With all of the talk about the COVID-19 pandemic, worrying about your allergies seems less important. However, if you have seasonal allergies, it’s hard to breath well during this time of year when everything is blooming. If you can’t breathe well due to congestion, sleeping becomes more difficult. So, what’s a person to do? Here are five tips from SleepBetter that are designed to help you get a better night’s sleep while the pollen is flying.
- Take a shower. Try taking a shower right before bed. It will wash the pollen out of your hair and off of your body, making for a more pollen-free bed.
- Vacuum and wash your sheets. This time of year, many people (understandably) want to open the windows and air out the house. Unfortunately when you do that, you’re letting in the very thing that’s making you sneeze. Try running a vacuum in your bedroom each night, and wash your sheets more frequently than usual.
- Use newer allergy medications. The newer allergy medicines like Claritin, Zertec and Allegra don’t generally interfere with your sleep. If possible, avoid the versions of these medications that have a “D” by their name, as they include pseudoephedrine, a medicine that does tend to either make people sleepy or wake them up.
- Don’t reach for the Benadryl. Benadryl is a strong antihistamine that many people use to treat allergies. It also has the side effect of making you very sleepy. It works so well in making people sleepy, in fact, that some find they can no longer fall asleep without it. It’s best not to start down that road unless directed by a doctor.
- Wash out your sinuses. Use a Neti Pot or any number of other over-the-counter sinus rinse solutions each night to help keep as much of the allergy-causing particles out of your sinus passages, and also help remove excess mucous. During the day, a saline nasal spray is a good solution.
In the end, for most people at least, the spring allergy season lasts only a few weeks to a month. If you can make it through that time without becoming severely sleep deprived, you’ll find that your nose and head are clearer as we head into summer.
