Snoring

7 Ways To Stop Your Snoring

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Before you resort to sleeping in separate beds, try these at-home remedies for snoring. 

7 Ways To Stop Your Snoring

Forget about the monster under your bed. If you have a partner who snores, you’re dealing with a monster in your bed — and it’s often a near-nightly showdown. In a new National Sleep Foundation survey, 40 percent of Americans admitted to snoring a few nights per week (or more).

And the ones who are suffering aren’t usually the folks sawing logs. “The most common side effect of snoring is waking up other people, whether in the same bed or the next bedroom, depending on how loud it is,” says Eric Kezirian, MD, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Southern California, who specializes in the treatment of snoring.

In fact, people with a snoring significant other tend to lose an hour of sleep per night, according to Craig Schwimmer, MD, founder of The Snoring Center. Perhaps as a result, “couples in snoring relationships report lower marital satisfaction scores, they have less sex, and they often resort to sleeping apart,” he tells Yahoo Health.

That’s why snoring is considered a social issue more so than a medical one, although in some cases, it does indicate a more serious problem: obstructive sleep apnea. “When we go to sleep at night, the muscles in the throat relax, and as we breathe in and out, this relaxed tissue tends to vibrate,” explains Schwimmer. If that tissue simply vibrates — and nothing more — you’ll probably just bother your bedmate. But if that tissue closes as it vibrates, blocking your airway, you may have obstructive sleep apnea. “Snoring and sleep apnea are really just different points on a continuum,” says Schwimmer.

Obstructive sleep apnea, of course, requires serious medical intervention. But simple snoring can often be treated with these at-home remedies:

Adjust your position

If you’re a chronic snorer, back isn’t best. “Most people snore more on the back than they do on the side, and more on the side than they do on the stomach,” says Schwimmer. It can be tough to switch your preferred sleeping position, so sleep doctors often suggest this trick to encourage people to stay on their side: Sew a pocket on the back of a T-shirt between the shoulder blades, and slip two tennis balls inside.

“When people sleep on their side, their shoulder can get sore. So they roll on their back,” says Kezirian. “The tennis balls aren’t very comfortable, so they end up rolling to their other side.”

Not extreme enough? Try the Night Shift Sleep Positioner, a device you wear around your neck that vibrates when you roll onto your back, increasing in intensity until you shift to your side. “I wore it one night, and it drove me crazy,” says W. Christopher Winter, MD, director of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine. “But it worked. After a few days of that, you would not be sleeping on your back.”

Play with pillows

For some people, the tennis ball trick works — but only because it keeps them up all night. If you simply can’t sleep with sports equipment attached to your PJs, try resting a body pillow between your legs, which helps align your spine and makes side sleeping more comfortable. Or wedge a C-shaped pregnancy pillow behind your back, suggests Winter.

If you still can’t adjust to lying on your side, lie on your back, but prop up your head and shoulders. “You want to make a little incline — a wedge — with a couple pillows,” says Kezirian. “It’s not just lifting up your head.” Try placing one underneath your shoulders to elevate your chest, then another two under your head. That may help keep the back of your throat open.

Avoid alcohol before bed

It’s not just your inhibitions that loosen up when you’re drinking. “Alcohol preferentially relaxes the muscles in the throat, so everybody’s snoring is worse after a couple drinks,” says Schwimmer. Plus, since you’re more sedated after drinking, your snoring is less likely to stir you awake, leaving your bedmate to suffer longer. “Most wives will tell you, ‘When Walter goes out drinking with his buddies, he’s going to snore like crazy. I don’t even sleep in the bed with him that night,’” says Winter. The simple fix: Stop your imbibing within four hours of bedtime.

Open your nose

Sometimes, snoring isn’t due to flapping muscles in your throat — it may simply be a problem of clogged or narrow nasal passages. If they’re consistently congested, a saltwater nasal spray may be the only fix you need. “When you brush your teeth in the morning and at night, put a spray or two in either side of your nose,” says Kezirian. Not only will that keep your nostrils clear, it will also maintain the moisture in your nose, preventing the dryness and irritation that can promote snoring.

Another way to keep your nasal passages open: Breathe Right strips. “If your airway is collapsing in the back of your throat, putting a sticker across your nose is not really going to help,” says Winter. But if narrow nasal passages are the problem (or if they’re chronically clogged due to allergies), the sticky strips could make a big difference.

Try this test to see if these strips might be the right remedy for you: While looking into a mirror, inhale deeply through your nose, and see if the sides of your nose collapse. If your nostrils cave in, you probably have narrow nasal passages, so the strips could do the trick, says Kezirian.

Control your acid reflux

What’s happening in your esophagus may not seem relevant to the noises you make at night, but acid reflux can actually play a major role in snoring. When stomach acid coats your throat, it creates inflammation, says Schwimmer. “The tissue is swollen, so that narrows the airway,” he says. “Swollen tissue is more vibratory.” To tame your reflux, stop eating two to three hours before bedtime, and if that doesn’t work, try taking Tums or Rolaids before bed.

Be a mouth breather

People who snore often sound like a choo-choo train while they snooze. “They’re puffing up their cheeks, and exhaling against a closed mouth,” which can lead to snoring, says Winter. ProVent stickers turn your nostrils into a one-way valve, allowing you to breath in, but not out, through your nose. “That creates extra pressure in the back of your airway and holds it open,” he explains. In other words, the stickers force you to exhale through your mouth. “They’re really for sleep apnea, but I have patients who say that they help with their snoring,” says Winter.

