It often happens that we feel we are getting wet with saliva coming out of our mouth during sleep and in the morning we wake up with a wet pillow. This is a process that happens at any age and can often be annoying. Drooling is mostly the result of excess saliva, which necessarily prompts the person concerned to find a way to expel some of the excess. But do you know that in cases where this “phenomenon” occurs regularly and intensively, it can be a sign of an ongoing disease? Likewise, drooling signals that something is wrong with your body. When we sleep, the facial muscles as well as the swallowing reflexes are relaxed, so as saliva accumulates in the mouth, the relaxed facial muscles lead to the slow opening of the mouth. In this way, without realizing it, we end up with a wet pillow.
If that wasn’t enough, excessive drooling can sometimes mean a blockage of the airways, which could be due to a sinus infection or neurological disease. Drooling is also a consequence of the side effects of medications or a disorder of the gastrointestinal reflex, which leads to serious problems with the esophagus. This is the case when drooling is accompanied by difficulty in swallowing. It is always a good idea to present this disorder to your doctor, who will tell you if it is a completely harmless factor, as mentioned above, or if it is hiding a health problem.