dh and hayfever - open windows?

[steppemum]

dh has hayfever. It is usually bad on and off for a few days in May/June and he is certain that it is grass seeds.

The way it shows is usually that he wakes up during the night, or in the morning with eyes streaming, wheezing, itchy, and sneezing like mad.

He always claims that opening the bedroom window (at all at any point in the day) is the reason why he get symptoms over night.

I tend to open it once he has got up for about 5 minutes to clear the air and then close it for the rest of the day /night no matter how hot.

Other windows in the house are open, and I work from home downstairs and all windows/back door are open. He works upstairs and all windows are shut.

BUT

He walks the dog every evening after dinner. The place where he walks is a nature reserve. At this time of year it is knee high grass. He doesn't sneeze, wheeze or have itchy or streaming eyes while walking, or in the couple of hours after he gets back.
Yesterday (after a particularly bad night) I suggested that it was unlikely that opening the bedroom window was the culprit, and challenged the idea that it was grass seeds as he doesn't sneeze while walking for an hour through knee high grass. Maybe it is the pollen from the tree/wisteria/honeysuckle in the garden. But he was also working in the garden all afternoon, with no symptoms.

What is causing his hayfever??

Is it possible that it is a delayed reaction to the grass/tree pollen?
Does anyone else have this, that they only get symptoms at night?

He does wheeze a bit with too much dust /pet hair, which occasionally triggers us (well me) into a deep clean of the bedroom. But that is different. Only hayfever month gives him the eyes and sneezing.

I would love to find the cause.

Does he take antihistamines? Mine is worse at night because I dose up on drugs during the day and then they wear off.
Is it only May/June? Because the grass pollen season is longer than that so it's very possible it's some other type of pollen.
But saying that, I have horrific hayfever and I can go outside and sit on the grass and not be that bad until I'm back indoors. I had antigen challenge a few months ago so there was no pollen around outside then, and I didn't get symptoms until several hours after exposure so delayed reactions can happen and it's entirely possible he's feeling the effects of the walk.

I have hay-fever. Open windows definitely don't help, but neither would a walk in a nature reserve!!

What is he taking to deal with the symptoms. I have horrendous hayfever, and also peri and no way I can sleep with the windows closed at any time of year. I take fexo, beconase and lortadine daily through hayfever season.

Dh takes shower before going to bed to remove any pollen from skin and hair.

It depends on what is around you but a lot of trees are in flower at the moment so it could easily be that. Anything in flower could do it.

But you're right. It doesn't sound like grass pollen if he can walk through long grass without symptoms..

Thanks for your replies.

he will only take something when he has symptoms, so typically he takes something in the night.

Interested that you can get delayed reaction. I thought that was a bit odd, but obviously not.

He is generally much worse at this time of year and it eases off by end of July.
He is also fine on holiday, we go to a house in rural France surrounded by fields and he never has hayfever there. But I am now wondering if that is because he swims all day, so he washes pollen etc off.

His latest theory is that he gets covered in seeds, then lays down on his pillow and then rolls over so the seeds then go on his face/eyes.
We changed sheets yeasterday after his terrible night and he showered before bed, and slept fine, so I am going to push him to keep doing that and see if we can reduce it. 9and potentially even sleep with the windo open at some point!!!