How To Stop Snoring - Simple Methods
There ain't no way to find out why a snorer can't hear himself snore.
— Mark Twain
About 45% of adults snore. Snorers are often a topic of jokes. However as a disorder, snoring is very serious. In cases like sleep apnea in which breathing stops during sleep, it can cause even death. Today there are hundreds of anti-snoring products available in the market, which cure only the symptom and not the underlying cause. If you are a snorer, you must find out the reason for your snoring. If you are able to find it out, you can first try to implement some simple home remedies to see if you get rid of the habit. If you don’t succeed, you can visit a doctor. Here you should remember that these home remedies are not any medicines, but they are some changes in habits. You should never do self-medication.
Snoring is caused by various factors. Avoiding these factors may eliminate snoring.
Avoid Lying On Back
One causative factor for snoring is collapsing of tongue and soft palate so as to block your throat wall. This brings about the vibrating sound of snoring. If this is causing snoring in you, you should avoid lying on back. A body pillow is a pillow for the entire body. It maintains your sleeping position on sides and you stop snoring. Another way is to tie a tennis ball on the back of your waist, which maintains your sleeping position on sides. Still other way is to recline the bed so as to lift your head up which opens your nasal passage, but this brings about neck pain as well.
- Avoid Alcohol and Sedatives
Alcohol and sedatives make the muscles of your throat relaxed and toneless to make the snoring sound. You may produce worst snoring sounds if you drink five hours before sleeping. Those who don’t snore normally, start snoring after drinking alcohol.
- Sleeping Habits
Spending nights working for hours without sleep, getting a little sleep and getting extremely exhausted till going to bed are bad sleeping habits; avoid them. After too much of exhaustion, your throat muscles flop when you sleep and make the vibrating sound, same as they do when you drink.
- Sleeping Hygiene
If allergy is the cause of your snoring, you must maintain a good sleep hygiene. You can identify this if during the day, you feel fine, but at night you feel obstructed. Allergens in the bedroom and pillows may give rise to snoring. Dust mites accumulated in pillows can cause allergy resulting in snoring. Practice putting the pillows once every two weeks in air fluff cycle and also change them every six months.
Allowing pets to sleep in the bedroom too can let animal dander enter your breathe and cause snoring. Therefore if allergens are the cause of your snoring, don’t allow pets in the bedroom.
- Drink Enough Liquids
If you are dehydrated, your nasal secretions become thick and obstruct breathing to cause snoring. Remedy to this is to drink enough liquids. 12 cups of water (or fluids like juices) are recommended for healthy women, while men are recommended to drink 16 cups.
- Opening Up Nasal Passages
If your nasal passages are blocked due to cold or some other factor, air passes through them at an increased pace, just like water runs fast through a blocked pipe. Such fast-moving air makes noise. Rinsing nasal passages with a saline rinse before going to bed can open them and your snoring is stopped as air flows through your nose slowly and steadily.
- Losing Weight
If you realize that you started snoring only after you gained weight, your increased weight may be the root cause of your snoring. This is because the increased tissue mass constricts the throat which collapses while you sleep. Here you should lose weight obviously. Fatness may not be the causative factor for snoring always though. Many thin people too snore.
- Anti-snoring Products
Anti-snoring products like nasal strips are available in the market. Nasal strips open the blocked nasal passages and eliminate snoring. They work only if your snoring is caused by blocked nose. While buying anti-snoring pillows, think twice, because they prop up your head to open up your nasal cavities but impart neck-pain too. Medicines like decongestants open up the nasal passages to stop snoring. Disadvantage of medicines is their side-effects.
- Surgery
Surgery is the last solution for snoring. When other treatments fail, doctors recommend surgery for snoring. The surgery is done by removing the soft tissue like tonsils or adenoids of the throat. If the snoring is caused by deviated septum or nasal polyps which come in the way of free passage of air, respective surgery is to be done to correct them.
How To Stop Snoring In 3 Steps!
If you are worried about how to stop snoring, try first the change in the habits. If it doesn’t work, only then go for medicines, or various anti-snoring products. Hopefully your problem may be solved by some simple behavioral change.
