Editor’s Advice: How To Overcome Slobbering While Sleeping

Introduction

Slobbering while sleeping, often referred to as drooling, is a common issue that many people find embarrassing or bothersome. But fear not! This guide is here to help you understand “How To Overcome Slobbering While Sleeping” why it happens and, more importantly, how you can minimize or even stop it from happening. So, let’s dive in and explore some practical advice and tips to keep your pillow dry and your sleep uninterrupted.

How To Overcome Slobbering While Sleeping

To overcome slobbering while sleeping, start by improving your sleeping posture; sleeping on your back can help reduce drooling. Elevate your head with an extra pillow to prevent saliva from pooling. Focus on maintaining good oral hygiene and staying hydrated, as dry mouth can exacerbate drooling.

Consider doing mouth and tongue exercises to strengthen the muscles around your mouth, enhancing control over saliva. Addressing nasal congestion and allergies is also crucial, as they can force you to breathe through your mouth, increasing drooling. If these strategies don’t help, consult a healthcare professional to explore other treatments like medications, dental devices, or therapy.

Understanding Slobbering

First things first: What exactly does slobbering mean? In simple terms, it’s a condition when saliva escapes your mouth, often while you’re asleep. This can be due to a variety of reasons, from sleeping positions to underlying health conditions.

What are the causes of Slobbering?

Poor Oral and Facial Muscle Control:

Young children often drool as they haven’t fully developed muscle control around their mouths. Adults with neurological conditions, such as cerebral palsy, may also struggle with muscle control, leading to unintentional drooling.

Increased Saliva Production:

Certain health conditions, stress, or specific medications can lead to an overproduction of saliva. Identifying and managing these triggers, whether through medical treatment or lifestyle adjustments, can help normalize saliva production and reduce drooling.

Sleep Position:

How much drool is on your pillow when you wake up depends on how you sleep. Gravity usually keeps any extra saliva a sleeper produces in their mouth or throat when they are on their back. On the other hand, saliva is more likely to be drawn toward the pillow by gravity in side and stomach sleepers, which causes drooling.

Neurological Conditions:

Conditions affecting the brain’s ability to control muscles, such as in cerebral palsy or after a stroke, can significantly impact saliva management. Management often involves a multidisciplinary approach, including medication, therapy, and sometimes surgical interventions, to improve quality of life and reduce drooling.

Swallowing Difficulties:

Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease or the aftermath of a stroke can impair the swallowing reflex, causing saliva to accumulate and lead to drooling. Speech or swallowing therapy can offer strategies and exercises to improve swallowing efficiency.

Allergies and Infections:

You may breathe through your mouth and drool more than usual if you have a cold, strep throat, or seasonal allergies since these illnesses can irritate your sinuses and restrict your airways. Drooling can also be exacerbated by other infections, including tonsillitis, sinus infections, and mononucleosis.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is commonly characterized by heartburn, but other common symptoms include drooling and dysphagia, or facing trouble in swallowing. Drooling may be more frequent in people with GERD dysphagia because they may feel as though something is stuck in their throat. Furthermore, your body may produce extra saliva to ease irritation when your oesophagus becomes irritated or clogged, which makes you drool more frequently.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea:

A breathing condition connected to sleep that causes temporary interruptions in breathing while you sleep is called obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). breathing through mouth worsens the obstructive sleep apnea. When your mouth is open the drooling can more easily slip through the mouth. Following are some additional symptoms in that case you need to consult doctors:

• Gasping, snoring and choking when you are sleeping.
• headache in the morning
• facing difficulty during the daytime
• daytime sleepiness
• wake up during the night

Bruxism:

Side Effects of Medications:

if you are suffering from any other disease and taking medication through the doctor then the side effects of medication can be the potential reason for slobbering. A number of pharmaceuticals, including certain antibiotics, antipsychotics, and treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, can cause excessive salivation and drooling as adverse effects. Do not stop taking your prescription if drooling is mentioned as a possible side effect. As an alternative, ask your doctor if there is a prescription that will help you stop drooling more frequently and discuss your worries with them.

Allied Medical Conditions:

In cases of some medical conditions, your nervous system stimulates the slavery gland which results in producing excessive drooling which is a common symptom in neurodegenerative disorders.

According to doctors about 70% of people with Parkinson’s disease and 80% of people with Cerebral Palsy face the experience of excessive salivation. some additional reasons occur as a result of excess salivation and drooling:

• Stroke
• Bell’s palsy
• Traumatic brain injury
• Huntington’s
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) 
• Epiglottitis

The Impact of Slobbering on Sleep Quality

Slobbering can significantly affect your sleep quality. Waking up with a wet pillow can be uncomfortable, and for some, it can also be a source of embarrassment. Moreover, it can cause skin irritation and affect your psychological well-being by reducing the quality of your sleep.

