Tips to Remember Your Asthma Medication
How to make taking your asthma medication part of your routine.
Between school, friends, and everything else going on, it is easy to forget a dose. Here are some simple tricks to help your medication become part of your everyday routine.
Why It Matters
Taking your asthma medication regularly is an important part of keeping your asthma under control, and small habits are what make that easier to keep up.
Ways to Remember
These tips to remember your asthma medication are simple. Pick one or two tricks that fit your lifestyle, since small habits lead to big consistency.
Keep your inhaler in sight
Storing your inhaler in a cupboard you do not open daily can make it easy to forget. Keep it somewhere visible that you pass by regularly.
Set a phone alarm
A daily alarm at the same time helps your medication routine become automatic. Naming the alarm something specific, like “long-term control medication”, makes it easier not to snooze on autopilot.
Use sticky notes
Place a reminder on your bathroom mirror or next to your desk so it catches your eye at the times you usually take your medication.
Label your inhalers
If it is hard to tell your reliever inhaler and your long-term control medication apart, labeling each one clearly can help you grab the right one quickly.
Build it into your daily routine
For medication you take every day, pair it with something you already do, such as brushing your teeth, your morning routine, or getting dressed, so the two habits stick together.
Write down each dose
Noting each dose down on your phone, or in a small notebook kept where you get ready each day, makes it easy to see whether you have already taken it. Using one inhaler per medication, rather than several of the same type, also makes doses far easier to track.
Try a reminder app
There are free medication reminder apps that can log your doses, send refill alerts, and show whether you have taken today’s dose, which helps when you cannot remember.
Carry your reliever inhaler with you
Keeping your reliever inhaler in your bag or pocket means it is there if you need it during an attack, and seeing it through the day is a handy nudge to take your regular medication too.
Remember to clean your supplies
Reminders are not only for medication. Spacers and some inhaler parts need regular cleaning to keep working well, so it helps to build that into your routine too.
Plan ahead for special days
Trips, travel, and busy days away from home are easy times to forget a dose. Packing your medication first and keeping your usual routine going helps you stay on track.
If you forget a regular dose of your long-term control medication, what to do can depend on the medication.
- A common approach is to take the missed dose as soon as you remember.
- If it is almost time for your next dose, it is usually better to skip the missed one and carry on as normal.
- Doubling up to make up for a missed dose is generally not advised.
- When you start a new inhaler, it is worth asking your doctor, asthma nurse, or pharmacist what to do if you miss a dose, so you already know the answer for your own medication.