Having your saliva drip precariously down your chin, soaking your pillow, and drying into a hardening mass on your chin is definitely not a sexy look to wake up to. Yes, drooling in your sleep can sometimes be a relatively ugly beginning to anyone’s morning – yours and your partner’s. In fact, sleep-drooling is quite common; it even has a medical name: sialorrhea.

According to an article published in the Arizona Republic: “Your brain really isn’t quite as smart as it likes to go around telling you it is. It occasionally forgets to do stuff, such as tidying up around your body. You produce more saliva when you’re awake than when you’re sleeping, and you politely swallow it so you don’t go around dribbling on yourself or on other people. You still produce saliva when you’re asleep, but your brain sometimes forgets to tell your throat and mouth muscles to swallow. So the stuff pools up in your cheeks and eventually comes seeping out.” Researchers have also found that drooling is more common in pregnancy.

So how do we end this wet experience? Here are 3 tips to help you stop drooling in your sleep:

 

Breathe through your nose

Drooling occurs more often if you have a tendency to breathe through your mouth. When you’re sleeping you won’t have the same control over your bodily functions, so try to be more conscious about your breathing.

 

Make a visit to the doctors

Visit your doctor to see if you have any chronically inflamed nasal passages. Perhaps that’s the reason why your body prefers to breathe through the mouth instead of the nose.

 

Sleep on your back

Lying on your back makes it almost impossible to drool during your sleep by confining your saliva to the insides of your mouth. Obviously, your body will move during sleep. However, research has shown that even if you begin your sleep on your back, it will greatly reduce the chances of drooling. Over time, your body will get use to that position and begin to naturally lay that way.