Is Slobbering normal during sleep?

According to the research, Slobbering during sleep is normal in many cases. The process of slobbering happens varies over the day. During the day time saliva production is less compared to sleep time at night. This is because at sleep time saliva completes the important task of keeping your mouth and throat wet and lubricated. This is necessary for good health. Continuous slobbering during sleep time at night causes potentially bad breath, bad-smelling mouth, embarrassment and dehydration.

How to stop slobbering or drooling at night

Slobbering during sleep time at night is normal and does not require more treatment. If you feel you drool more during sleep then you can do some of the required strategies from changing sleep positions and lifestyle to speech therapy, surgery and medication. While some of the treatments are very simple but recommended to those who feel more severe drooling compared to normal conditions. But the methods of treatment are not recommended to do yourself at home without consulting the doctor. First of all, you should find which method is best for you. Following are some methods to treat your drool while sleeping:

1. Change Sleeping Positions

If you are sleeping on the left and right side or stomach side then change your sleep position to back can resist drooling due to gravity. But ware of changing your new position can need an additional pillow to sleep comfortably. Because the side sleeper uses a thick pillow, the back sleeper us a very thin pillow while the stomach sleeper uses a very thin or no pillow.

2. Use an oral appliance

Before going to use oral appliances first of all let us know what is it. So oral appliance is a device inserted in your mouth to assist swallowing. This helps in tongue positioning and lip closure. When a person feels better in swallowing they are likely to drool less.

3. Home remedies

if you are drooling in sleep, home remedies are also a better way to treat it. According to the American Dental Association, It is important to know that saliva performs a vital role in protecting our bodies from infections.

To make drool less, Some people believe that citrus helps thin out saliva making less drool. For that, it might be helpful when you bite on a lemon wedge. Staying hydrated is also considered as less drool because it helps thin out the saliva and prevents more drool.

4. Treat allergies and sinus problems

Allergies and sinus problems turn your breathing through your mouth because a stuffy nose prevents breathing from the nose. This can lead to more saliva easily escaping from the mouth.

According to allergist Neeta Ogden, “Respiratory allergies cause symptoms like nasal congestion, post-nasal drip, and itchy nose and eyes, and can be particularly bothersome at night.” So if allergies are the main reason for your nighttime drool you can make your pet out of your bed to clean the dander of the pet that may be allergic to you, use hypoallergic sheets for bedsheets, and air purifier to control humidity in your home.

5. Mandibular device

You can use the mandibular device (A device placed in your mouth to slow down the drool at night) can be effective when have more drool at night.

6. Take medication

If your drool problem is due to neurological conditions then you can consult your doctor for the medication to treat this situation. These medications stop drooling by blocking your nerve impulses to saliva glands. However, it has side effects of dry mouth.

7. CPAP machine

What is a CPAP machine? A CPAP machine is a positive airway pressure machine, that is used to treat sleep apnea when you drool due to the reason of sleep apnea. This machine will not only be helpful in deep sleep rather it will also make you positioned safely and make you breathe properly at night while sleeping. You can also consult with a sleep apnea treatment professional to stop drool.

8. Attend speech therapy

Depending on the reason for drooling your doctor may recommend you to attend sleep therapy. Sleep therapy can make your jaw stable and improve tongue strength and mobility. It can also help you close your lips properly.

this therapy may take time for an individual but learning the technique can help in the swallowing and decrease the drool.

9. Botox injections

Botulinum toxin injections are named Botox injections. It is used in the treatment of a person who faces drooling due to a neurological disorder.

Botox injection is injected into salivary glands by the doctor with the help of ultrasound imaging. The role of botox is to paralyse the muscles in the area and prevent the functioning of salivary glands.

The effects of botox injection are valid for 6 months after that you can repeat. According to a study conducted in 2012 it has been seen that patients having neurological disorders who received Botox get a significant result in to decrease in drooling.

10. Surgery

This is the last method of stopping the drooling which is related to that all the above methods have not worked so far. This is the severe issue of drooling or salivation due to a neurological disorder. In this method, the saliva gland is getting removed by surgery. But before trying this method you are recommended to try first above method.

When to consult a doctor?

Drool is normal in your sleep but if you face severe problems with drooling then you can contact to your doctor. It is recommended that to doctor first identify the reason for drooling and then they tell you the solution as per the requirements.

Conclusion

Slobbering during sleep is more common than you might think, and often, it’s something you can manage with a few lifestyle tweaks. From adjusting your sleep position to managing allergies and staying hydrated, the path to a dry pillow is within reach. Remember, if the river runs wild, seeking professional advice is wise.

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