strong cough at night?
Regardless of the reason for its development, this symptom is very unpleasant, interfering with a good rest, exhausting. In this case, you can significantly alleviate your condition with the help of some medical devices or alternative methods of treatment.
At night, dry coughing can cause apnea, and the process of coughing unpleasant sensations, which are accompanied by shortness of breath, increased vomiting reflex, and sometimes suffocation. This often happens in patients with asthma, the causative agents of which can be dust, pollen, fluff, insect bites.
Relief of cough
Night cough occurs with inflammation of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, and the cause of the wet becomes the accumulation of sputum in them. To relieve such symptoms, sedative and anti-inflammatory drugs are prescribed that make sputum more fluid so that it can be easily removed from the respiratory tract. It is important to remember that a dry cough at night in the absence of adequate therapy for the underlying disease eventually passes into a wet cough, which is evidence of the further spread of the inflammatory process.
Modern medicines to treat this symptom are effective and diverse. Mostly these are expectorants.
List
Expectorant medications are inexpensive but effective:
- "Herbion" with plantain extract. It has expectorant, antitussive, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Against the background of its use, night cough becomes softer, a gradual sputum discharge begins. Price - 160 rubles.
- "Sinecode" is a pharmaceutical product that can suppress night cough and alleviate this symptom, which may have a different nature of origin. This medicine relieves inflammation, weakens the smooth muscles in the bronchi, normalizes their patency, promotes expectoration and a moderate anti-inflammatory effect. Price - 240 rubles.
What other expectorant drugs, inexpensive but effective, exist?
- “Stoptusin” is a medication that is prescribed for adults and children to stop the symptoms of dry night cough, because it locally anesthetizes, reduces the manifestations of the inflammatory process in the bronchi and facilitates coughing by diluting sputum. Price - 130 rubles.
- "Codelac Fito" - a medicine that contains extracts of licorice, thermopsis and thyme, as well as codeine. It has an expectorant effect and relieves coughing attacks at night. Price - 150 rubles.
- "Bronchicum" is a medication that actively relieves inflammation, facilitates the removal of sputum and is prescribed for any cough. This pharmaceutical product is contraindicated for lactating and pregnant women, people with liver and kidney pathologies. Price - 180 rubles.
- “Broncholitin” is a cough remedy that anesthetizes, reduces inflammation, has a calming, antibacterial and antispasmodic effect, relieves swelling of the bronchi, and facilitates the respiratory process at night. Price - 120 rubles.
- “Linkas” is a natural medicine that facilitates coughing and has a mucolytic effect. Price - 90 rubles.
- "Libexin" is a medication that has an antitussive effect, relieves inflammation and dilates the bronchi. Price - 430 rubles.
It is very unpleasant when the cough keeps you awake. What to do, now we know.