To stop snoring, there are a few simple things you may do. Find out whether there is anything that improves or worsens your snoring as a first step. You may want to think about using a smartphone app (snoring apps) to gauge how to stop snoring. Wsulawreview.org will show you in this post.
What is Snoring?
Everybody snores every now and then, and it’s typically nothing to worry about. When you can’t move air freely through your nose and throat while you’re sleeping, you snore. This causes the tissues in the area to vibrate, which results in the well-known snoring sound. People who snore frequently have excess throat and nasal tissue, or tissue that is “floppy,” which is more likely to vibrate. Additionally, the position of your tongue may interfere with easy breathing.
Regular snoring can impair the quality of your sleep, which can result in daytime exhaustion, irritability, and an increase in health issues. Additionally, snoring can cause serious marital issues if it keeps your partner up at night. Thankfully, there are other ways to stop snoring than sleeping in different bedrooms. There are several efficient ways to assist you and your partner sleep better at night and resolve the issues that one person’s snoring can bring up in your relationship.
Why do people snore?
Understanding the causes of your snoring is vital since different people snore for different reasons. Finding the proper answers to a calmer, deeper sleep—for both you and your partner—begins with understanding why you snore.
Typical reasons for snoring include:
- Age: Your throat gets narrower and less toned as you get older, particularly beyond middle age. Even if you can’t stop getting older, making lifestyle adjustments, establishing new bedtime rituals, and engaging in throat exercises can all assist to stop snoring.
- Being overweight or physically unfit: Snoring is a result of fatty tissue and weak muscles. Snoring can occur even if you are not generally overweight because of excess weight in your throat or merely around your neck. Sometimes, stopping your snoring is as simple as exercising and losing weight.
- How you were constructed: Men snore more frequently than women because they have narrower airways. Physical characteristics that cause snoring, such as a narrow throat, a cleft palate, swollen adenoids, and other conditions, are frequently inherited. The appropriate lifestyle adjustments, nighttime routines, and throat workouts can help you control your snoring even though you have no control over your gender or physical make-up.
- Sinus and nasal issues: Snoring occurs because breathing is difficult and the throat becomes constricted due to blocked airways or a stuffy nose.
- Booze, cigarettes, and drugs: Smoking, drinking alcohol, and using some drugs, such as tranquilizers like lorazepam (Ativan) and diazepam (Valium), can all cause increased muscular relaxation and snoring.
- Sleeping position: The soft tissue in your throat relaxes when you’re sleeping flat on your back, obstructing the airway. The position you sleep in can be altered.
How to stop snoring
1. Alter your sleeping position
When you lie on your back, the soft palate and base of your tongue collapse to the back wall of your throat, creating a vibrating sound while you sleep. It could help to sleep on your side to avoid this.
A body pillow, which is a full-length pillow that supports your entire body, offers a simple solution, according to Slaughter. It allows you to continue sleeping on your side and can have a significant impact.
You may avoid sleeping on your back by taping tennis balls to the back of your pajamas, according to Chokroverty. “Alternately, you can lie in bed with your head raised and stretched, which will widen your nasal airways and possibly stop you from snoring. But this could result in neck ache.”
Obstructive sleep apnea may be the culprit if snoring persists independent of sleep position. Chokroverty advises, “In this scenario, see a doctor.”
2. Get thinner
Some people benefit from weight loss, but not everyone. Slaughter claims that “thin people snore, too.”
Weight loss may be helpful if you started snoring after gaining weight but did not before. According to Slaughter, gaining weight around the neck narrows the throat’s interior width, increasing the likelihood that it will collapse while you sleep. This causes snoring.
3. Keep alcohol away
Alcohol and sedatives lower the resting tone of the muscles in your throat, which increases the likelihood that you’ll snore. Alcohol consumption four to five hours prior to bedtime exacerbates snoring, according to Chokroverty. “After consuming alcohol, people who don’t often snore will snore.”
4. Maintain a Healthy Sleep Habit
Poor sleep “hygiene,” or bad sleep patterns, can have an impact that is comparable to drinking alcohol, according to Slaughter. For instance, working long hours without getting enough sleep makes you overtired when you eventually go to bed. Snoring is caused by deep, restless sleep, which causes floppier muscles, according to Slaughter.
