Why do you drool or dribble when you have a daytime nap?

[tricia]

Does anyone know why, if you have a nap, or doze off during the day, you end up with a pool of saliva on the pillow or cushion? It doesn't seem to happen when you sleep at night?

[jbsilverbird]

and i thought i was the only one to do that!

[RCP]

It does happen at night to my two year old daughter. Her pillow looks awful in the morning.Perhaps my wife had an affair with Homer Simpson!

[darth vader]

It does happen at night also (maybe not to you personally). Sorry to sound simplistic but it's basically down to whether you sleep with your mouth open or not. Obviously the position of your head, body, sleeping position are all factors of whether your mouth will be open or not

[ReverendMat]

I also am a terrible sleep-dribbler, for shame. To add to the above answer, as you sleep many of your body's non-essential functions cease, including the saliva glands and the natural swallow reflex. For some of us certain functions don't cease all the time, so the swallow reflex will stop, but not necessarily the production of saliva. Also the nearer to "awake" you are the more functions are still in operation, thus during nap-time on the sofa you drool a lot more than during a full sleep.

[gnasher]

speak for yourself

[Janexxx]

I have a small pocket of dribble in one corner of my mouth when I wake up....