Sleeping With a Sore Throat and How to Feel Less Tired

Trying sleep with a sore throat can disrupt your sleep and also cause snoring. Here’s some tips to solve the problem and feel less tired

How to Sleep With a Sore Throat and Feeling Less Tired

When you are unwell, your body needs more sleep than normal. Entering a state of deep sleep provides an escape from the symptoms of illness and helps the body to heal.

Unfortunately, certain symptoms of illness can hinder our ability to get to sleep. A sore throat is one of them.

The pain from a sore throat can be so unpleasant it demands attention. It’s very hard to ignore it and go to sleep.

It can be a very frustrating scenario. Your body needs extra sleep to heal itself but gets less than normal.

This can add to the misery of colds, flu, or allergies by making you feel tired throughout the day. Allergies can also contribute to snoring.

This article provides some tips about how to sleep with a sore throat and avoid feeling overly tired during the day.

Unfortunately, nothing is going to make your sore throat disappear overnight, but there are ways to soothe the pain and make it less severe.

Take Advantage of Professional Advice

If your sore throat is unusually bad or persists for a long time, it makes sense to go to your doctor and get some professional advice. If your condition requires medication, your doctor will be able to provide something to ease your discomfort.

Your doctor may also provide you with a remedy for the underlying condition that is making your throat sore.

If you don’t think your problem is severe enough to warrant a visit to a doctor, your local pharmacist may be able to suggest an appropriate over-the-counter medication.

Options like medicated hot lemon drinks can be very soothing and may be especially beneficial if you take them just before going to bed.

Such options may also help clear nasal congestion, making it easier for you to breathe through your nose.

Avoid Sleeping With Your Mouth Open

Many people find sleeping with their mouth open causes them to wake up with a sore throat. If your throat is sore to start with, breathing through an open mouth will only make it worse. It will also make you more likely to snore.

Unless congestion or other problems make it difficult, it’s far better to breathe through your nose.

If you have an ongoing problem with sore throats, wearing a chin strap during sleep is an option you may want to consider.

Drink Some Ginger and Lemon Tea

Ginger and lemon tea? If you are wondering how it could possibly help you to sleep with a sore throat, don’t pooh-pooh the idea too soon. Homeopathic remedies can help ease soreness and also help reduce snoring.

Ginger and lemon tea is very soothing and, unlike medicated drinks, it does not contain any caffeine.

You can also drink as much as you want—as often as you want. For best results, sip it slowly. This will give the warm tea plenty of time to act on the tissues at the back of your throat.

Lemon provides Vitamin C, which is good for the immune system. Ginger is an immune system booster too. It can be very effective for sore throats caused by viruses such as the common cold and flu.

Cold medications are unable to kill viruses but research suggests ginger may be able to do it.

Ginger also reduces inflammation. Again, this is an ability that can help soothe a sore throat.

If you don’t care for the taste, you can sweeten the tea with honey. As well as being sweet, honey has antimicrobial properties that offer further relief to your sore throat.

Use a Nasal Spray Decongestant

How can a nasal spray decongestant help you to sleep with a sore throat? By making it easier to breathe through your nose. 

A good nasal spray decongestant can often provide instant relief. A squirt before bed may be just the thing to help you to sleep.

It’s probably going to be a good idea to use the nasal spray alongside a medicated drink, though, or some ginger and lemon tea.

The drink will soothe the pain of your sore throat so you can get to sleep. The spray will help you avoid mouth breathing that may irritate your throat and make it worse.

If you buy a nasal spray, try to restrict its usage to no more than two or three days. Using the spray for longer may irritate the mucous membranes, causing them to become inflamed. 

Try Nasal Strips

People often use nasal strips to control their snoring. They work by opening up the nostrils, making it easier to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth.

Nasal strips are not expensive and they can work surprisingly well. Again though, when you are using them to make it easier to sleep with a sore throat, you will probably need to use medication or a soothing drink as well.

Nasal strips can also ease the effects of snoring – brands such as Theravent work for some people.

Try Some Cough Syrup

Yep! Cough Syrup. Another unlikely addition to an article about how to get to sleep with a sore throat.

Like a sore throat and a blocked nose, coughing is a common symptom of colds and flu. Even if your sore throat doesn’t keep you awake, a bad cough may do it. 

Coughing can also irritate an already sore throat and make it worse. This will further hamper your ability to sleep, making you feel more tired and ill the following day.

Although cough syrup can prevent your coughing from making your sore throat worse, you will need to be careful.

If you are planning on using it alongside a medicated drink there may be a risk of interaction issues. That means you will have to check with a doctor or pharmacist first.

Of course, if you choose to soothe your throat with ginger and lemon tea, there will be nothing to prevent you from using cough syrup as well.

Use a Room Humidifier

A room humidifier can help you to breathe easier while sleeping. If you sleep with your mouth open, it may even help prevent your throat from becoming sorer.

Room humidifiers can be especially effective when you add certain essential oils to the water, such as eucalyptus, menthol, or lavender.

However, if you use a room humidifier, it’s important to clean it regularly. If you don’t, bacteria may build-up in the device. This, of course, could potentially make you sicker instead of easing your discomfort and helping you to get well.

Eat Chicken Soup

When you have a sore throat that makes it hard to get to sleep, chicken soup is a good option for your last meal of the day.

Chicken soup is a popular option with many people who are struggling with colds and flu. The protein it provides helps build you up and it’s not overly heavy on the stomach if you eat it at night.

Adding some garlic to the soup can make it doubly beneficial. Garlic is a natural antibiotic. It contains anti-viral compounds as well.

Believe it or not, some people suck raw cloves of garlic or chew them slowly and swallow them. It’s a good way to treat a sore throat.

You may not be able to handle the taste but it could work wonders for your throat if you can.

Take Advantage of Saltwater

Saltwater can also be useful when you are trying to sleep with a sore throat.

Add a few teaspoons of salt to a glass of warm water. Then give it a good stir and use it to gargle. Doing so will help kill any bacteria present at the back of the throat.

If you have a neti pot, you can also use a salt nasal rinse. Add a teaspoon of salt to a pint of water and you should be good to go.

A saltwater nasal rinse can be very good for relieving congestion, making it easier to breathe through your nose.

Sleeping With a Sore Throat and How to Feel Less Tired – Final Thoughts

Sore throats can be extremely unpleasant. They can cause untold misery during the day and make it hard to sleep at night.

To a certain extent, we all have to grin and bear it while we wait for our antibodies to kick-in. However, there are things we can do to soothe a sore throat and prevent it from keeping us awake at night.

Medications can help, as can certain natural remedies. There are also steps we can take to try and prevent mouth breathing, which can aggravate a sore throat.

However, prevention is better than cure. The best course of action may be to take steps to avoid getting a sore throat.

A few lifestyle tweaks, such as making healthier food choices and getting more exercise, can enhance the immune system. As can making a commitment to getting an adequate amount of sleep.

Apart from helping us avoid infections, a strong immune system can help us to heal more quickly when any “bugs” do manage to get through.