How to Stop Snoring: Ways to Stop This Annoying Habit

If you don’t snore, or you think you don’t, you definitely know someone who does. It impacts not only us but also the people around us as it disturbs sleep. Snoring is incredibly common as, while usually not habitually, up to half of the population snore.

Being that prominent doesn't mean it's tolerable and naturally, you really want to find out how to stop snoring. That must leave you wondering if it’s that common, is there a way how to stop snoring or does it mean it’s unpreventable? It’s certainly not! There are plenty of ways how to stop snoring immediately.

Ways How to Stop Snoring 

There are plenty of ways to stop snoring or at least lessen it. Some of them may help you understand how to stop snoring naturally, while others require some resources.

Lifestyle Changes

Nowadays, many people prefer to find ways how to stop snoring immediately by taking pills or getting medical help that would surely have the desired effect. It’s one of the options, but putting some effort into making your lifestyle healthier is sure to produce more long-term results. 

Changing up your lifestyle should help you solve the problem of how to stop snoring naturally or how to prevent snoring before it happens. Here are some things you could do:

• Weight loss
• Quit smoking
• Dodge alcohol and certain medicines
• Take a look at your diet
• Exercise
• Drink more water

Now, let's check them out more in-depth. 

Weight Loss

Losing weight if you’re overweight is one of the best options here. Extra fat tissue isn’t only limited to the visible parts of the body. Fat accumulates around your throat too, resulting in blocked air passages. By losing a couple of pounds, you might also lose the annoying side effect - snoring.

Quit Smoking

Another health related thing you should care about is smoking. If you’re a smoker, chances that you snore are much higher. That is because of smoke irritating the nose and throat membranes. Irritated they swell - that doesn’t help with snoring at all. One of the ways to stop snoring is quitting smoking. 

So, if you’re a smoker and you're looking for the ways how to stop snoring, try to quit it.While quitting smoking is usually a tough thing to do for most smokers, it’s highly advisable. Not only to help you with snoring but also to prevent all the other possible threats to your health.

Dodge Alcohol and Certain Medicines

Another things you should avoid are alcohol and certain drugs. All sedatives and tranquilizers are made to help you relax. These types of medicine usually affect you both physically and mentally. Now, what you really don’t want is additional muscle relaxation if you’re already dealing with snoring. 

Furthermore, snoring usually occurs in deeper sleeping states. Some of these substances help you reach the deeper sleeping phases easier. That makes snoring more prevalent. 

Take a Look at Your Diet

Eating large meals just before bed induces snoring and reduces sleep quality in general. Having changed that, also try to avoid dairy, gluten, or soy products before sleep if you want to reduce snoring.

Making sure your diet is healthy also helps you regulate your weight. Remaining fit and not having excess fat tissue helps your airways remain uncongested by unnecessary bodily tissues — this way snoring can be bypassed. 

Exercise

A good diet goes well with exercise. Physical activity improves your sleep quality and also helps with snoring. If you’re wondering, what it has to do with snoring, not much, but it has a lot to do with weight loss and burning fat.

One more reason why exercise is essential in this case is that it helps to strengthen your muscles. Even if the throat isn’t one of the targeted areas, toning other muscle groups lead to better posture and toning of throat muscles.

Drink More Water 

Staying hydrated appears in almost every article that is there to help solve a health issue, and “How to Stop Snoring” isn’t an exception. It’s necessary to drink enough water to keep your body functioning normally.

One of the ways that drinking water helps with snoring is that it prevents nasal mucus from forming. Mucus is known to interfere with your breathing, this way making snoring more probable.

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Bedtime Remedies

If the natural ways how to prevent snoring didn’t help, here are some alternatives that take some bedtime adjustments.

• Get more pillows
• Get a humidifier
• Sleep on your side
• Get rid of allergens

Now, let's learn more about each of these points.

Get More Pillows

If your pillow is old and flat, you may need to get a new one. If one doesn’t help, try getting a few. Elevating your head lets you breathe more comfortably. It also prevents your throat muscles from relaxing too much this way creating more space in your breathing passages.

Get a Humidifier 

To ease you breathing even more, you should invest in a humidifier. Dry air can get a little unpleasant to breathe, especially if you’re sick. It may also irritate your throat and nose. Get a humidifier or two to moisten your airways and prevent the noisy vibrations.

Sleep on Your Side

If you love sleeping on your back, this will be bad news for you. You may notice that you snore more when sleeping on your back. That’s because back sleepers are the most prone snoring. 

One of the best alternatives for solving the "how to stop snoring" problem is sleeping on your side. Although, It might be hard to do at first if you’re used to sleeping on your back. Even if you manage to fall asleep on your side, the chances are high that as soon as you get into a deeper phase of sleep, you’ll turn to sleep on your back again. Try investing in a body pillow and placing it behind you to prevent that.

If you're switching from any other sleeping position to sleeping on your side, take a look at mattresses made specifically for side-sleepers to make sure your sleep quality doesn't deteriorate. 

Get Rid of Allergens 

One more thing to ensure you sleep well and don't snore is avoiding allergens. Allergens and dust in your bedroom usually contribute to snoring. Keeping pets in your bedroom, not dusting or not washing your bed sheets and pillows often enough - they all add up and create plenty of allergens. Make sure to avoid all that by keeping clean and avoiding possible allergy triggers.

Furthermore, there’s only so much cleaning you can do until your pillow, the main object your face is in contact with at night, becomes redundant. To lessen the chances of snoring it has to be replaced every six months. 

