Pet & Animal: How to Stop Snoring Naturally

Loud snoring may be something that's frequently joked about on TV and in the movies, but if you're a light sleeper and you've ever shared a bed with someone who's a major snorer, you probably know that snoring can be no laughing matter. Snoring can lead to lost sleep and strained moods for both the snorer and anyone in the same room. While some serious conditions that cause snoring (like sleep apnea) can require medical intervention, luckily, mild cases can often be cured with less drastic sleeping strategies and lifestyle changes.

Steps

Changing Your Sleep Habits

Sleep on your side. In adults, snoring usually occurs when the soft palate (the tissue at the back of the roof of the mouth) and upper throat collapse during sleep, restricting airflow to the lungs and causing the characteristic "rattling" noise of snoring with each breath.^[1] When you sleep on your back, the positioning of your head and neck make it much easier for the soft palate to collapse on the tongue and upper throat. To start fighting a bad case of snoring, try sleeping on your side — this simple change is sometimes enough to drastically improve a bad case of snoring.^[2]
- While sleeping face-down on the stomach can also help with snoring, it's often advised against because it can lead to soreness in the neck and lower back.^[3]
Have a routine sleep schedule. For some people, snoring is the result of a frequently-changing or irregular sleep schedule. Working very long hours before sleeping, skipping a night's rest, or failing to sleep enough over long periods of time can leave the body extremely fatigued. When the body does get a chance to sleep, it "crashes", sleeping especially long and hard. During this intense sleep, the muscles at the back of the throat relax more than they normally would, which makes snoring more likely.^[4]
- To avoid this state, try to get a full night's sleep starting at about the same time every night. Though everyone's sleep needs are different, most adults do best with about seven to nine hours of sleep.^[5] Children and teens usually require somewhat more.
Elevate your head slightly. Sometimes, stopping a bad case of snoring is as easy as buying a bigger pillow. Propping your head by just a few inches during sleep can reposition your tongue and jaw, opening your airway and making snoring less likely.^[6] Try using more than one pillow, buying a thicker pillow, or simply folding your current pillow over on itself to give your head the extra elevation you need to stay snore-free.
Keep bedroom air free of irritants. The membranes of the throat and soft palate can be irritated by breathing in dust, pollen, dander, and other airborne particles — especially if you're allergic. This irritation can lead to swelling of the throat membranes, narrowing the airway and making snoring more likely. Luckily, eliminating these irritants is usually a simple matter of keeping the bedroom and the bed itself as clean as possible — a few pointers are listed below:^[7]
- Wash sheets and pillow cases at least every few weeks
- Replace old pillows every six months
- Dust around the room (including ceiling fixtures) regularly
- Keep animals out of the bed
- If you live in a dry climate, you may want to try running a moisturizer in your bedroom as you sleep. Sensitive throats can sometimes be irritated by breathing in dry air throughout the night, even if it's free of irritants.
Try clearing your nasal passages before bed. If your sinuses are blocked when you go to sleep, your body may rely entirely on mouth-breathing (which is much more likely to cause snoring) while it's asleep. To prevent this, try to make a habit of clearing your sinuses before sleeping. One easy way to do this is simply to take a hot shower a few minutes before you get into bed — the hot water and warm, moist, air stimulate your sinuses to open. Other items you may want to use include:
- Neti-pots or other liquid nasal-clearing devices
- Nose strips
- Decongestants (only to be used when you're sick)
- Either buy a can of sterile salt water solution at your local pharmacy, or make a salt water solution. Add 1/2 teaspoon to a glass of warm water. (Do not make the solution too strong; it can burn nasal membranes.)
  - Before bed, tilt your head left then right while using the canned solution to deliver the salt water to all areas of your sinuses via the nostrils.
  - If you use your own solution, you can inhale the solution via a teaspoon closing one nostril, then the other. Or, use a Nose Pot which pours the solution in one nostril and out the other.
  - Once the solution has been delivered, you will notice your sinus cavities opening and breathing easier. The remainder of the solution will filter down your throat also opening the throat cavity.
Be wary of sleep apnea. Usually, snoring is annoying, but not seriously dangerous. However, in some cases, snoring can be a sign of a potentially life-threatening condition called sleep apnea. Sleep apnea, which is much more likely in people who are obese, is a condition in which the airway becomes so obstructed during sleep that the body doesn't receive sufficient air. When this happens, sleep is frequently interrupted, extreme fatigue occurs, and snoring becomes very pronounced. Since sleep apnea can greatly increase the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other deadly problems, it's very important to see a doctor if you exhibit the signs of sleep apnea, which are listed below:^[8]
- Very loud snoring during sleep
- Waking from sleep with a choking sensation
- Extreme fatigue even after a full night's rest
- Restless sleep
- Headaches in the morning
- Narcolepsy (falling asleep at inappropriate times)
- Decreased liveliness, decreased libido, mood changes

