Why are cold symptoms cyclical?

[Huzzah]

One miniute you feel OK, then crap only to buck up a few hrs later, then the whole cycle repeats?

[asfault]

the otehr day i sneezed once or twice in the morning, then got to work and the whole morning runny nose that whenever you sniff triggers off sneezing.
took 1 paracetamol then at lunch bought fresh orange just and had a berrocca type thing. fine by mid afternoon.

[johnpsanderson]

Huzzah said:

One miniute you feel OK, then crap only to buck up a few hrs later, then the whole cycle repeats?

My understanding is that you feel rubbish largely because of the immune response. It makes sense that your body reacts to an infection/virus for a while/few hours and then backs off to see if it has dealt with it. If not, repeat…