Belt it out

Here’s motivation to turn your morning commute into a concert: In a 2013 British study, people who did singing exercises — a series of simple, repetitive noises put to music — for 20 minutes a day showed a significant reduction in snoring after three months. But you don’t necessarily have to do the specific exercises in the study — just belting it out may have a benefit. “There are a lot of muscles in your upper airway that don’t get used a tremendous amount,” says Winter. By singing, you may strengthen and tone those muscles, which could potentially reduce your snoring, he says.

How to Put Snoring to Rest.

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If you can’t get through the night without a symphony of snorts and saws, you’re not alone. According to the National Sleep Foundation, about 90 million American adults snore.

Snoring is common in both men and women but is more frequent in men, says Harneet Walia, MD, ofCleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorders Center. It can disrupt your or your bed partner’s sleep. It can also be a symptom of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which may be linked to cardiovascular disease in the long run.

Man snoring with woman awake

Lifestyle changes for snoring

People who suspect OSA should seek treatment as soon as possible.  However,“in the absence of OSA, lifestyle changes should always be the first line of treatment,” Dr. Walia says. These include:

  • Dropping extra pounds. For overweight or obese people, snoring may be caused by extra weight around the throat, which leads to the collapse of the upper airway. Because of this, weight loss may decrease the frequency of snoring.
  • Banishing the brew before bed. Alcohol may cause relaxation of the airway muscles while you sleep, so avoid it for several hours before bedtime.
  • Changing your sleep position. Sleeping on your back can cause your airway to close. If you snore, try sleeping on your side to open your airway.
  • Quitting smoking. Doing so may improve nasal congestion and thereby reduce snoring.

Over-the-counter remedies

A trip to the drugstore will show no shortage of over-the-counter solutions for snoring, but they are not always backed by research, cautions Dr. Walia. However, some treatments may help under a doctor’s guidance:

  • Intranasal decongestants. These may be useful if your snoring is caused by nasal congestion — especially the common cold. For chronic nasal congestion, intranasal steroid sprays may be used.
  • Nasal strips. These strips, designed to open the airway, can ease snoring in some patients, says Dr. Walia.

Treatments for serious snorers

About half of those with loud snoring have obstructive sleep apnea, which also can include symptoms such as daytime sleepiness or tiredness, gasping for air or choking episodes at night and witnessed pauses in breathing while sleeping. For obstructive sleep apnea, your doctor might order a sleep study in the lab, called a polysomnogram, or a home sleep test.

After diagnosis, these treatments along with lifestyle changes can help reduce snoring and improve your sleep, says Dr. Walia:

  • Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). This is the most commonly used therapeutic treatment for sleep apnea. You’ll wear a face or nasal mask overnight, which forces air through your airway to keep it open.
  • Oral appliances. These mouthpieces increase the size of the upper airway during sleep, advance the jaw and the tongue forward, and can help reduce snoring. They are safer than surgery and effective in certain patients if used correctly. They can be used in isolated snoring as well, Dr. Walia says.
  • Surgery. As a last resort, removing the excessive soft tissue from the throat to widen the upper airway can reduce snoring in some cases. You and your doctor should weigh the risks and benefits before surgery — and try other treatments first.

Snoring mothers-to-be linked to low birth weight babies.

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Experts say snoring may be a sign of breathing problems that could deprive an unborn baby of oxygen

A newborn baby. Scientists found that women who snored both before and during pregnancy were more likely to have smaller babies and elective C-sections. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Mothers-to-be who snore are more likely to give birth to smaller babies, a study has found. Snoring during pregnancy was also linked to higher rates of Caesarean delivery.

Experts said snoring may be a sign of breathing problems that could deprive an unborn baby of oxygen.

Previous research has shown women who start to snore during pregnancy are at risk from high blood pressure and the potentially dangerous pregnancy condition pre-eclampsia.

More than a third of the 1,673 pregnant women recruited for the US study reported habitual snoring.

Scientists found women who snored in their sleep three or more nights a week had a higher risk of poor delivery outcomes, including smaller babies and Caesarean births.

Chronic snorers, who snored both before and during pregnancy, were two-thirds more likely to have a baby whose weight was in the bottom 10%.

They were also more than twice as likely to need an elective Caesarean delivery, or C-section, compared with non-snorers.

Dr Louise O’Brien, from the University of Michigan’s Sleep Disorders Centre, said: “There has been great interest in the implications of snoring during pregnancy and how it affects maternal health but there is little data on how it may impact the health of the baby.

“We’ve found that chronic snoring is associated with both smaller babies and C-sections, even after we accounted for other risk factors. This suggests that we have a window of opportunity to screen pregnant women for breathing problems during sleep that may put them at risk of poor delivery outcomes.”

Women who snored both before and during pregnancy were more likely to have smaller babies and elective C-sections, the researches found. Those who started snoring only during pregnancy had a higher risk of both elective and emergency Caesareans, but not of smaller babies.

Snoring is a key sign of obstructive sleep apnoea, which results in the airway becoming partially blocked, said the researchers, whose findings appear in the journal Sleep.

This can reduce blood oxygen levels during the night and is associated with serious health problems, including high blood pressure and heart attacks.

Sleep apnoea can be treated with CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which involves wearing a machine during sleep to keep the airways open.

Dr O’Brien added: “If we can identify risks during pregnancy that can be treated, such as obstructive sleep apnoea, we can reduce the incidence of small babies, C-sections and possibly NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) admission that not only improve long-term health benefits for newborns but also help keep costs down.”