In case you decided to switch your sleeping position to sleeping on the side and it’s about time to replace your pillow, here's a cool overview of the best pillows for side sleepers.

Medical Cures 

Let’s say you’ve tried it all - it didn’t work. And then you tried it again to make sure that there’s no way to how to stop snoring naturally. There are plenty of medical cures, I’m sure that by trying them, you’ll find ways how to stop snoring immediately.

Some of the options include pressurized air masks, implants, radiofrequency procedures, or surgery. To get medical help, you definitely should consult your doctor first. They will help you identify the problems and choose the way to fix them accordingly. 

Why and How Does It Happen

Now that you know how to prevent it, let's dig deeper and learn more about it and figure out it's causes.

Snoring is simply loud breathing when you’re asleep. It occurs when the air can’t move freely through your nose and throat. That’s because of your neck relaxing when you go to sleep, and this way, the passage for air becomes too narrow. When that happens, the surrounding tissue vibrates and makes the sound that is snoring. There are quite a few factors that might make people more susceptible to snoring. 

Age

One of the factors is age. After reaching middle age, your muscles mass tends to decrease a little. Throat’s muscles play a significant role in snoring. Muscles being weakened cause such inconveniences like snoring. While you can’t change it drastically, there are throat exercises that strengthen the throat muscles and might help to prevent snoring.

Being out of Shape

As you already know, the cause of snoring is the passage for air not being wide enough. Carrying excess fat doesn’t help that at all, especially if the fat is concentrated in the throat area. Fat blocks the passage even more and makes it harder for air to reach the lungs.

One more reason why being out of shape isn’t especially handy when it comes to solving the problem of how to stop snoring is that the throat muscles are weak. Flappy muscles create the extra vibrations that influence snoring.

Nasal Problems or Simply the Common Cold

Continuing the topic of health problems,  even the common cold can influence that. You must’ve realized that you’re way more prone to snoring when you have a stuffed nose. Just like blocked airways in the throat, it creates extra obstacles for the air to pass.

Alcohol, Smoking and Certain Drugs

Alcohol and nicotine are both relaxing substances that affect your throat muscles. Certain medications, mostly tranquilizers, also induce muscle relaxation this way interfering with normal breathing while asleep and making you snore.

So be certain that using these substances surely isn’t one of the ways to stop snoring.

Sleep Position

The way you sleep also has an impact on whether you snore or not. Most of the time, it’s the back sleepers that suffer from snoring. That is due to throat muscles being more relaxed than they are while sleeping on your side or stomach.

Our Own Anatomy

Some people just naturally have narrower air passages than others. They depend on gender too. Men are more prone to that than women. There’s not much that could be done about it. Simply due to the fact that you can’t change your anatomy and genes, but it’s essential to understand that it could be one of the factors that provoke snoring.

Sleep Apnea

While it’s not the only symptom needed to qualify your sleep disturbance as sleep apnea, loud snoring is one of the signs. Sleep apnea is a more serious disease than simple snoring as it interferes with your breathing.

People who have sleep apnea may stop breathing for more extended periods during their sleep and experience other symptoms such as daytime sleepiness or insomnia. Left untreated, it can lead to severe consequences to your health. If you think you might have it, make sure to see your doctor.

Snoring Effects in Relationships 

Not only does snoring affect the person who experiences it but also their partner. In some cases, even more people in the same household. That can irritate others and even put a strain on your romantic relationship, as they’re the ones that are affected the most. 

Snoring raises more issues than simple annoyance at the snorer. 

Sleeping in Separate Bedrooms

Constantly not being able to sleep peacefully could drive anyone mad. Often those who want to avoid it choose to go to a spare bedroom to get a good night’s sleep. That could surely weaken some relationships and reduce intimacy leading to unhappiness and more conflicts.

Irritability Due to Sleep Loss

If the option to sleep in separate rooms isn’t chosen and the results of the research on how to prevent snoring are fruitless, the couple can’t help but deal with it. And merely dealing with it isn’t the most pleasant experience.

Having your sleep interrupted by snoring or a snorer results in irritability. Being moody interferes with rational decision making and conflict management. So many relationship problems could be avoided only if all issues between a couple were addressed rationally and without additional triggers such as lousy night’s sleep.

If you’re a snorer and you cherish your partner, make sure you both get a decent night’s sleep. Snoring affects the one not being asleep even more, as they can’t get any sleep and have to deal with the unpleasant sound.

Conclusions

Snoring affects a vast percentage of the population. And even if it’s not usually a threat to health, it’s simply annoying and leaves you searching for the best ways how to stop snoring.

It’s influenced by age, overall health, lifestyle habits, sleep position, and even anatomy. The healthier you are, the lower are the chances that you’ll snore. Mind that it could be a sign of a more serious problem - sleep apnea.

There are quite a few methods of how to stop snoring. Some of them are lifestyle improvements, and others target your bedtime routine. These are all easy to incorporate in your life, and combining all or even a few of them will help you achieve better results.

If all this doesn’t work and you can’t cope with snoring by yourself, make sure to seek medical help. There are a few solutions there available. That has to be done if you want your relationship to thrive. No one likes annoyed partners, nor anyone likes not being able to get a decent night’s sleep. 

As you've learned, snoring can cause many problems, one of them being poor quality of sleep, which can result in day time sleepiness. To learn more about how to deal with it, check out this article about day time sleepiness.