The mystery of the "nighttime cold"

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by snoopy369
My guess is a pretty simple one: it gets colder at night, usually. More specifically, it gets colder and drier at night. Your lungs work better when it is humid; so when night-time hits and the air cools, it dries out a bit, and so your lungs don't work as well - hence you notice the congestion more.

See, this is what I used to think when I lived in a 4-season climate, but Singapore is neither cooler nor less humid at night. And while the air conditioning might seem a likely culprit, the fact is that even when I'm in aircon all day, every day, and it still happens.

I'm going with vampire cold.

[Alinestra Covelia]

There may simply be a diurnal narrowing of the airways during the night as your nasal lining and trachea surface take a break for the evening.

I used to have mild asthma in the UK and the wheeze got more noticeable in the evenings.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Darius871
When the same thing happened to me, my unfounded assumption was that it's really just a result of being up longer

That makes sense to me. My colds/flu-like thingies do seem to get worse at night too. I suppose it could be psychosomatic...

-Arrian

[Lefty Scaevola]

1. Your bed and pillow may be contaminated with allergens
2. Lying down may affect the blood pressure in your head encouraging inflamtion of nasal and sinus linings causing an increase in congestion.
3. You may have a load of mucous stashed in various nooks and crannies in your sinuses and nasal passage the flow to post nasal drip when you lie down, giving a 'drowning in mucous' feeling.

[Straybow]

But he was walking around Ikea, not lying down... it wasn't anywhere close to bedtime. He sez the sun goes down and his cold symptoms get worse.

I'll go with the demon idea. More interesting than boring circadian stuff.