10 tips to help stop hay fever ruining your sleep

Wellbeing

Is hay fever keeping you up at night? Here are 10 tips to help stop hay fever ruining your sleep.

The pollen count this year is higher than ever, with more and more people suffering with reactions. Most people assume that hay fever only affects you when you’re outdoors or living in a rural area, but actually these types of allergies can strike at any time with many people suffering at night.

Night time allergies occur because pollen particles make their way into your home during the day and will end up sitting on furniture, bed linen and other materials which could cause disruption to your sleep. 

10 tips to help stop hay fever ruining your sleep

To help you get a better night’s sleep, the medical experts at Chemist Click reveal quick tips for how you can stop hay fever allergies from ruining your slumber. 

1) Close your windows

Shut all windows in your bedroom as soon as you can to prevent pollen particles making their way from outside and into your room, these will attach themselves to furniture and linen such as bedding which could leave you to suffer with allergies when you go to sleep.

Shutting all doors and windows takes seconds and will mean your room isn’t full of allergens such as dust mites and pollen particles.

2) Wash your bedding

Make sure you wash your bedding more often to ensure pollen particles aren’t sitting in the sheets, when drying them you should do this indoors and not outdoors as pollen from the trees will most likely land on the sheets and sit in the creases or stick to them.

In regards to washing sheets, most people wash sheets on 40 degrees however we would recommend setting it to 60 degrees to ensure all germs and pollen particles are removed. 

3) Shower before bed

Before you head into fresh sheets, make sure you take a shower and wash your hair if you’ve been out all day – pollen particles can easily stick to your skin and hair and these may make their way into your nasal passages, eyes or mouth in the night when you move around promoting allergies.

Depending on what you have to do in the shower, this should take no longer than 10 minutes.

4) Dab vaseline on your nose

Before bed, dab a small amount of Vaseline or petroleum jelly to the outside of each nostril, this will act as a trap for any lingering pollen particles in the atmosphere or on your sheets which could find their way to your face.

The particles will stick to the Vaseline as oppose to going up your nose and should help to prevent any sneezing or itchiness in the night. This should take approx. 20 seconds to do and at a very small cost, most petroleum Jelly are around the 2/3-pound mark depending on brand. 

5) Cover your bed during the day

If you don’t fancy washing your sheets constantly, another great tip for preventing allergens from sitting on your bedding is by throwing over a big sheet in the day, this will act as a barrier and you can take it off each evening and your bedding should be safe from particles.

6) Tie your hair up at night

If you don’t want to wash your hair of a night, tie it up in a high ponytail or bun to ensure that it doesn’t go in your face at night as pollen particles stuck in the strands could make their way to your face. 

7) Wear an eye mask in bed

This might sound like a silly tip, but wearing an eye mask to bed could actually prevent you from getting allergies in your eyes from pollen sitting on your sheets, once the pollen makes its way into your eye it will cause itchiness and irritation.

Wearing an eye mask will create a barrier between your eyes and your pillowcase, providing you keep your mask somewhere safe like a drawer where it wont get pollen particles on it.

8) Wash your face thorougly

If you don’t want or have time to shower, just ensuring you wash your face thoroughly including eyes and nose to remove any sitting pollen particles is imperative. This can be done using just a cool damp cloth or adding soap which shouldn’t cost too much. This will take maximum of five minutes.

9) Take an antihistamine before bed

Take an antihistamine before bed, this should keep any allergies at bay and allow for a peaceful slumber. Steroid nasal sprays can also be used to reduce symptoms such as a blocked, stuffy or runny nose, itchiness in the nose and sneezing.

10) Adjust your diet

And finally, surprisingly, adjusting your diet may help with your sleep during the high pollen count months. Certain foods can actually worsen hay fever symptoms, so staying away from dairy products, starchy and sugary foods before bed should help to reduce your chances of symptoms.

Eating foods such as ginger, garlic and chilli can actually help to treat hay fever symptoms as they are high in vitamin C which has been known to improve lung function due to quercetin, which is an antioxidant. 

Read more hay fever tips

You can read more advice to help you manage hay fever in these articles:

Photo by Rodolfo Sanches Carvalho