Spongia has traditionally been used for the relief of symptoms associated with croup and tickling in the throat where the person has a dry, barking cough like a seal. This remedy follows Aconite well for croup that is worse around midnight with marked anxiety. Spongia may address a dry cough that is intensely hacking and dry. The cough may sound like the barking of a seal, or a saw moving through a wooden board. Exhaustion and heaviness after exertion comes on so suddenly that the person feels they may fall and must lie down. There may be a sense of raw burning, fullness and weakness in the chest. Anxiety with difficulty breathing. One of the key notes of Spongia is awakening from sleep with a feeling of suffocation, a violent cough and great alarm, with difficult or fast hard breathing and a flushed anxious face. This remedy is often recommended to follow Aconite for the management of croup.