What to do if the cough keeps you awake? Let's figure it out in this article.
Cough is a very unpleasant phenomenon, especially if it occurs at night, exhausting and preventing a person from fully resting. This is not an independent disease, but only a symptom of it. Protective functions are assigned to the cough, since through this phenomenon the bronchi and lungs are cleared of sputum or foreign particles accumulated in them. The causes of a night 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 a cough keep me awake?
Causes of night cough
The sudden onset of cough syndrome without an established cause warns of dust or other foreign matter entering the respiratory tract. Exhausting paroxysmal cough during sleep, which persists for more than two weeks, indicates the presence of infection, and incessant at night for several months - about its transition to the chronic stage.
Such a symptom is not always a sign of a specific disease. In certain cases, the causes of coughing at night are due to such factors:
- breathing gas with a pungent or pungent odor: cigarette smoke, campfire smoke, etc.;
- inhalation of dust, fine aerosol particles (fragrance, perfume, etc.);
- breathing too hot, cold or dry air.
In such cases, you do not need to worry and go to the doctors. To eliminate a 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 that has arisen and starting treatment. Causes and treatment of night cough are interrelated.
To make a diagnosis, you need to visit a specialist.
Dry cough
Sometimes a dry cough keeps me 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 type of symptom may be a starting cold, when the mucous membranes in the respiratory tract become inflamedways. 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 nocturnal cough in an adult, combined with increased heart rate and shortness of breath.
Disturbances in the digestive tract (esophageal reflux), which can be associated with irritation of the receptors in the esophagus and respiratory tract, where stomach acid can enter, are also sometimes accompanied by coughing.
Inflammation of the vocal cords
In the inflammatory process in the vocal cords, the cough at night is barking, dry. Tearful, throat-tight attacks may indicate the presence of tumors in the airways.
Prolonged dry cough accompanied by nausea and vomiting is a clear sign of whooping cough. Persistent dry may also indicate tuberculosis, pneumoconiosis, sarcoidosis, pulmonary collagenosis, bronchitis incipient.
The cause of a wheezing night cough, which is accompanied by heaviness in the chest, is often a pathology such as bronchial asthma. With advanced forms of this ailment, the cough keeps you awake at night.
Wet cough
This type of cough can occur when a large amount of mucus accumulates in the bronchi, trachea and lungs, which the body tries to get rid of reflexively. Factorsthe occurrence of a wet cough at night, which becomes a continuation of a dry one, there may be the following diseases:
- pneumonia;
- tuberculosis;
- viral diseases;
- rhinitis;
- sinusitis;
- tumors of the trachea or heart;
- pleuropneumonia;
- digestive pathologies;
- cancer pathology 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 abundant sputum with pus is often focal pneumonia. The color of sputum can also draw some conclusions about the alleged pathology. The yellow-orange color of the discharge indicates the development of pleuropneumonia. If there is blood in the sputum and the patient is shivering, tuberculosis or cancer may be the cause.
Viral pathologies
In viral pathologies, sputum production at night is most often accompanied by fever, nausea and dizziness. If a wet cough occurs at night without hyperthermia and other symptoms, then this may indicate the development of inflammatory processes in the respiratory tract, tuberculosis or oncology.
The causes of prolonged paroxysmal cough at night with sputum are also whooping cough and sinusitis. Inflammation of the nasopharynx is manifested by nocturnal sore throat and the development of a cough. Phlegm 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 thatlook like small grains.
Patients often complain to the doctor that they cough when they lie down. What can a specialist advise?
How to eliminate a night cough?
This symptom comes on at night for a variety of reasons. It is impossible to make a diagnosis on your own without having 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 causes so as not to start any disease and start timely therapy. Diagnosis requires blood and sputum tests, chest X-ray, bronchography, and fibrogastroduodenoscopy.
How to get rid of a bad cough at night?
Regardless of the reason for its development, this symptom is very unpleasant, interfering with proper rest, exhausting. In such a case, you can significantly alleviate your condition with the help of some medical remedies or alternative methods of treatment.
At night, bouts of dry coughing can provoke apnea, and the coughing process itself causes discomfort, which is accompanied by shortness of breath, increased gag reflex, and sometimes suffocation. This often occurs in patients with asthma, which can be caused by dust, pollen, lint, insect bites.
Cough relief
Night cough occurs when the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract become inflamed, and the cause of wetness is the accumulation of sputum in them. For cuppingFor these symptoms, soothing and anti-inflammatory drugs are prescribed, which make the sputum thinner 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 turns into a wet cough, which is evidence of the further spread of the inflammatory process.
Modern medicines to treat this symptom are effective and varied. These are mainly expectorants.
List
Expectorants – inexpensive but effective:
- "Gerbion" with plantain extract. It has expectorant, antitussive, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Against the background of its use, the night cough becomes softer, a gradual discharge of sputum begins. Price - 160 rubles.
- "Sinekod" is a pharmaceutical agent that can suppress night cough and alleviate this symptom, which can 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 inexpensive but effective expectorants are there?
"Stoptusin" is a drug that is prescribed for adults and children to relieve the symptoms of dry night cough, since it locally anesthetizes, reduces the manifestations of the inflammatory process in the bronchi andfacilitates expectoration by thinning the sputum. Price - 130 rubles
- "Codelac Phyto" - 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 medicine 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 pathologies of the liver and kidneys. Price - 180 rubles.
- "Bronholitin" is a cough remedy that anesthetizes, reduces inflammation, has a calming, antibacterial and antispasmodic effect, relieves swelling of the bronchi, facilitates the respiratory process at night. Price - 120 rubles.
- "Linkas" is a medicine of natural origin that facilitates coughing and has a mucolytic effect. Price - 90 rubles.
- "Libexin" is a medicine that has an antitussive effect, relieves inflammation and expands the bronchi. Price - 430 rubles.
It's very unpleasant when a cough keeps you awake. Now we know what to do.
