How to stop snoring ruining your sleep

What causes snoring?

Snoring happens when air struggles to move freely through your nose, mouth, or throat during sleep, causing the soft tissues in your upper airway to vibrate and create the familiar snoring sound.

Anything that narrows the airway or makes these tissues more likely to collapse can increase your risk of snoring.

What problems can it cause?

Snoring is often harmless, but it can affect your sleep, your health, and your relationships.

Snoring can disrupt both your sleep and your partner's, leading to tiredness, irritability, and difficulty concentrating during the day. In some cases, it can also put a strain on relationships if one person regularly loses sleep.

Snoring also has a damaging impact on our oral health. Some of the most common mouth-related complaints of snorers include dry mouth, sore throat, and morning breath.

Sometimes, loud or frequent snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), a condition where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. Symptoms of OSA include waking up gasping for air, pauses in breathing noticed by a partner, and excessive daytime sleepiness.

If you experience these symptoms, it's important to speak to your doctor.

How to stop snoring

Whether you're the one snoring or the one lying awake listening to it, there are several steps you can take to reduce snoring straight away.

While these changes may help reduce snoring straight away, longer-term solutions can help prevent snoring altogether.

Lose weight

Regular exercise and losing weight can help reduce snoring if you are overweight or obese. Carrying extra weight around the neck and throat can narrow the airways, making them more likely to vibrate during sleep.¹

Adjust your sleep position

Snoring is often worse when you sleep on your back because gravity allows the tongue and soft tissues in the throat to fall backwards and partially block the airway.²

Sleeping on your side can help keep the airway open. Some people find that a special pillow or bed wedge helps encourage side sleeping.³

If all else fails, a tennis ball could be your best ally. Placing two or three tennis balls into a pocket sewn onto the back of a T-shirt can make sleeping on your back uncomfortable and encourage you to stay on your side.

Treat allergies and nasal congestion

A blocked nose can make snoring more likely by forcing you to breathe through your mouth during sleep.⁴

If you have hay fever, allergies, or frequent congestion, treating the underlying cause may help reduce snoring.

Nasal strips, saline sprays, and treatments for hay fever may all improve airflow through the nose.

Avoid alcohol before bed

Alcohol relaxes the muscles and soft tissues in the throat, making the airway more likely to narrow during sleep.⁵

Avoiding alcohol for several hours before bedtime may help reduce snoring.

Stop smoking

Smoking irritates and inflames the airways, increasing congestion and narrowing airflow through the nose and throat.⁶

Stopping smoking can improve both snoring and your overall health.

Treat the underlying medical cause

Persistent snoring can sometimes be caused by conditions such as allergies, nasal polyps, a deviated septum, or obstructive sleep apnoea. ⁷

Treating the underlying cause is often the most effective long-term solution.

Try mouth and throat exercises

Some research suggests that exercises designed to strengthen the muscles of the tongue, throat, and soft palate may help reduce snoring by making the airway less likely to collapse during sleep.⁸

These exercises usually need to be performed regularly for several weeks or months before any improvement in snoring is noticed.

Should you use anti snoring devices?

Anti-snoring devices can help some people, but the best option depends on what's causing your snoring.

• Mandibular advancement devices (MADs) are mouthguards that move the lower jaw forwards to help keep the airway open. They may help people with simple snoring or mild sleep apnoea.

• Nasal strips and nasal dilators help widen the nostrils and improve airflow through the nose. They are most likely to help if your snoring is caused by congestion, allergies or a blocked nose.

• Anti-snoring pillows and positional devices encourage side sleeping and may help if you snore mainly when lying on your back.

• Tongue-retaining devices and chin straps are also available, although there is less evidence that they work for most people.

Most anti-snoring devices can be bought online, from pharmacies, or from your dentist without a prescription, although some specialised devices used to treat obstructive sleep apnoea are only available following medical assessment.

When to see a doctor for snoring

You should speak to your doctor if:

How to stop snoring affecting your relationships

If you or your partner snores, there are a few things you can try to protect both your sleep and your relationship while you look for longer-term solutions:

• Encourage your partner to try anti-snoring measures, such as sleeping on their side or treating nasal congestion.

• Wear earplugs to help block out the noise if your partner snores.

• Use a white noise machine or fan to mask the sound of snoring and make it less noticeable.

• Consider sleeping in separate rooms occasionally if one or both of you are regularly losing sleep (sometimes called a "sleep divorce").

• Talk openly about the impact snoring is having, rather than allowing tiredness and frustration to build up over time.

• Encourage your partner to seek medical advice if they snore loudly, stop breathing during sleep or seem unusually tired during the day, as these can be signs of obstructive sleep apnoea.

Summary

Snoring may be common, but it doesn't have to be something you simply put up with. From sleeping on your side and treating nasal congestion to losing weight and cutting back on alcohol, there are plenty of ways to reduce snoring and improve your sleep.

If your snoring is loud, persistent or accompanied by pauses in breathing or daytime tiredness, it's important to speak to your doctor to rule out an underlying condition.