How to Stop a Cough?

Unbelievably, coughing is a good sign. When you cough, your body clears your airways due to an irritant. Sadly, the same ‘good cough’ can make you have a sleepless and miserable night when it seems not to go away.

Even though sometimes you struggle with a cough, it tends to clear itself even without treatment most times. Nonetheless, there are proven natural remedies for a cough that also have other health benefits.

See below some of the effective home remedies on how to stop a cough.

Stimulate Saliva with Hard Candy

Hard candy stimulates increased saliva, which helps dampen coughs, especially the dry ones that bruise the throat.

An alternative to hard candy, herbal lozenges have no scientific backup to its effects, like the type that has zinc and vitamin C. However, the herbal type consists of slight benefits and is not harmful.

Take Honey

Lucky are those that have no allergic reaction to honey and actually like eating it. Commonly, drinking your hot drinks with honey instead of sugar can help treat coughs significantly. Preferably, use hot water with lemon and add honey to taste.

Conversely, honey is affordable and readily available in most homes, making it an ideal home remedy for a cough. Undeniably, as honey reduces coughing, especially at night, it also improves sleep.
However, you should not give honey to kids under the age of 1.

Drink a Lot of Fluids

Another good home remedy for cough is drinking lots of hot fluids such as water, chicken soup, and tea. Usually, a cough tends to dehydrate someone. Apart from hydration, taking a lot of fluids help the immune system in fighting infections that cause coughs. Still, these fluids also soothe the throat from too much coughing.

Use a Humidifier

Hot air alleviates the symptoms of cough and congestion from it, especially a running nose. Ideally, you can choose to take and soak in a hot bath or use a humidifier. Humidifiers increase moisture in the air and even help ease coughing and congestion from a cold.

When you opt to buy and use a humidifier, always follow the manufacturer’s guidelines to ensure it remains clean and prevents bacteria and mold breeding.

Gargle with Salt Water

Add salt to warm water and gargle with it. According to a study, gargling with warm salt water helps weaken the symptoms of the upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold and even prevents them from occurring.
Better yet, it reduces the period of the cold symptoms ensuring the process is not irritating.

Over-The-Counter Medicines

If nothing else at home seems to work, go ahead and buy over-the-counter medications. Medicines with pseudoephedrine stop the running nose due to a virus or allergy hence reducing the cough.

However, these medications come with limitations. Dextromethorphan, for instance, is unsafe for kids under five years. Also, pseudoephedrine increases blood pressure and heart rate.

If you have a persistent night cough, Benadryl has an antihistamine with drowsy effects while helping you stop coughing. Benadryl seems to have adverse side effects for the elderly above 65, like minimizing stability at night.  
Above all, seek medications as the last resolve after trying out home remedies.


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