1.Try not to sleep on your back: Some people toss and turn all night along, but snoring is often worse when you are sleeping on your back. You can use pillows (like a bulky body pillow) to prevent you from rolling onto your back. Some people prefer wearing a T-shirt at night with a pocket sewn on the middle of the back to hold two tennis balls and make it physically uncomfortable to sleep on your back. There are also some new wearable devices that attempt to use vibration delivered only when someone is sleeping on their back.
Weight loss: Weight gain can be a major factor in snoring. Weight loss is always easier said than done, but it really can make a tremendous difference. Since safe weight loss takes time, I will often have patients combine it with other steps that can improve their snoring more quickly. When judging how much weight you need to lose, it is important to know that you may not need to get back to your ideal body weight, as even smaller amounts of weight loss can clear up snoring.
Breathing through your nose: Many people will snore when they breathe through their mouth while asleep. Converting to breathing through the nose can just require breaking the habit of mouth breathing, but often people cannot make the change because they cannot breathe easily through their nose. What I recommend is that people think about using an external nasal dilator like a Breathe Right strip, especially if the sides of their nose (on the outside) collapse when they breathe in through their nose. If someone has allergies (or even if they do not), they can also try a nasal corticosteroid spray that is now available over-the-counter. If those do not work, it may be worth seeing a physician (such as an otolaryngologist) to determine why someone cannot breathe easily through their nose, as there are many good treatments available, depending on the cause.
Getting enough hours of sleep: People snore when they sleep but not while awake because when we sleep, the muscles in our body relax. This muscle relaxation allows the muscles, especially the soft palate (back of the roof of the mouth), to vibrate and produce the sounds of snoring. Deep sleep has more muscle relaxation than light sleep, making deep sleep a time of worsening in snoring. While we all need deep sleep to feel well-rested, not getting enough hours of sleep pushes our body to want more deep sleep than we might have otherwise. The result is that the snoring can be much worse. The general health recommendations are for people to get 7-7.5 hours of sleep per night, and this is a good rule of thumb for people who snore as well.
Sleep study: Snoring can be a sign of a more-serious condition called obstructive sleep apnea Although most patients with obstructive sleep apnea also snore, the difference is that sleep apnea involves blockage of breathing in night. It may be associated with health problems like high blood pressure or with disruption of sleep, leading to sleepiness and fatigue. The standard approach for patients with loud snoring that wakes up others, especially if there are other signs of sleep apnea, is to get a sleep study that can determine if a patient has obstructive sleep apnea. I will often try some of the conservative steps in this article before ordering a sleep study, but if the snoring or other concerns do not clear up completely, it is important to check with a sleep specialist or other medical provider.