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How To Avoid Asthma At Night

Avoid Your Asthma Triggers

7 Tips to Prevent Nighttime Asthma Attacks

Once you know what triggers your asthma, you can take steps to minimize your exposure to them. Here are some tips for avoiding some of the more common asthma triggers:

  • Beware of air pollution: Stay in air-conditioned buildings when pollen counts or air pollution levels are high.

  • Limit cold air exposure: Dress warmly and cover your mouth and nose with a scarf when it is cold and windy.

  • Quit : If you smoke, ask your doctors for ways to quit and avoid secondhand smoke.

  • Reduce stress: Take steps to manage your stress, such as practicing controlled breathing, getting a massage, and taking time to unwind.

  • Stay healthy: Try to get plenty of rest, eat a well-balanced diet, and wash your hands often to prevent respiratory infections.

  • Watch what you eat: Read food labels and avoid foods to which you are allergic.

Your home may be the source of a number of asthma triggers. Take steps to keep your home free of common allergens including:

Dont let asthma slow you down. There are many proven ways to prevent asthma attacks. Take your medicine as recommended by your doctor. Identify your asthma triggers and take steps to avoid them. And talk to your doctor about any concerns you have.

Goals Of Treatment For Pregnant Women With Asthma

The overall goals of treatment for pregnant women with asthma are the same as for non-pregnant women with asthma. In addition, emphasis must be placed on:footnote 3

  • Monitoring lung function throughout the pregnancy to ensure adequate oxygen levels are present for the growing fetus.
  • Avoiding and controlling triggers of asthma symptoms so that medicine use may be decreased if possible during pregnancy.
  • Using an asthma action plan to manage episodes, and encouraging an increase or decrease in medicine as needed.
  • Educating the pregnant woman about management of asthma during pregnancy.
  • Delivering a healthy infant.

Asthma Causes: Allergies And Exercise

Allergy-related asthma

Although people with asthma have some type of allergy, the allergy isn’t always the primary cause of asthma. Even if allergies are not your child’s primary triggers for asthma , allergies can still make symptoms worse.

Children inherit the tendency to have allergies from their parents. People with allergies make too much “allergic antibody,” which is called immunoglobulin E . The IgE antibody recognizes small quantities of allergens and causes allergic reactions to these usually harmless particles. Allergic reactions occur when IgE antibody triggers certain cells to release a substance called histamine. Histamine occurs in the body naturally, but it is released inappropriately and at too high an amount in people with allergies. The released histamine is what causes the sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes associated with some allergies. In a child with asthma, histamine can also trigger asthma symptoms and flares.

An allergist can usually identify any allergies a child may have. Once identified, the best treatment is to avoid exposure to allergens whenever possible. When avoidance isn’t possible, antihistamine medications may be prescribed to block the release of histamine in the body and stop allergy symptoms. Nasal steroids can be prescribed to block allergic inflammation in the nose. In some cases, an allergist can prescribe immunotherapy, which is a series of allergy shots that gradually make the body unresponsive to specific allergens.

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Invest In A Peak Air Flow Meter

A peak air flow meter can tell you how well youre able to breath out. Knowing the quality of your breath can help you predict when there is an impending asthma attack. This information can give you more time to initiate your asthma plan, control your symptoms, avoid the need for further medication, and potentially stop the attack before it starts.

Why Is Asthma Worse At Night

Is Nocturnal Asthma Disturbing Your Sleep?

Asthma symptoms may appear to flare up at night which could be due to a variety of factors. Allergens and dust mites are commonly found on bedding, which can make falling asleep difficult or even trigger an asthma attack in the middle of the night. Lying down to sleep can also lead to drainage accumulation from postnasal drip, which causes increased resistance in lung airways. Furthermore, your chest and lungs naturally experience more pressure when youre lying down which can make breathing especially difficult for asthmatics. Finally, a lot of people like to turn down the temperature in their homes before heading off to bed, but the cool air may trigger asthma symptoms due to the loss of heat in airways.

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Symptoms Of An Asthma Attack

Signs that you may be having an asthma attack include:

  • your symptoms are getting worse
  • your reliever inhaler is not helping
  • youre too breathless to speak, eat or sleep
  • your breathing is getting faster and it feels like you cannot catch your breath
  • your peak flow score is lower than normal
  • children may also complain of a tummy or chest ache

The symptoms will not necessarily occur suddenly. In fact, they often come on slowly over a few hours or days.

How To Ease Your Toddlers Nighttime Cough

Steam from a vaporizer in your childs room may help calm a cough. For barking coughs, take your child in a steam-filled bathroom for about 20 minutes to help them breathe more easily. Exposure to cool air may relieve some coughs, but be careful if your child has asthma as it may aggravate an asthma cough.

If your child is younger than 3 years, dont give them cough drops. Cough drops are a choking hazard for young children.

