Snoring Help

Snore Relief

There are many ways to get snoring help and numerous tips to stop snoring.

Although snoring is often the butt of jokes, medical research has shown that snoring is associated with serious medical conditions. Snorers have a much higher rate of high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes than non-snorers.

The risk of developing these medical problems increases the longer a person snores. In addition, university studies have shown that snorers have a higher rate of vehicle accidents than non-snorers. This is believed to be due to lower oxygen flow to the brain and other organs, resulting in daytime sleepiness, slower reflexes and poorer attention span. These factors impair our ability to focus on road and traffic conditions.

Snoring is also often a significant cause of relationship friction, causing disrupted sleep patterns, daytime fatigue and irritability in the non-snoring partner. In extreme cases, the partners sleep separately, causing resentment, loss of intimacy and, eventually, deterioration of the relationship.

Snoring causes

Why do people snore? Snoring is caused by a range of factors. Try the tests below to determine what type of snorer you are and get some snoring help.

Test your nose

Stand in front of a mirror and close one nostril with your finger. Keep your mouth closed and inhale through your open nostril. If the nostril seems to collapse, try to keep it open using the clean end of a matchstick. Repeat this process with the other nostril.

Then with your mouth closed, try to breathe through your nose, If you can't breathe easily through your nose, you may have nasal congestion caused by allergies. Typical nasal allergy causes are feather bedding and pillows, animal hair, *dust mites, household chemicals (such as bleach), seasonal allergies (grasses etc) and *fragrances.

The best treatment is of course to treat your allergy, however, in the short-term you might get some relief by using a nasal product to stop snoring.

Another common cause of nasal and throat irritation is smoking. Smoking causes swelling and catarrh (the need to clear your throat a lot) resulting in reduced airflow. The more you smoke, the greater the congestion is likely to be. Passive smoking can also inflame the nose and throat passages, causing snoring. As a test, try modifying the effects by smoking your last cigarette a minimum of four hours before going to bed. This should give your body enough time to reduce the effects and help you to sleep. You will need to ask your partner for a report on your snoring in the morning.

For this type of snoring, you can also try natural pill snoring relief from Dr Harris.

Another idea for snoring help is to inhale steam before bed or sleep in a room with a humidifier operating to reduce congestion and moisten the throat.

Test for mouth breathing

If you can breathe easily through your nose, you may still breathe through your mouth out of habit. Open your mouth and try to make a snoring sound. Then close your mouth and try to create the same sound. If you can only snore with your mouth open, you may be a "mouth-breather".

Snoring help for this problem is chin-up strips. Find out more about this snore device.

Test for tongue snoring

Tongue snoring is caused when the tongue relaxes into the airway during sleep, narrowing the breathing passage and causing air to vibrate over the tongue. If you are overweight, this can be combined with extra neck fat to create a major obstruction. One of the best long-term snoring solutions is simply to lose weight. Even losing 10% of your body weight can make a big difference to snoring. If your breathing actually stops during sleep, this is a serious matter with many health implications. You must investigate this - take the sleep apnea test.

If you snore more loudly when lying on your back than on your side, then you are probably a tongue-snorer. Another test to try while awake is to stick your tongue out as far as possible and grip it with your teeth. Now try to make a snoring sound through your nose. If the snoring sound is quieter with your tongue forward, then you may well be a tongue-based snorer.

The best snore relief if you are overweight, is to drop a few pounds or kilograms - 10% of your body weight can make a big difference. Another good strategy is to sleep on your side. A snore pillow may train you to do this.

Other contributors to tongue-snoring are alcohol and sedative consumption prior to bedtime. These can over-relax the tongue and throat muscles, causing airflow to vibrate loudly. Try eliminating night-time alcohol consumption for a few nights as a test. If you suspect that sedatives could be involved, check out our pain and stress reduction suggestions for further snoring help.

In the short-term, you could give your bed partner some relief by trying a snoring mouthpiece. Snore Guard is one popular mouthpiece brand name and one of the many ways to stop snoring.

Test for a fluttering palate

If none of the above tests have shown you anything, chances are that your snoring is due to vibration of the soft palate and uvula. This is more common in people of normal body weight.

For persistent snoring due to a fluttering palate, laser snoring treatment is a fairly new treatment option.

Multiple-cause snoring

Perhaps you fit into more than one of these categories. It is not unusual to be a tongue snorer and have palatal fluttering. If this is the case, try a number of the suggested treatments for these snoring types.

Coping with snoring

For general snoring solutions, check out natural snoring remedies.

While you put longer-term snoring solutions in place, bed-partners (or even house partners!) of snorers need some relief living with it. One measure that can help is to wear snoring earplugs.

Sometimes, snoring arises out of the blue. Find out about snoring during pregnancy.

Sources: UK National Health Service; British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association; WebMD

Return to top of Snoring Help page

Snoring Help page to home page