By adding moisture to the air in your home, a humidifier can help relieve dry coughs during sleep. Pediatricians often recommend using a humidifier at night to help children with an upper respiratory infection, which causes difficulty breathing, nasal congestion, and coughs that tend to worsen at night. A humidifier is also good for an acute cough, which is one that lasts less than three weeks and is usually caused by cold, sinusitis or pneumonia viruses. If the cough persists for a longer period of time, such as a chronic cough caused by an underlying problem, consult your doctor.
Using a humidifier is a great way to relieve an unpleasant cough. Humidifiers don't make a cough worse; they help a person feel relief by keeping the air hydrated. Moist air helps break down mucus in the chest and release it, making coughing more productive. The static in your hair or the sparks that come out when you touch someone or something in winter are sure signs that the air in your house is too dry.
If you or someone in your family suffers from allergies every season, you may find that investing in a humidifier relieves your symptoms and allows you to breathe better. When you're sick, try using a hot steam humidifier, which disperses a soothing, warm mist for more comfort. If you don't want to worry about the maintenance and costs of a humidifier, consider an easier option, such as taking a hot shower. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that a cold steam humidifier may relieve coughs by loosening mucus.
Sleeping on your side can also help reduce snoring; we recommend that you try it together with the humidifier if you are the one who snores. Precisely for this reason, one of the main benefits of a humidifier is to increase overall humidity levels in a room or home. Central home humidifiers come built-in, so you don't have to clean them yourself, Mayo Clinic says, but stand-alone steam or steam vaporizers, though mobile, do require maintenance. Humidifiers come in steam or cold steam versions (the latter is also known as a vaporizer).
If you want a little more heat and don't plan to use it in a child's room, then a warm steam humidifier would be a good choice. Regardless of the type of humidifier you choose, everyone should have some type of humidifier in their home. The humidifiers can provide comfort at night, when a cough can be especially annoying, so you can get some sleep and rest what you need to recover. Using a humidifier has many benefits: it can stop the spread of flu germs, help you breathe better and feel better faster, and prevent future illnesses.
It's also great for people who suffer from allergies as it adds moisture to your home environment and helps avoid problems sleeping, coughing, and breathing dry air. If you have allergies, it's best to check with your doctor before using a humidifier for a cough relief.
