The sneezing season

SPRING brings hay fever but there are ways of avoiding it.

“Everyone can tolerate a certain amount of pollen before suffering an allergic reaction,” explained Dr Clare Morrison. “If you keep enough pollen out, symptoms won’t be triggered.”

Shower and change your clothes when you get home, keep windows shut and avoid drying your washing outdoors, she advised.

Vacuum regularly, especially beds and fabrics, and damp­dust surfaces to remove pollen without dispersing it into the air. If you own a pet, ensure that it is groomed and shampooed as often as possible to remove pollen particles. Use an allergen barrier balm around the nostrils and decongestant eyedrops throughout the day.

Awakening when an alarm goes off instead of stirring naturally and sleeping longer tends to throw our internal body clock off kilter, investigators found. This produced an effect resembling the jetlag produced when flying to a country with a different time zone, they said. The Czech investigators described this as “social jetlag” and found that it also had the knock­on effect of making work appear to be more taxing and life less fulfilling.