5. Widening Nasal Passages
Maintaining open nasal passages could assist if your snoring originates in your nose. Slaughter claims that it enables air to go through more slowly. “Consider a slender garden hose that has water flowing through it. The water flows through the hose more quickly the narrower it is.”
Your nasal passageways function in a similar way. Snoring is more likely to occur if your nose is restricted or blocked by a cold or another obstruction.
Slaughter advises taking a hot shower before bed to assist expand nasal passages. In the shower, keep a bottle of saltwater rinse. Slaughter advises using it to rinse out your nose while you’re in the shower to help clear up any obstructions.
You might also rinse your nasal passages with a saltwater solution using a neti pot.
If the issue is with your nose and not your soft palate, nasal strips may also help raise and widen your nasal passageways.
6. Switch out the pillows
Snoring may be caused by allergens in your pillow and bedroom. When was the ceiling fan above your head last dusted? Change up your pillows?
Pillow dust mite accumulation might result in allergic responses and snoring. Another typical irritant that you breathe in while pets sleep on the bed is animal dander.
These items might be causing your snoring if you feel OK throughout the day but congested at night, according to Slaughter.
To keep dust mites and allergens to a minimum, put your pillows in the air fluff cycle once every few weeks and replace them every six months. and exclude pets from the bedroom.
Chokroverty advises caution before investing money on specialized pillows made to stop snoring. They may be effective at treating nasal problems if your head is propped up, but this can result in neck pain.
7. Maintain Good Hydration
Drink a lot of water. When you’re dehydrated, your soft palate and nasal secretions get stickier, according to Slaughter. This can lead to greater snoring. The Institute of Medicine recommends that healthy adults consume between 11 and 16 cups of water day (including all liquids and food).
How to stop snoring with a doctor’s approval
Talk to your doctor about these tried-and-true treatments that target both snoring and sleep apnea if tennis balls and nasal strips don’t work or if you have signs of sleep apnea.
Accept the CPAP
For treating sleep apnea and snoring, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is regarded as the gold standard. You sleep with a mask that blows air into your airways over your mouth or nose. While you sleep, the compressed air maintains your airways open.
The gadgets have a bad reputation in the past for being heavy and uncomfortable. But Dr. Reisman notes that they have made great progress. He claims that modern machines are sleek, silent, and equipped with various attachments for comfort. Although it may take some getting used to, the snoring and sleep apnea issues are quickly resolved.
Receive fitting for a dental appliance
An oral appliance can help you stop snoring if a CPAP isn’t your thing. These appliances, which resemble mouthguards, hold the lower jaw forward while you sleep, maintaining an unobstructed airway.
Although there are some over-the-counter options, Dr. Reisman advises getting a personalized device for your mouth from a dentist or oral surgeon. According to him, ill-fitting appliances might strain the jaw and cause new issues.
When to seek medical help
You’re not the only one that snores. The American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation estimates that almost half of Americans snore.
Both your partner’s and your own sleep may be disturbed by snoring. It may be a sign of a dangerous medical problem in addition to being bothersome. You can better control your sleep by speaking with a doctor and attempting one or more of the aforementioned therapy choices.
Consult a physician if:
- You gasp for air while you sleep
- you frequently urinate at night
- you hypersomniacate excessively during the day
- you have other sleep apnea indications or symptoms.
- waking up with a headache, a painful throat, or a dry mouth
- Your sleep’s quality will suffer if you snore.
- Your snoring will not go away with lifestyle adjustments or home treatments.
Conclusion
At the time of writing, there is convincing research proving the effectiveness of snoring sprays, clips, and magnets. Only a small amount of research has been done to evaluate chinstraps or other over-the-face fabric devices.
The effects of gadgets on body position have been studied in some detail. For many people, snoring is increased or louder when they sleep on their backs in the supine posture. Some people may find that avoiding the back position reduces snoring.
To keep against falling asleep in certain situations, some people get tennis balls stitched into the backs of t-shirts. See more useful information in Wsulawreview.org.
