Causes of Blocked Ear While Sleeping: 6 Ways to Unblock Your Ears

Blocked ear is extremely discomforting condition whether it occurs during daytime or at night while sleeping. You may experience your ears are blocked during a takeoff of airplane or while swimming or at certain height. All this things can make us realize a sensation of pressure inside the ear. As if the ear is full and tensed.

Sometimes it is accompanied by other concomitant symptoms such as muffled sound in ear, pain in ear, itching or ear tenderness, discharge from ear etc. There are several causes which may cause ear blockage. A simple cold and blocked nose is one of the most common causes. Blocked ear during nighttime can be extremely frustrating because it disturbs your sleep. This may affect the daytime schedule the following day.

So what exactly is responsible for blocked ear while lying down? Let us know the reasons and learn how to fix it so the next time it occurs we are able to resolve it from treatment measures stored in our armament.

Causes of Blocked Ear While Sleeping:

Cold, influenza, sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, ear infection, all can lead to plugged ears.

Your ears are interconnected with nose and throat. Any problem in your nose or throat may be responsible for abnormality in the outside pressure and pressure of middle ear. It can make your sleep discomforting as you lie down. When you lie down the congested ear can worsen. It may affect your sound sleep. If you are suffering from Eustachian tube blockage you are likely to experience blocked ear while sleeping. The tube connects your middle ear to the throat. Fluid from the tube flows back towards the throat which is then swallowed in normal circumstances. But sometimes instead of flowing in throat the gets trapped in the middle ear causing ear blockage. The blockage occurs due to the reasons mentioned earlier such as cold, infection in ear, sinusitis etc. The symptoms of plugged ear worsen while sleeping due to pressure built up in the tube when you lie sideways while sleeping. Your ear gets compressed between pillow and the weight of the head. If your ear is filled with earwax, you may also experience plugged ear while sleeping. Change of position while sleeping can make the wax in ear to shift its position. This may result in feeling of fullness in ear when your sleep.

How to resolve your blocked ear while you are asleep:

In order to resolve the discomforting blockage in ear, firstly it is necessary to know the reason that causes it. Treating the primary underlying reason can resolve your problem.

1. When you experience sleeping worsens your ear blockage, take one extra pillow to elevate your head and shoulder. This will facilitate easy drainage of fluid from the ear and also reduce pressure.
2. If one ear is blocked you can sleep on the other side. Lying on the side which is normal will also help the blocked ear to drain easily.
3. If your nose is blocked due to rhinitis and cold, put saline nasal drops in the nose to clear it out. Since the nose, throat and ear are connected, clearing your nose will reduce pressure in ears and the fullness sensation is relieved.
4. Often lack of humidity in bedroom can cause dryness in nose and throat. This may result in congestion in nose, ear and throat. Keeping a humidifier in bedroom can resolve your problem.
5. Drink plenty of fluid as it helps to liquefy the fluid present in Eustachian tube so that it can flow easily out of the tube.
6. If impacted ear wax is the problem, put few ear drops daily for two three days. Wax will become soft and you can remove it or it so comes out of its own.