10 Reasons You’re Drooling While You Sleep and What It Could Mean

1. Sleep Position

Lovely face expression with open mouth of blonde caucasian three years old child, sleeping on king bed. Sweet dreams. Little baby boy sleeping while lying on couch at home

When you sleep at night, your mouth produces extra saliva to help protect your gums and the inside of your mouth. The muscles of your body also relax during sleep, including those of your face and jaw. If you sleep on your side or stomach, drooling may be more likely to occur as excess saliva escapes from the sides of your mouth. This is more likely to happen if your nose is more stuffed up, because you will subconsciously sleep with your mouth slightly open in order to breathe better during the night. For this reason, you may notice you drool only during an allergy flare-up or when you have a cold.

2. Medication Side Effects:

Different tablets, pills in foil blister packs, medications drugs on blue background

Certain medications, including sedatives, antipsychotic drugs, and some antibiotics, can lead to drooling as a side effect. Interestingly enough, some NSAIDs (aka ibuprofen) can also lead to drooling while sleeping. This is not a reason to stop taking your prescription medications, however, if it is bothering you, speak to your doctor about it. They can maybe prescribe you something else or change your dose so that this stops happening.

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