Making Lifestyle Changes

Lose weight. Like many other physical problems, being overweight can make sleeping worse.^[9] People who are overweight or obese (especially men) tend to have bulkier throat and neck tissue and poor muscle tone, which can lead to a narrower airway (and excessive snoring) during sleep. Worse, however, is the fact that obesity is a contributing factor in potentially serious sleep disorders, like sleep apnea.^[10] To eliminate these harmful effects, work to lose weight with diet and exercise.
- If you are significantly overweight or obese, consider talking to your doctor about it. Usually, your general practitioner will be able to recommend a diet and exercise regimen to help you lose weight or may even refer you to a specialist for extra help.
Get more exercise. Some evidence suggests that getting a healthy amount of exercise every day can make snoring more manageable. Obviously, exercise can help you lose weight and slim down, making your throat tissue less bulky and reducing your chance of sleep apnea. However, by improving your overall muscle tone, exercise can also help your throat maintain its proper shape during sleep.^[11] If your soft palate and upper throat don't collapse downward into your tongue, your chance of snoring is greatly reduced.
- Everyone's exercise needs are different. However, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that adults get at least two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (like brisk walking) per week, along with two days of moderate strength-training exercise.^[12] If more intense exercise is performed, the total amount of time spent exercising can be smaller.
Keep well-hydrated. When people are dehydrated, the secretions in their nose and throat naturally become thicker and sticker. In some cases, this can translate to a more obstructed airway and increased snoring. To avoid this, simply drink more water throughout the day (you can also load up on water just before sleeping, but this can make you wake up during the night). Water is refreshing, zero-calorie, and practically free, so there's no reason not to drink plenty of it!
- Different people's daily water needs can vary greatly based on their sex, size, and level of activity. In general, adult women need about 11 cups of water each day, while adult men need about 16.^[13]
Avoid relying on sleep aids. Any sort of drug or chemical that helps you get to sleep can potentially become an addictive crutch with repeated use. However, even short-term use can cause episodes of excessive snoring. The same sorts of chemicals that make it easier to get to sleep also usually relax the body's muscles, including those in the throat. This causes the soft palate to collapse on the back of the tongue during sleep, leading to snoring.
- Note that this includes alcohol, which, like sleeping pills, can have a depressant effect on the nervous system, making the airway collapse during sleep.
Avoid smoking. In addition to many other well-documented health problems, smoking can increase the likelihood of snoring. Though the cause-and-effect relationship isn't perfectly understood, it's thought that the throat irritation from smoking can lead to slight swelling and inflammation, narrowing the airway during sleep. In addition, if the smoker suffers from overnight nicotine withdrawal, his or her sleep may be interrupted, raising the risk of airway obstruction.^[14]
- Note that being exposed to second-hand smoke has been found to have the similar snoring-causing effects as actually smoking tobacco.

Performing Anti-Snoring Exercises

Try a tongue extension. Though it may sound unlikely, believe it or not, there is some evidence that performing exercises to physically strengthen the mouth and throat can make snoring less likely. With these muscles stronger, it's less likely that they'll collapse during sleep and obstruct the body's airway.^[15] To start, try a simple tongue exercise by following the steps below:^[16]
- Stick your tongue out as far as it goes.
- Slowly move it to each side, touching it to the corners of your mouth.
- Move the tongue to the top of the mouth without curling it.
- Repeat the motions above for about 15 seconds. Repeat for at least a few minutes several times per day.
Try "chewing"-style jaw exercises. Another exercise you can do to prevent snoring involves strengthening your jaw muscles. Though there are several ways to do this, the basic idea is usually the same — simply imitate the motion of chewing without any food in your mouth. Follow the steps below:^[17]
- Open your mouth as far as it goes (as if biting into a large apple) and hold it open for about ten seconds.
- Close your mouth and let it rest for several seconds before repeating.
- Repeat for at least a few minutes several times per day.
Try working out your throat muscles. Strengthening the muscles of the throat can help keep your soft palate from collapsing onto the back of your tongue. One easy throat exercise is simply to repeatedly say each vowel loudly and clearly about thirty times before bed, taking short breaks in between vowels.
- When the exercise is done correctly, you should sound more or less like this: "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ... ee, ee, ee, ee ... Oh, oh, oh ...," and so on. If you're embarrassed to do this in front of your partner, you may alternatively want to do this as you drive to work.
Alternatively, try singing! One of the best throat exercises of all is to simply sing! Not only has frequent singing been shown to decrease the frequency of snoring, but also to increase the quality of sleep.^[18] If you don't already sing, try enrolling in singing lessons, joining a local choir, or even simply singing in the car — nearly any singing you do can help you strengthen your throat muscles.