You should get medical help right away if your childs cough is barky or croupy or accompanied by:

  • a fever
  • fast breathing or difficulty breathing
  • wheezing

You should also call the doctor immediately if your childs cough ends with a whooping sound or produces green, yellow, or bloody phlegm.

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Keep Your Head Elevated At Night

As noted earlier, lying flat can lead to postnasal drip which is especially problematic when you have a cold or sinus infection. To help prevent drainage from accumulating and restricting airways, keep your head elevated by using pillows. In fact, in one study, a man with a 43-year history of asthma found that simply adjusting his sleeping position reduced the need to take asthma medication.

What Causes Frequent Urination At Night

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Nocturia may be caused by reduced bladder capacity or increased urine production. Drinking too many fluids at night, especially alcohol or caffeine, can increase your urine production and cause nocturia. Many health conditions can also contribute to nocturia, including but not limited to:

  • Benign prostatic hyperplasia
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Medications, especially diuretics
  • Obesity
  • Peripheral edema
  • Urinary tract infections

Standing still for long periods of time or eating a diet high in sodium may cause fluid to collect in the legs, which can stimulate urine production after lying down in bed. People with insomnia may also experience nocturia as a side effect of poor sleep.

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Tips To Sleep Better With Asthma

Millions of people are affected byor nighttime asthma. Symptoms include a tight chest, coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, and they make sleep impossible. You end up feeling tired and

Millions of people are affected bynocturnal asthma,Verified SourceNational Library of Medicine Worlds largest medical library, making biomedical data and information more accessible.View sourceor nighttime asthma. Symptoms include a tight chest, coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath, and they make sleep impossible. You end up feeling tired and irritable the next day and have difficulty controlling daytime asthma symptoms.

Asthma symptoms are stronger at night for a few reasons, including higher exposure to dust mites and other allergens. Plus, lying flat on your back increases post-nasal drip, triggering an asthma attack. These two things can make sleeping tough. But dont worrywere here to help. In our article, we share 7 tips to sleep better with asthma so you can get undisturbed shuteye.

What Is Nocturnal Asthma

Asthma is a long-term, chronic respiratory disease, caused by the inflammation of the airways. When this condition worsens overnight, we call it nocturnal asthma or nighttime asthma. Regardless of the type of asthma you have, including allergic, non-allergic, occupational, and exercise-induced asthma, nocturnal asthma can occur more than once a month.

Over the past decade, the prevalence of asthma in adults and children has increased in the United States. The California Health Interview Survey states that 15.9% of asthma cases were reported in Orange County in 2015-2017. Although there is no cure for asthma, the symptoms can be managed through long-term medications and short-term quick-relief inhalers. A few home remedies and other tips can also help patients with nocturnal asthma sleep better.

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Nocturnal Asthma Symptoms And Diagnosis

Cant hold your breath and cough regularly at intervals during nighttime? If so, it is time to contact your doctor and diagnose yourself to know the reason.

If it is nighttime asthma, then your specialist will take certain tests and find it out.

Mainly peak flow meter measurements are followed in diagnosing nocturnal asthma. It is a device that is handheld and provided to the patients as a part of their care plan.

It helps to compare the severity of airway narrowing or contraction at different times during the night .

If you wake up thrice or more than thrice at night or early morning with symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, or asthma cough then most probably you are suffering from nocturnal asthma and you need to go for the right treatment options.

Why Do Some People Cough At Night

Healthy Tips To Prevent From Asthma

Well, it’s normal to cough at night if you are sick. But if you don’t have a cold, bronchitis, or pneumonia, you shouldn’t be coughing at night. Nocturnal asthma can be caused by a variety of things, such as:3,4

  • Allergies
  • Laying down
  • Changes in the circadian rhythm that can cause hormone changes
  • Sinuses draining
  • Increased airway resistance due to airways narrowing during sleep

For the last couple of weeks, I have been waking up coughing during the night. This is not like me at all. And I’m not sick, so I shouldn’t be coughing.

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Visit A Complete Care Er Immediately If You Are Experiencing A Severe Asthma Attack

Despite having a better understanding of how to prevent an asthma attack, its not always possible to avoid triggers. If youre experiencing a severe asthma attack dont wait to seek medical attention. Visit one of our 24 hr emergency walk-in clinics equipped with hospital-grade technology and friendly medical staff.

We have convenient ER locations in both Texas and Colorado. Head into one of our facilities or give us a call today!

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Why Does Asthma Get Worse At Night

In 1698, British doctor John Floyer wrote a treatise on asthma, the first major work focused on the disease. Not all of it aged well. He warned that those who were sad or angry were more likely to experience attacks, as sadness would stop the Motion of Humors. He also recommended a few cures including regular, gentle vomiting.

