How to stop yourself snoring.
Snoring happens when you can't move air freely through your nose and throat during sleep. To stop snoring, it’s necessary to first identify exactly how and why you’re snoring. There are solutions to relieve your snoring and help you and your loved one deal with complaints, resentments, and other relationship issues caused by your snoring.
There's no miracle cure for snoring, but lifestyle changes, over-the-counter remedies and medical treatments may help.
As snoring is often related to lifestyle, there are some simple changes you can make to minimise it.
Lifestyle changes to stop snoring
• Lose weight. If you’re overweight, dropping even a few pounds can reduce fatty tissue in the back of the throat and decrease or even stop snoring.
• Exercise can also help to stop snoring. As well aiding weight loss, exercising your arms, legs, and abs, for example, also leads to toning the muscles in your throat, which in turn can lead to less snoring. There are also specific exercises you can do to strengthen the muscles in your throat (see below).
• Quit smoking. Quitting is easier said than done, but smoking irritates the membranes in the nose and throat which can block the airways and cause snoring. Get help with quitting here.
• Avoid alcohol, sleeping pills, and sedatives because they relax the muscles in the throat and interfere with breathing. Talk to your doctor about any prescription medications you’re taking, as some encourage a deeper level of sleep which can make snoring worse.
• Establish regular sleep patterns. Create a healthy bedtime ritual with your partner and stick to it. Hitting the sack in a routine way together can help you sleep better and often minimize snoring.
Commercial stop-snoring devices
• There are a range of stop-snoring treatments and devices on sale. These include nasal strips, which open the nostrils wider, throat sprays and devices known as mandibular advancement devices (MAD), which reposition the jaw to ease airflow.
• Your pharmacist can tell you what's available, or you can visit theBritish Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association's website for a list of available products.
Medical help for snoring
• For some cases of snoring, surgery to fix structural problems in the airways, such as enlarged adenoids, can help.
• If your snoring is caused by looseness in your soft palate (the soft upper part at the back of the mouth), a technique called radiofrequency ablation, which uses heat energy to tighten the palate, may help.