It’s actually normal.
Your nostrils cycle between like this so that the one can take a break from the air flow and mitigate drying out.
Not only does it help from drying out, but it helps with smell too; some things are better detected with a slower airflow
Yep, there’s a reason our noses didn’t simply evolve into a singular hole in the middle of our faces
Two nostrils allows for stereo smells. If we only had one nostril, we would only be able to smell in mono.
I was going to say because it would be fucking weird if we just had one big nose hole. Now I’m thinking about it, our nostrils are already pretty weird.
I’m now looking in the mirror at my nostrils and pumping them to the beat of a song.
Also just to add to the torture of these conversations … the inside of your lungs also have a certain ‘scent’ or ‘aroma’ to it. It’s very subtle and wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone else except for yourself because the exhaled air is coming straight out of your lungs and right past your nostrils and all its receptors. Your receptors can sense it but your brain automatically ignores it and you never notice.
The same goes for your vision … you have a natural blind spot in the center of your vision … the edges are not crisp and clean, you can only focus on about 10 percent of what you actually see in front of you, the rest is just blurry … your brain just automatically processes your entire vision and autogenerates a perceived image that makes us believe that we have crystal clear vision through our entire field of view.
Same goes with hearing … just about every person has a tiny bit of tinnitus, ringing of the ears but your brain just automatically processes it all out to make you think that you have crystal clear hearing.
When you think about it … all our senses are pretty imperfect and there is a lot of interference and nonsense data that our brain processes out to make us believe that we have perfect or near perfect vision, hearing and sense of smell.
you can only focus on about 10 percent of what you actually see in front of you,
I read about this when I was in high school and it freaked me out because I convinced myself that there were Cthulhu-like eldritch abominations inhabiting the spaces I could not see RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and I couldn’t concentrate on school for the rest of the day.
Hey that’s just part of becoming aware you’re a sentient being stuck in a weird meat vessel that’s just full of undebugged closed source code blobs.
If you’re slightly congested, it sucks more.
If you think about it too much about your breathing, it sucks.
Otherwise it’s fine.
I just wanted to say these comments are off the chain. This is how the internet used to be- just people chatting, making jokes and telling stories.
I didn’t know how much I missed it.
I’m enjoying these brief moments of Lemmy before it becomes mainstream. Who knows maybe it never will which is kinda bad but also kinda good.
This is called the nasal cycle.
Use Flonase to help (need daily use for >= 4 weeks) If this doesn’t help enough, you should see an ENT.
Fun fact: the turbinates in the nose (which are responsible for the nasal cycle) have erectile tissue in them.
Source: your friendly neighborhood Otolaryngologist
Also fun fact: don’t follow medical advice given by strangers on the Internet that claim they are an expert
You can never verify that claim
So, you are saying I should follow medical advice by strangers in the Internet?
I had a doctor basically remove everything from my nose that could be removed including a bunch of the turbinates. It’s great I can actually breathe through it now.
Yeah, inferior turbinate reduction is the next small step for this. Often if it’s just alternating nasal obstruction that’s good enough. Oftentimes there’s another component of nasal valve collapse or septal deviation. Personally, in my population, I end up doing septorhinoplasty (nose job) way more often than other smaller nasal surgery.
You don’t want them to actually remove the turbinates, however. We generally just shrink them down – removing them makes the nasal air less turbulent, and difficult to sense airflow. TL;DR it make look like you can drive a semi truck through the nose, but people will feel like they cannot breathe at all. People have killed themselves over this.
I had this recommended for me, but the risk of empty nose syndrome scared the shit out of me.
It can happen, but the way most ENTs train these days, unlikely. I’ve seen it twice that I recall off the top of my head, but very rare these days.
Most ENTs, including myself, are overly cautious. You’re at a higher risk for symptom recurrence because of under resection.
That being said, I wouldn’t let an oral surgeon or general plastic surgeon touch my family member’s nose (unless they had a very very good reputation). Nothing wrong with their work, I’m just not sure they had the same training and respect for the nose.
This applies to nasal decongestants (NOT nasal steroids). Nasal decongestants (such as oxymetazoline AKA afrin, or phenylephrine based medications) are vasoconstrictors. They work very well and work very quickly as the vasoconstriction (constricting the blood vessels) which shrinks the inferior turbinates (and any other edematous tissue).
The body responds to chronic vasoconstriction by making more blood vessels. When the nasal tissues have more blood vessels (and I presume are more dense with vessels) it’s harder for the decongestant to work. This is called rebound congestion — conversely, the patients in this scenario will feel they need to use more decongestant since it previously worked so well, but it no longer does. This cycle can be challenging to treat.
