Tips to reduce snoring

Snoring can cause broken sleep and tension between couples, often resulting in one person sleeping in a separate room due to the noise.

Snoring is a common problem that occurs when air doesn’t move freely through your nose and throat, causing the surrounding tissue to vibrate.

However, snoring doesn’t have to be a nightmare – there are things you can do to help reduce it.

Here are our top five tips for reducing snoring:

1. Change positions 

Snoring is worse when you lie on your back. Try sleeping on your side. If you’re worried about rolling onto your back during the night, use a full-length pillow as a prop to keep you on your side. You could always try sewing a tennis ball into the back of your pyjama top to prevent you rolling onto your back.

2. Lose weight

Being overweight can make your snoring worse. It increases the chance of fat tissue pushing down on your throat, therefore making your snoring worse. More about weight loss and keeping active. 

3. Avoid alcohol

Drinking alcohol makes snoring worse as it relaxes your airway muscles even more than usual. The more you drink, the worse your snoring may be. More about drinking.

4. Stop smoking

We all know smoking is bad for your health in general, but it’s also bad for snoring. It damages your heart, lungs and causes nasal congestion, which increases snoring. More about smoking.

5. Replace your pillows

Allergens such as dust mites and pollen can irritate your airways and make your snoring worse. Make sure you buy new pillows every six months (dust mites live in pillows) and keep your bedroom (and house) sparkling clean.

If you or your partner’s snoring is still a problem, ear plugs can help minimise the sound.

Still snoring or getting worse?

If the problem persists or you have any symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea such as daytime sleepiness, long pauses in your breathing or waking up frequently for no reason, please visit your doctor.

References

Snoring, an introduction NHS Choices, UK
Snoring Medline Plus