In an asthma attack, the air passageways in a persons lungs start to close, making it hard for them to breathe and causing tightness in the chest, coughing, and wheezing. But Floyers piece also noted another important symptom: His own asthma was almost always more severe at night, sometimes waking him up at 1 or 2 in the morning. Hundreds of years later, scientists were finding evidence that backed him up: A study from 2005 showed that nearly 75 percent of people with asthma experience worse attacks at night. A famous mortality survey of London hospitals in the 1970s showed that early morning and nighttime attacks were more likely to be fatal.

That body clock is also called the circadian system. Among other important functions, it regulates hormones, heartbeat, and the immune system over a cycle that lasts about 24 hours. While this system is internal, its heavily influenced by outside factors like light and dark, mealtimes, and work schedules.

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Fiding The Cause Of Your Nighttime Cough

Is my room dusty? When was the last time I cleaned off my upholstered headboard? The nightstands? Vacuumed under my bed? Dust is one of my asthma triggers, so I wanted to make sure my room was very clean. So all of that was cleaned.

And what about what’s ON my bed? I’m a stickler for keeping my bedding clean and washing the sheets once a week, as recommended.5 I also decided that I was going to wash everything else on the bed too. So it took most of my Saturday morning, but I washed the sheets, thermal blanket, coverlet, and a decorative pillow.

So, everything that could get dusty was washed or vacuumed.

But – it’s also allergy season. A quick look at my local pollen count showed that cottonwood, willow, ash, cedar, oak and birch are all in the “very high” category. And willow, maple and sycamore are all in the “high” category. Oh boy. No wonder my allergies are off the chart!

I know that it won’t help to have clean sheets if I am climbing into bed covered in pollen. The asthma doctor has told us to shower before we go to bed at night. That way, your body is clean and the pollen has been washed away. Otherwise, you lay down in bed and toss and turn all night and the pollen in your hair and on your skin is spread all over the bed. You breathe that in, and you can wake up wheezing, sneezing, and coughing.

Follow Your Daily Treatment And Use The Asthma Action Plan

How to avoid and treat Asthma?
  • Take your daily medicines to help minimize long-term damage and avoid asthma attacks.
  • Check your peak flow regularly, if your doctor recommends it. This can help you know how well your lungs are working.
  • Check your action plan to see what zone you are in.
  • If you are in the green zone, keep taking your daily asthma medicines as prescribed.
  • If you are in the yellow zone, you may be having or will soon have an asthma attack. You may or may not have any symptoms, but your lungs are not working as well as they should. Take the medicines listed in your action plan. If you stay in the yellow zone, your doctor may need to increase the dose or add a medicine.
  • If you are in the red zone, follow your action plan and call your doctor. If you can’t get in touch with your doctor, go to the emergency department. 911 right away if you are having severe trouble breathing.
  • Use an asthma diary to track your peak flow readings and/or symptoms. If you have an attack, write down what caused it , the symptoms, and what medicine you took.
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    Avoid Sleeping Near Strong Odors

    Strong odors such as perfumes and air fresheners may cause nasal congestion at night or act as an asthma trigger. In fact, some asthma sufferers find that strong perfume is the main reason behind their asthma symptoms. Avoid using these in the bedroom, and if you sleep in the same bed as a partner talk with them about forgoing the use of perfume or taking a shower before bed to help prevent nighttime asthma symptoms from flaring up.

    Review The Plan With Your Doctor

    • Take both the asthma action plan and the asthma diary when you see your doctor. Get answers to any questions you have about your asthma plan or your symptoms. Let your doctor know if treatment is not controlling your asthma attacks.
    • Take your medicines so your doctor can review your treatment. Also take your peak flow meter if you have one.
    • Make sure you know how and when to call your doctor or go to the hospital.
    • Tell your doctor if you are having trouble following your action plan.

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    What Tests Diagnose Asthma In Children

  • Other tests called bronchial provocation tests are performed only in specialized laboratories by specially trained personnel. These tests involve exposing patients to irritating substances and measuring the effect on lung function. Some lung treatment centers use cold air to attempt to provoke an asthma response.
  • Patients with a history of exercise-induced symptoms can undergo an exercise challenge test. This test is usually done in children older than 6 years. The baseline lung function for the child is measured while the child is sitting still. Then the child exercises, usually by riding a stationary bicycle or walking fast on a treadmill. When the child’s heart is beating faster from the exercise, the lung function is measured again. Measurements are taken immediately after the exercise and at 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes after the first measurement and after a dose of inhaled bronchodilator. This test detects decreased lung function caused by exercise.
  • Your doctor may take a chest x-ray if the asthma isn’t helped by the usual treatments.
  • Allergy testing can be used to identify factors your child is allergic to because these factors might contribute to asthma. Once identified, environmental factors and outdoor factors may be controlled or avoided to reduce asthma symptoms.
  • Ask your doctor for more information on these and other tests.

    Talk to your doctor about the various medications available to treat asthma.

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