For this reason most ENTs, including myself, typically recommend against afrin use for more than 3 consecutive days. I’ve seen who go as long as five, but I’m cautious and would not recommend more than 3 days.
It’s a bit funny, because if you come into my clinic and get an endosocpic exam of the nose and/or throat (i.e. probably around 50%, often more, of my patients on any given day), I will spray afrin and lidocaine into the nose before my examination. The other main thing I use it for is nosebleeds. It’s okay to use it for 3 days during an acute exacerbation of sinusitis, but I don’t really think it’s necessary.
Edit: I forgot to mention nasal steroids. As I said, the above response doesn’t apply to them. We don’t include nasal steroids in this because they have a very slow effect and don’t have the effect of rebound congestion. With few exceptions doing 2 sprays each nostril daily for a very long is fine for almost everybody, and usually helpful. When I prescribe them I recommend patients use them for at least 4 weeks. Once in awhile there are patient that I would be more cautious with prescribing nasal steroids, such as those with a septal perforation, or frequent nose bleeds. Usually it’s a non issue. Tip: when spraying them don’t spray straight back – use your opposite hand and spray towards the eye (i.e. spray with right hand into left nostril, aiming towards left eye).
I wish it was that easy. Flonase did nothing for me other than cause my nose to bleed. Azelastine helped some though and that makes sense for me, my congestion is likely caused by dust mite allergy.
Affrin is amazing for what it is. A few weeks ago I had a sinus headache so bad I threw up. Affrin cleared it up in 30 seconds, and I was able to maintain it without affrin after that.
Nosebleeds can happen and certainly do for some. Nasal hydration helps (for instance, ayr gel in combination with saline spray or irrigations). Ultimately, a good portion of patients that don’t tolerate or fail nasal steroids get surgery.
Azelaetine is fantastic - there’s a lot of patients I prescribe it in conjunction with Flonase. Allergic rhinitis or even just excessive secretions is common in patients with inferior turbinate hypertroph/nasal obstruction, and both meds have a function. They sell it as a combination, actually, but often insurance doesn’t cover the combo.
If you hold your breath to the point you can’t anymore your body will automatically clear your nostrils in an attempt to help you not suffocate to death
I taught this trick to my then 4 year old and he legit almost passed out then came back from the edge with a “mommy I can breef!”
It is! It’s to prevent situations where your mouth is obstructed and your nose is clogged from killing you. Give it a try
Used to always have clogged nostrils when going to bed.
But when I slept at hotels I never had a clogged nose.
Turns out I was just allergic to dust mites.
Bought anti-dustmite sheets / spray and boom, no longer had clogged nostrils in bed.
I recommend getting both the anti-dustmite sheets and pillow covers as well as the spray!
A combination of all 3 legit stopped giving me a clogged nose at night immediately.
Edit:
Initial steps I put in the other comment:
My initial steps I took were:
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taking bed sheets and pillow covers to the washing machine
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applying anti-dustmite cover to mattress
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applying anti-dustmite cover to pillows
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putting bed sheets and pillow covers over the anti-dustmite covers
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spraying the anti-dustmite spray over and letting dry
Hello new paranoia! What can be done with my existing things to get rid of the mites???
Dust and vacuum, often. And with a bagged HEPA sealed vacuum. Vacuum wars YouTube channel does good recommendations at all price points.
Anti-dustmite spray helps kill a good amount! I was actually impressed with how fast it worked.
That and getting dust mite sheet covers for both your mattress and pillows is effective and over time will kill them off.
My initial steps I took were:
-
taking bed sheets and pillow covers to the washing machine
-
applying anti-dustmite cover to mattress
-
applying anti-dustmite cover to pillows
-
putting bed sheets and pillow covers over the anti-dustmite covers
-
spraying the anti-dustmite spray over and letting dry
Immediately noticed the difference and stopped getting a clogged nose in bed that day
Where did you get anti dustmite sheets? I looked a few years back and all I could find were $200 medical covers that were basically plastic bags and 1000 different ones on Amazon with 1* durability reviews. I would love to have a “legit” source and maybe some info on expectations.
Hmm I bought these and had no problems at all:
UltraBlock Zippered Mattress Protector (Queen) - Waterproof Cover Stops Dust Mite, Bed Bug, Spills, Bedwetting - Hypoallergenic Encasement with Zipper - White https://a.co/d/594j8Rh
Dust Mite and Allergen Proof Pillow Encasing (Cover); Premium Microfiber (Standard Size) https://a.co/d/8NZkbyT
Pricing for both combined being less than $50
