Cold and cough symptoms often feel worse at night. You aren't just imagining it. This is due to your body's circadian rhythms, hormones, body position, and lack of distraction at night. A cough that happens mainly at night can be caused by asthma, reflux, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or sinusitis.
Your Immune System Is Working Overtime
The inflammatory response makes congestion and headache symptoms worse, and if you have a virus, the immune system will raise your body temperature more so at night in an attempt to kill it.
At night, the body's immune system kicks into high gear to fight infections, and it can cause fevers or chills. "Our body is designed to work like that overnight," Ikeman said. "That part of the day when we're resting, we're repairing everything." And, finally some of the differences could be psychological.
Lying down increases the collection of fluid and puts extra pressure on the inflamed tissue.
Extra rest can help with recovery from illness, whether you have a cold, the flu, or another virus. Here's how sleep helps your immune system bounce back when you're sick. No matter the specific virus, nearly every sickness has one recommended treatment in common: lots of rest.
Cold and flu symptoms such as a blocked nose or cough usually subside after 7-10 days and the absence of these things is quite an obvious indication that you are on the mend.
At night, there is less cortisol in your blood. As a result, your white blood cells readily detect and fight infections in your body at this time, provoking the symptoms of the infection to surface, such as fever, congestion, chills, or sweating. Therefore, you feel sicker during the night.
A few hours of bed rest can do wonders for your body. Drink plenty of hot fluids: Hot drinks or a cup of hot herbal tea can make you feel better. Hot liquids may relieve your nasal congestion, prevent dehydration and soothe discomfort due to a sore throat. Try sipping herbal tea, lemon water, or warm broth.
The stages of a cold include the incubation period, appearance of symptoms, remission, and recovery. The common cold is a mild upper respiratory infection caused by viruses.
The common cold lasts from seven to 10 days and goes through three stages. The incubation period of one to a few days, followed by the first stage with the onset of symptoms. In the second stage (from the fourth to the seventh day) cold symptoms worsen and peak.
You can spread the common cold from a few days before your symptoms appear until all of the symptoms are gone. Most people will be contagious for up to 2 weeks. Symptoms are usually worse during the first 2 to 3 days, and this is when you're most likely to spread the virus.
Sleep on Your Side
Sleeping on your side helps drain mucus, eases congestion, and assists with digestion. It also helps prevent snoring, which often worsens when you have a cold or the flu. Sleeping with your head raised will open your airways, making breathing easier and minimizing mucus accumulation.
Days 3 to 5: Cough and More Nasal Congestion
This usually is due to a spike in the number of white blood cells your immune system has dispatched to overcome the virus, according to the Mayo Clinic. As you get better over the next few days, the discharge tends to clear up.
DAY 4 to 7:
In the peak stage of a cold, your symptoms may reach their maximum intensity, resulting in effects such as a runny nose, cough, sinus/nasal congestion, body aches, headache and fatigue. In some, cases, this may also lead to a fever.
Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage. Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true.
Days 5-7: Energy and congestion improve. 1 week+: Cough usually tapers off after a week, but can take up to 3-6 weeks to fully resolve.
During sickness, cells are under stress, and organisms experience sleepiness to promote sleep and recover from the cellular stress.
Rest : This is the time to recharge your body's immune system. Rest and sleep are the best ways to do that. Make sure you're sleeping between eight to 10 hours at night. This is also a great chance to take a break from strenuous exercise for two to three days.
There's no way to cure a cold—or sweat it out. Breathing in warm, moist air can help alleviate cold symptoms, like congestion. Light exercise can increase blood flow, which also might help with congestion. However, there's no quick fix.