Asthma (Az-muh) is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed (swollen). The inflammation (IN-fla-MAY-shun) makes the airways very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. When the airways react, they get narrower, and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning.

Signs and symptoms

In some individuals asthma is characterized by chronic respiratory impairment. In others it is an intermittent illness marked by episodic symptoms that may result from a number of triggering events, including upper respiratory infection, stress, airborne allergens, air pollutants (such as smoke or traffic fumes), or exercise. Some or all of the following symptoms may be present in those with asthma: dyspnea, wheezing, stridor, coughing, and an inability for physical exertion. Some asthmatics who have severe shortness of breath and tightening of the lungs never wheeze or have stridor and their symptoms may be confused with a COPD-type disease.

Increased shortness of breath or wheezing.

Disturbed sleep caused by shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing.

Chest tightness or pain.

Asthma Attack Symptoms

Do you know the early warning signs of an asthma attack? Read more about asthma attack symptoms so you can prevent an emergency.

Unusual Asthma Symptoms

Sometimes asthma symptoms include sighing, fatigue, and rapid breathing, not coughing or wheezing. Learn more about unusual asthma symptoms so you know when to use treatment

Drugs can cause sleepiness or fatigue in several ways. Some drugs, such as antihistamines for allergies and colds, do so by depressing the central nervous system. Others initially act as stimulants, but ultimately leave you tired because they keep you awake at night. Among these drugs are theophylline, used to treat asthma and other upper respiratory problems, and nicotine patches to help smokers quit. Still other medications can cause muscle weakness, including certain anti-arrhythmic agents (drugs that normalize an irregular heartbeat).

"The results are particularly relevant as rhinocojunctivitis is known to be a marker for subsequent development of asthma. Thus hay fever patients who suffer asthma symptoms maybe at risk of worsened asthma outcomes and developing clinically diagnosed asthma if they do not seek treatment," said Prof Albrecht Bufe, lead investigator of the study."