What causes bloody nose while sleeping? – Dr. Lakshmi Ponnathpur

“Sometimes suddenly individuals wake up with a heavy nose bleed at night. We need to know why it happens only during night. At night there may be individuals suffering from obstructive sleep apnea due to big adenoids, hypertrophic tonsils or turbinates or acute infections. These individuals if the infection is more when they suddenly cough or sneeze forcefully minor blood vessels can open up and they can bleed at night. Another reason being raised blood pressure during sleep in hypertensive individuals. Many times the patients might have forgotten to take their antihypertensive medication and the blood pressure races at night resulting in a profuse nose bleed. In indoor conditions like excessive airconditioning results in drying up of the nose, dehydration, mouth breathing, drying up of the tissues resulting in crusting and dislodgement of the crust resulting in nose bleed.

“