If you have seasonal allergies, you know they can be a life ruiner—especially the pollen allergy symptoms. All the sneezing, wheezing, and sinus headaches can completely change your view of summer. Outdoor run? PASS. Drinks outside? Can we not? And even when you try to be careful, sometimes the symptoms will wreak havoc on your life anyway.

“Seasonal allergies have a lot more quality-of-life issues than people realize,” Princess Ogbogu, M.D., director of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. “You can feel really fatigued, suffer from poor sleep at night, and have issues functioning at work because you’re not feeling your best.”

If you have seasonal allergies, you’re probably on some kind of medication or treatment for them already. But part of your treatment should involve lifestyle tweaks that can minimize your exposure to all the stuff that's making you sneeze. Here's what the experts recommend:

1. Don’t run outside in the morning.

The pollen count is highest in the morning, Purvi Parikh, M.D., an allergist/immunologist with Allergy & Asthma Network, tells SELF, so exercising outdoors during this time can really start your day on a crappy note. Instead, he recommends working out in the evening, when the pollen count is lower, or inside, where pollen exposure is limited.

2. Track your local pollen count.

The National Allergy Bureau has pollen counters across the country, and they can tell you how high the pollen is for different types of plants on any given day. “Pay attention to the pollen count—it matters,” Dr. Ogbogu says. On a low pollen day, you’re probably going to be just fine, depending on how severe your allergies are, but on a high pollen day, it’s best to hang indoors as much as possible to limit your symptoms.

3. Get the right sunglasses.

During allergy season, pollen spores float through the air and can get all over your body, including in your eyes, Clifford W. Bassett, M.D., founder and medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York, tells SELF. He recommends investing in a pair of oversized sunglasses and wearing them as much as possible when you're out braving the pollen. It may seem silly, but it really can act as a physical barrier to prevent pollen from getting in your eyes, where it can cause redness, itching, and watering.

4. Scale back on your hair products.

It seems kind of random, but hair gels and pastes can actually turn your hair into a pollen magnet, Dr. Bassett explains. That can cause pollen to end up on your pillow at night, where it can mess with your allergies while you sleep.

5. Shower and change your clothes as soon as you get home.

If you’ve been outside, it’s pretty likely that some amount of pollen has ended up on your hair, skin, and clothes. That’s why Dr. Parikh recommends immediately changing out of your clothes and washing your hair and body when you get home. If you don’t, you can leave pollen all over your house, making it more likely that it will continue to bother you once you’re indoors, Dr. Ogbogu says.

6. And definitely don't line-dry clothes outside.

Since pollen is pretty much everywhere during allergy season, drying your sheets and clothes outside is basically creating massive pollen nets that you’ll then bring into your house, Dr. Bassett says. So yeah, don’t do that—especially not on high-pollen days.

7. Leave your shoes at the door.

Pollen loves to settle on the ground, where it can get picked up by your shoes. And, if you wear your shoes around your place, you’re just depositing that pollen everywhere, increasing your exposure and making your symptoms worse in the process, Dr. Parikh says.

8. Use your A/C.

Sure, it feels nice to open your windows on low pollen count days when the weather is great, but Dr. Parikh says it’s best to avoid the temptation. Pollen is floating around, even when counts are low, and opening your windows—especially if you do it often—is just asking for it to accumulate in your home.

9. Add a saline rinse to your routine.

A simple over-the-counter nasal saline rinse can help a lot, says Dr. Ogbogu. And yes, we mean the kind that you squirt up one nostril...and it comes out the other. They might be super gross and awkward, but they work. She recommends using one daily to decrease the allergen burden on your sinuses. If you prefer to use a rinse less often, definitely aim to use it on high pollen count days, she says—it can make a big difference in how you feel.

10. Get a HEPA filter.

Run-of-the-mill air purifiers don’t do much for pollen, since it’s too small of a particle to filter out, Dr. Parikh says. But HEPA filters use a fine mesh that can help weed out pollen that’s in your air. Run one in your bedroom to decrease the allergen load, Dr. Ogbogu recommends. Then sleep easy knowing you're doing basically all you can to prevent pollen from ruining your life.


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