Heres why you always feel sicker during the night

Whenever you fall ill with the flu, cold, or any other common illness, do you notice that you always feel slightly worse during the night? Don’t worry if you do feel a whole lot worse in the evening and when you go to bed - this is actually really common and happens to most people when they are sick. There are a couple of different reasons why that is; read on to find out more!

The Position Of Your Body

The main reason why you could feel slightly more ill at night is that you’ll be lying down. When your body is upright, it can cope much better with congestion and so you shouldn’t find it so hard to breathe. However, lying down causes a change in the pressure on your body and it makes your congestion feel much worse. It’s worth sleeping with an extra pillow when you are ill as you can then prop yourself upright while you sleep, and this will prevent mucus from clogging up your airways.

Hormonal Changes

Your hormones are also partly to blame for feeling worse as well. Our hormone levels fluctuate naturally throughout the day and night. Once night hits, the levels of cortisol in our body dips, which causes your body to produce more white blood cells. While these white blood cells are busy attacking your illness, you will feel slightly worse for wear.

No Distractions

During the day, you will have plenty to do to distract yourself. You might be well enough to continue going to work. If not, you’ll be able to busy yourself by reading or watching the TV. All of these things are great distractions that will take your mind off your illness. However, once you go to bed, your illness will be on your mind once again and you might worry so much that you consider finding a 24 hour doctor in your area. Thankfully, though, there is normally no need to go to such bother. You should try and think about something else until you drift off to sleep. How about trying to count some sheep?

Stay Well Hydrated

It’s important that you stay well hydrated when you are ill as your body will need as much fluid as possible to help it overcome the illness. This is especially the case at night as our bodies lose a lot of fluid when we are asleep in bed. So, you should have a good drink of water before you head upstairs and get into bed. It’s also a good idea to put a glass of water on your bedside table so that you can take sips from it throughout the night whenever you feel thirsty.

As you can see, there is really no need to worry whenever your illness starts to feel worse in the evening and through the night. The above pointers are the reasons why that is. Just follow some of the tips I’ve mentioned and you should be able to get a good night’s sleep.

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