See, this is what always bothers me with blocked noses, like. Okay, yeah, it’s probably automatic, but certainly, the brain can just override the active nostril and switch ot to the other sode when it detects something is wrong.
Your body doesn’t want to override because it’s doing it to give half your sinuses a break and recover. If it just kept running on the unblocked one you’d quickly dry it out. Unfortunately the only override is manually switching to mouth breathing.
Because drying out and damaging your sinus is worse than a little obstructed nostril, your body is more concerned with the resulting damage rather than comfort. You’re not struggling to get air if one nostril is restricted.
I don’t have an answer but I would guess somewhere along the lines of a couple hours (we’re talking about the whole half sinus, not just the nostril). So it would be great if the body could adapt to a plugged nostril by not switching to it, the mechanism just doesn’t exist as the sinus are on autopilot.
Cool note, it’s erectile tissue in the sinus that expands and contracts to make the automatic process work.
See, this is what always bothers me with blocked noses, like. Okay, yeah, it’s probably automatic, but certainly, the brain can just override the active nostril and switch ot to the other sode when it detects something is wrong.
I’m so curious why it just doesn’t.
Your body doesn’t want to override because it’s doing it to give half your sinuses a break and recover. If it just kept running on the unblocked one you’d quickly dry it out. Unfortunately the only override is manually switching to mouth breathing.
I get why it’d try to avoid it. I’m just unsure why it can’t make an exception when it struggles to get air.
Also, true with mouth breathing. But that’s so uncomfortable
Because drying out and damaging your sinus is worse than a little obstructed nostril, your body is more concerned with the resulting damage rather than comfort. You’re not struggling to get air if one nostril is restricted.
Okay, okay.
New question: How long could a nostril go without drying out? Unrelated to the blocked nostril.
I don’t have an answer but I would guess somewhere along the lines of a couple hours (we’re talking about the whole half sinus, not just the nostril). So it would be great if the body could adapt to a plugged nostril by not switching to it, the mechanism just doesn’t exist as the sinus are on autopilot.
Cool note, it’s erectile tissue in the sinus that expands and contracts to make the automatic process work.