Sneezing is not dangerous but perhaps the most annoying act which every human being may have experienced some time or the other during his or her lifetime. It is sudden, spasmodic and forceful expiration of air from nose and mouth with a loud noise. A person may sneeze anytime, but often people complain of bouts of sneezing early in the morning soon after they get up from bed.
Usually it is accompanied with other symptoms such as runny nose, itching in the eyes, watering from the eyes, congestion in nose etc. Most cases of sneezing after waking up in morning are caused due to environmental factors or immune related issues.
What Causes Sneezing After Waking Up In The Morning?
Sneezing occurs when something is irritating or tickling in the nose. Sneezing in medical parlance is also called as strenutation. It is body’s way of expelling out an irritant from the nose. The process of sneezing is quiet complex. In simple words, when the inner lining of the nose is irritated, message is sent to the sneeze center in the brain. The brain then sends signal to the muscles of chest, abdomen, diaphragm and the throat to act synchronously and expel out the irritating substance from the nose.
Some patients sneeze throughout the year while some sneeze only during certain times. Sneezing soon after waking up may have many causes.
- Allergic rhinitis is one of the most common causes of sneezing after waking up. Allergic rhinitis is an immune response to certain substances. Many people are hypersensitive to certain substances while vast majority of people do not react to them. For example some people may be allergic to house dust, mites on bedding and pillow cover and animal dander. While sleeping a hypersensitive person may get exposed to these substances in his bed for a long time. But as during sleep the sneeze reflex is suppressed, the symptoms develop as soon as the person wakes up. The same may occur in case of seasonal rhinitis. Here the person may get exposed to pollen as in spring season.
- Environmental factors are the second most common cause a person should search for when he is suffering from this condition. Dry air in the room due to air condition can irritate the nasal passage. Since patient is sleeping, the sleep center may be suppressed, but as he wakes up, he may have bouts of sneezing.
- Some people have high eosinophilic count in their blood. They may suffer from sneezing in morning. It is immune related issue which does not have any association with allergy. Eosinophils are type of white blood cells which play an active role in the immune system. It helps to destroy foreign substances and also in promoting inflammation at the site. But sometimes inflammation can be much more than needed which can produce discomforting symptoms such as sneezing.
- Certain medicines such as antihistamines and corticosteroids can produce morning sneezing. Some patients taking these medicines to suppress sneezing may in fact aggravate the sneezing symptoms after waking, especially if they take these medicines before sleeping.
- People suffering from sinusitis are also known to sneeze a lot when they wake up in morning.
Home Remedies For Sneezing In The Morning
Sneezing in the morning after waking up once in a while may not need any treatment. However, if it occurs daily for weeks and months, patient needs to take treatment to eliminate this frustrating condition. In majority of cases it can be allergic rhinitis.
If it is so, patient should take all precautions to regularly clean bed sheet, pillow covers, bedding, curtains in his house. Clean the carpets and furniture daily if there is a pet in the house. Patient also has to take precautions to stay in the house when there is high pollen count in the air.
Homeopathy has many useful medicines to treat early morning sneezing. Allium cepa, Arsenic alb, Nat Mur, Sabadilla are some of the important homeopathic medicines that help to treat sneezing.