Experts Explain When Dribbling In Your Sleep Could Be A Sign Of Something More Serious

If you wake up with a little drool on your pillow, listen up.

The last time I had a cold, I woke up with my pillow drenched. It wasn’t sweat from a fever. It was drool, still clinging to the side of my face.

Fortunately, the only witness to the deluge on my pillow was my dog, Rusty. If he could talk, he’d probably tell you that I drool even when I’m not sick. As it turns out, occasional drooling is completely normal.

“People often drool in their sleep because the body keeps making a normal amount of saliva, but we swallow much less while asleep,” Dr. Cynthia Odogwu, a family and lifestyle medicine physician, told HuffPost. That saliva can leak onto our pillow or bedding.

For people who are otherwise healthy, drooling is usually nothing to worry about. But in some cases, drooling can be a sign of a health condition or sleep disorder. Ahead, we spoke to Odogwu and other sleep experts about some common causes of drooling and when to be concerned.

What are common causes of drooling in your sleep?

Experts say there are several reasons for dribbling in your sleep. They are:

Typically, drooling happens because your mouth is open while you’re asleep. “If you’re a mouth breather, that is certainly likely to increase your risk of drooling,” said Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist and head of sleep at Wesper. Mouth breathing tends to dry out your mouth. Your body compensates by producing more saliva.

Likewise, living in an arid climate or sleeping with a ceiling fan can lead to dry mouth and increased drooling. Some people have an anatomical feature, such as a deviated septum, that restricts airflow. As a result, they tend to breathe through their mouth, which can cause nighttime drooling, she added.

“Unless they are a 100% back sleeper, most people will occasionally drool in their sleep,” said Alice Hirschel, the head of scientific affairs at Natrol, a sleep and supplement company. Your chances of drooling go up if you sleep on your side or stomach. This makes it easier for saliva to leak out onto your pillow.

Some people are prone to drooling due to a sleep disorder that affects their breathing. For example, “people who have sleep apnoea stop breathing periodically throughout the night,” Rohrscheib said.

Typically, this is due to an upper airway obstruction, resulting in more mouth breathing and drooling while they’re asleep, she said. Hirschel agreed, adding that sleep........

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