Do you often wake up in the middle of the night gasping and wheezing? Do most of your asthma attacks occur at night? You may have sleep, or nocturnal, asthma, wich affects about 70 to 80 percent of people with asthma. Symptoms generally include shortness of breath or coughing and wheezing at night, and may help explain why 80 percent of severe asthma attacks occur between midnight and 8.00 a.m.
Unless you have GERD your symptoms probably aren’t related to lying down but rather to the time of day. Asthma, like many diseases, follows the clock or, as they say in medicalese, has its own chronobiology. The study of chronobiology focuses on biological processes that have time related rhythms.
Basically, it turns out that your lungs work better at certain times of the day, whether you have asthma or not. They’re at peak efficiency around 4.00 p.m. and begin falling down on the job (so to speak) around 4.00 a.m. If you have normal lungs, you don’t notice these changes in efficiency, but if you have asthma, your lung function can change as mush as 50 percent throughout the day.
Researchers don’t agree on whether nocturnal asthma represents a worsening of asthma or whether it’s actually a separate form, like exercise-induced asthma. They do know the symptoms are related not to lying down but to the time of day or night when you sleep, so even if you work nights and sleep days, you can still experience sleep asthma. They’ve also found that the chronobiology of asthma, and hence the propensity for nocturnal symptoms, gets worse with age. As to the cause well, there are several theories, but no one answer. Changes in hormones related to sleep and circadian rhythms, which may affect the relaxation of smooth muscles (like the lungs) and inflammation may play a role.
If you have nocturnal asthma more than once a week, it’s a sign your asthma isn’t being treated properly. Drugs used to treat nocturnal asthma include theophylline and salmeteroal (Serevent).
Unless you have GERD your symptoms probably aren’t related to lying down but rather to the time of day. Asthma, like many diseases, follows the clock or, as they say in medicalese, has its own chronobiology. The study of chronobiology focuses on biological processes that have time related rhythms.
Basically, it turns out that your lungs work better at certain times of the day, whether you have asthma or not. They’re at peak efficiency around 4.00 p.m. and begin falling down on the job (so to speak) around 4.00 a.m. If you have normal lungs, you don’t notice these changes in efficiency, but if you have asthma, your lung function can change as mush as 50 percent throughout the day.
Researchers don’t agree on whether nocturnal asthma represents a worsening of asthma or whether it’s actually a separate form, like exercise-induced asthma. They do know the symptoms are related not to lying down but to the time of day or night when you sleep, so even if you work nights and sleep days, you can still experience sleep asthma. They’ve also found that the chronobiology of asthma, and hence the propensity for nocturnal symptoms, gets worse with age. As to the cause well, there are several theories, but no one answer. Changes in hormones related to sleep and circadian rhythms, which may affect the relaxation of smooth muscles (like the lungs) and inflammation may play a role.
If you have nocturnal asthma more than once a week, it’s a sign your asthma isn’t being treated properly. Drugs used to treat nocturnal asthma include theophylline and salmeteroal (Serevent).