Why Does One Side of My Nose Always Stay Clogged?
You know the routine. Lie on your left side and the right nostril opens up, the left one slams shut. Roll over, it switches. Maybe you’ve just lived with it since high school, or since that basketball elbow to the face you barely remember. Plenty of people have a deviated septum and never find out, because the nose is a quiet organ until it stops working. Other folks know something’s off but assume stuffiness is normal for them. And then there’s the sleep part. Loud snoring, restless nights, waking up wrecked, and a partner who swears you stop breathing sometimes, which can point to sleep apnea. A crooked septum doesn’t automatically cause apnea, I want to be clear on that, but a blocked nose can make everything about sleeping worse. So let’s go through what’s happening in there, how you tell, and what can really be done. What the Septum Is and What “Deviated” Means The septum is the wall running down the middle of your nose, made of cartilage up front and thin bone toward the back, w...