Getting a good night’s sleep is important when suffering from a cold
(Picture: Andrea Picaquadio/Pexels)Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for recovering from a common cold. In fact, not sleeping can make your cold or flusymptoms worse.
Dr Lindsay Browning, psychologist, neuroscientist and sleep expert at And So To Bed explains, “Congestion caused by either a virus or allergies can greatly affect the quality of our sleep, which in turn affects our physical and mental health.
“Our immune system is boosted overnight, meaning it is even more important to get a good night’s sleep when you are poorly. If you don’t get enough sleep, you are likely to take longer to fight off the virus.’’
She adds: “Cold symptoms are usually worse at night – when laying down, the mucus cannot drain in the same way it would when gravity is helping, leading to disturbed breathing or a cough caused by post-nasal drip.”
Follow these sleep tips when congested to help you wake up feeling better:
1. Try a facial steam before bed
Steam can help loosen the mucus in your nasal passages, improving congestion.
The easiest way to do this is to fill your sink with warm water. Place a towel over your head, to trap the vapour, and lean over the sink. As the steam builds, inhale deeply. Take care not to scald your face on the water or steam.
2. Take a hot shower
A hot shower may also provide some temporary relief from congestion by thinning out mucus. You want your shower hot but still comfortable. Another bonus of this is the steam it will create.
Make sure to close the door to your bathroom to create steam. Take a few deep breaths to clear your sinuses. A warm bath or shower before bed can also help promote sleep because, as you get out of the warm water and start to cool down, this drop in temperature helps you to feel sleepy.
3. Keep your bedroom dark and cool
When you’re sick, you’ll want to make sure your bedroom environment is the best it can be for sleep.
For example, you might feel more sensitive to fluctuations in light or temperature. Keep the temperature in your bedroom cool. Use blackout curtains to ensure outside light doesn’t affect your sleep, or use an eye mask.
4. Keep your head elevated
Sleeping with your head elevated can help drain mucus and relieve sinus pressure. Lay on your back and use an extra pillow to prop up your head, or raise the head end of the bed itself, if possible.
5. Purify the air
You could consider using an air purifier to help remove pollen and dust particles in the air. Also, drying laundered bedding indoors (especially in the summer months), can minimise the risk of pollen sticking to it, which can aggravate allergies such as hayfever.
6. Take medication
If you have a fever, blocked sinuses, or congestion, taking the right medication can help relieve symptoms, allowing you to feel relaxed and settled before bed.
If you are looking for medication to take before bed, you should always steer clear of medications which have caffeine in them – these will usually be labelled non-drowsy – as caffeine will keep you awake at night.
7. Avoid excessive amounts of caffeine and alcohol
You should avoid caffeine, and alcohol, especially in the late afternoon and early evening. Not only can these substances disrupt your sleep and lower your sleep quality, they can also worsen your cold and flu symptoms.
Caffeine has an average half-life of six hours, meaning that, six hours after your last cup of coffee, half of the caffeine is still in your system.
Caffeine is not only found in tea and coffee but also in chocolate and soft drinks, such as cola and energy drinks, including the sugar-free variety. If you have trouble sleeping, then it is recommended you avoid caffeine after around 2 pm.
8. Try not to stress if you can’t sleep
Not being able to sleep, especially when you’re ill, can be really frustrating. However, it is important that you try to remain calm and try not to stress too much, as this can make falling asleep even harder.
If you are really struggling to get to sleep because of your symptoms, you could get up for a short while to help your body reset, before going back to bed.
It’s often thought staying in bed with the lights off is the best method to help you fall back asleep. However, this can make you more stressed.
Lying in bed for a long time trying to force sleep to happen is not helpful, and can lead to you getting more worked up and stressed thinking about how you can’t get back to sleep.
If possible, get up and go to another room to read or listen to some calming music for a little while. Avoid mindlessly scrolling through your phone, though, or you might get so distracted that you forget to go back to bed!
