Sleeping with an Extra Pillow
When someone has the flu, their body is fighting an infection. More blood is sent to the lungs to facilitate this fight, and there’s a temporary increase in mucus production. It can also cause postnasal drip.
A treatment that can help with both these symptoms is simply to sleep with an extra pillow to prop up the head. The added elevation helps open the airways so you can breathe more easily. In addition, it helps alleviate postnasal drip by allowing excess mucus to drain through the mouth instead of building up behind your nose.
An extra pillow can help you sleep in a way that will release some of this heat naturally. Snuggling up with a pillow at night creates a barrier between you and the blankets. Then, when you breathe out, the natural air current from your body will move over that barrier. This ensures that rather than continuing to warm you up throughout the night, it will move away from you, releasing some of your built-up heat. In addition, the thinner and smaller the pillow is, the more space there is for this air current to pass through. This will help cool you down faster and let you get back to sleep quicker.
