Lying prone can improve breathlessness and help get more oxygen into the body. Lying prone can also help your cough to be more effective. This helps with clearing out any secretions that are in your chest.
Best sleep positions if you have a cough
“Elevating your head is probably the best sleeping position,” she notes. “Whether it's by adding another pillow or raising the head of your bed, this can help your cough by not allowing drainage to collect at the back of your throat too much.”
Postural drainage is a way to change your body position to help your lungs drain. If you have a long-term (chronic) lung problem associated with excessive mucus, or you have increased mucus from an infection, lying with your chest lower than your belly (abdomen) can help loosen and drain extra mucus from your lungs.
"The cough may also be due to acid reflux, where acid doesn't stay in your stomach but comes up to the oesophagus," explains GP Dr Toni Hazell. "It is worse lying flat as you don't have the help of gravity to keep the acid down, and so it is worse at night.
Share on Pinterest A tickle in the throat may be due to inflammation of the voice box, sinusitis, or a sore throat. A cough is a natural reaction to a foreign substance or irritation in the throat. However, the cough from a tickly throat can become chronic and linger.
When you're lying down, mucus will start pooling in the back of your throat, aka postnasal drip. Another reason why coughs get worse at night is acid reflux. Don't forget that acid is an irritant to the throat, much like mucus, germs, or dust.
Postnasal drip during the day can irritate your throat and vocal cords. But Dr. Buhr says nighttime makes it much worse. “When you're lying flat at night, mucus runs down the back of your throat and into your lungs,” he says. “It can cause chest congestion that needs to be coughed up.
Chronic dry coughs are usually caused by irritation from cigarette smoke, environmental irritants, allergies, post-nasal drip, or asthma. Several chronic lung diseases also cause a dry, hacking cough. Some people cough out of habit for no clear reason. Gastric reflux may also cause a chronic dry cough.
Propping yourself up may quiet your cough long enough to help you fall asleep. "Some people do well with a couple of pillows or sleeping in a recliner chair," says Brent A. Senior, MD, professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "Try it for a couple of nights; it might be worthwhile."
Dozens of conditions can cause a recurrent, lingering cough, but the lion's share are caused by just five: postnasal drip, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), chronic bronchitis, and treatment with ACE inhibitors, used for high blood pressure and heart failure.
Lying prone can improve breathlessness and help get more oxygen into the body. Lying prone can also help your cough to be more effective. This helps with clearing out any secretions that are in your chest.
Most coughs clear up within 3 weeks and don't require any treatment. A dry cough means it's tickly and doesn't produce any phlegm (thick mucus). A chesty cough means phlegm is produced to help clear your airways.
A bronchitis cough sounds like a rattle with a wheezing or whistling sound. As your condition progresses, you will first have a dry cough that can then progress towards coughing up white mucus.
Your doctor will listen to your lungs with a stethoscope. If you have pneumonia, your lungs may make crackling, bubbling, and rumbling sounds when you inhale.
In addition to lab tests, sputum or mucus from a cough can be visually examined to determine whether bronchitis is viral, bacterial, or both. Clear or white mucus often indicates a viral infection, while yellow or green mucus may suggest a bacterial infection.
Postnasal drip, also known as upper airway cough syndrome, is one of the most common causes of chronic cough. 1 It's caused by mucus dripping down your throat (due to allergies or a cold), which tickles nerve endings, triggering coughing, Dr. Parsons said.
A persistent cough that lasts one to three weeks is the main symptom of bronchitis. You usually bring up mucus when you cough with bronchitis, but you might get a dry cough instead. You might also hear a whistling or rattling sound when you breathe (wheezing).
When it comes to nighttime cough, gravity is your enemy. All the postnasal drainage and mucus you swallow during the day backs up and irritates your throat when you lay down at night. Try to defy gravity by propping yourself up on some pillows while you sleep.
What is a heart cough? In heart failure, your heart muscle has dysfunction that might be due to weak contraction or stiffness. This can allow fluid to back up in yout lungs, creating a condition called pulmonary edema. Your body coughs persistently in an effort to eliminate the excess fluid.
A common symptom of COVID-19 is a dry cough, which is also known as an unproductive cough (a cough that doesn't produce any phlegm or mucus). Most people with dry cough experience it as a tickle in their throat or as irritation in their lungs.