If your partner or family says you sound like a freight train when you sleep, then you’re probably among the 40 percent of adult men who are habitual snorers, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
And there’s also a good chance you’ve wondered how to stop snoring. After all, snoring makes it hard to get a good night’s rest—not just for you, but for anyone trying to get some sleep in your vicinity. Snoring can also be frustrating and embarrassing because you’re not emitting those loud sounds on purpose.
Want to nip your snoring habit in the bud? We reached out to Dr. Rita Aouad, a sleep medicine specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to tell us how to do it.
1. Make Sure It’s Just Snoring
Snoring happens when your breath can’t flow freely through the passages behind your nose and mouth. Sometimes, it can be “a sign of a much more serious condition called obstructive sleep apnea,” Aouad tells MH. “OSA is a respiratory disorder that occurs in sleep when the airway narrows or closes, causing oxygen levels in the blood to fall.”
If left untreated, OSA can lead to:
- Decreased quality of life
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Increased risk of high blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Depression
- Stroke
- Heart disease
Fortunately, “OSA can be easily treated,” Aouad says. “If you suspect OSA, talk to your doctor about seeing a sleep specialist.”
Once you’ve ruled out OSA, you can explore some of these easy ways to stop snoring for good.
READ MORE: The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep
2. Try a Nasal Strip or Nasal Dilator
These devices may help widen your nasal passages, making it easier for air to flow through unobstructed. Nasal strips like Medic Nasal Strips adhere to the outside of the nose and pull your airways open. Nasal dilators go inside your nostrils and gently push your airways open.
Sometimes that’s enough for some snorers; sometimes it’s not.
3. Try a Mouthpiece
Anti-snoring mouthpieces “may also be effective,” Aouad says. These devices typically work by adjusting the positions of your jaw and tongue to help you breathe more easily, and thus prevent snoring.
You can head to your dentist to see if they’ll fit you for a TAP device, but you can also try less-expensive OTC products first. (Your medical aid may not cover the cost of a TAP.) ZQuiet and Snoremeds are solid OTC options. If either option doesn’t feel uncomfortable for you, a TAP may work too.
READ MORE: How To Sleep Fast: The Tips, Tricks And Gadgets You Need For Better ZZZs
4. Wear a Tennis Ball
Yes, really.
Stuff a tennis ball inside a sock and safety-pin the ends of the sock to the back of an old T-shirt. Put that T-shirt on before you go to bed and marvel at how it makes you so uncomfortable to sleep on your back that you eventually train yourself not to do it.
“Snoring is often worse in the supine position,” Aouad says. Or, you can try using a wedge pillow to keep you from lying flat on your back.
5. Don’t Drink Alcohol Before Bed
“Avoid alcohol and sedating medications,” Auouad says. “They are respiratory depressants that can worsen snoring.”
Plus, contrary to the whole “nightcap” thing, drinking booze can disrupt your sleep.
6. Take Your Nasal Spray or Allergy Meds
When your nose is all stuffed up, it’s extra hard to pull air through your airway. This creates an “exaggerated vacuum” in your throat, which causes the soft tissues to bump into each other and produce snoring, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.
“Some people snore because of nasal congestion,” Aouad says. “An over-the-counter nasal spray or allergy medication may be helpful.”
READ MORE: 7 Weird Things That Can Happen While You Sleep
7. Exercise!
As in, your mouth. The following set of exercises was developed and studied by Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Lab at the Heart Institute, University of São Paulo. People who did 3 sets of 20 daily for 3 months snored 36 percent less frequently and had a 59 percent drop in snoring intensity.
Exercise 1
Push the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth; slide the tip backwards.
Exercise 2
Suck your tongue upward against the roof of your mouth and press your entire tongue against it.
Exercise 3
Force the back of your tongue against the floor of your mouth while keeping the tip of your tongue in contact with your bottom front teeth.
Exercise 4
Elevate your soft palate (the back of the roof of your mouth)and your uvula (the fleshy protrusion that hangs from your soft palate) while making the vowel sound a.
What If These Snoring Fixes Don’t Work?
Well, “Surgery may be an option, but I would recommend this as a last resort if all other options have failed,” Aouad says. “If upper airway crowding is the cause of snoring, then surgery such a uvulopalatopharyngeoplasty (UP3) may be considered. This is a procedure that removes the uvula and nearby tissue to open up the airway,” she explains. “If nasal septum deviation is the cause of the snoring, then septoplasty may be an option.
“As with all surgeries, these procedures are associated with risks, including but not limited to, infection and bleeding,” she adds, so these options should only be considered in severe cases.
From Men’s Health US
