Lifelong congestion ONLY one side at a time, ONLY at night ?
I am hoping others can share how they have dealt with this specific problem.
I am a stomach sleeper, head twisted to a side. For at least the past decade, literally dozens and dozens of times every night, the lower nostril clogs shut, this forces me to wake up, I turn over to the other side, and wait for it to unclog via gravity to go back to sleep. Over and over again. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds to unclog. Sometimes many minutes or even a half hour plus. I can only sleep once this happens. But that sleep lasts only until the new lower side clogs again. And the process starts again. So I flip flop like this in bed throughout the night.
I strongly suspect these micro-arousals explain why I feel so damn fatigued in the mornings (extending through the day). I cannot remember the last time I felt anything resembling 'refreshed' in the morning, and this is after being in bed for ~9 hours on average, with ~7.5-8 of those being technically asleep.
I do NOT have sleep apnea. I do NOT have any problems during the day. There is NO left vs right side bias. Afrin works like magic even with the smallest squirt, but I am aware of its issues so I try to not use it that much (~ one day per week on avg I 'treat' myself to a tiny amount when a clog has taken especially long without clearing via gravity). I am otherwise very fit and in fine health.
Turbinate hypertrophy is what all ENTs are telling me and I am close to pulling the trigger on a surgery to address this. But there is no data for success rates for cases like my own.
I can't be the only one! Please share your experience and if surgery or some other approach has fixed this problem for you.