Dear Lifehacker. My partner complains that she cannot sleep well because I snore. Can you suggest some remedies or an anti-snore product? Please save our relationship! Thanks, Snore Point
Snoring picture from Shutterstock
Dear SP,
There are countless theories about what causes relationships to break down, ranging from over generosity to a lack of communication. But snoring is the invisible, excessively noisy elephant in the room.
Once upon a time, I too was forced to endure a nightly aural assault from my spouse’s mouth and nostrils. A glass of wine before bed turned out to be the culprit and I’ve been sleeping better since she cut back on the claret. If you’re partial to the odd nightcap, abstaining could help end your wife’s misery. (You can read more about the effects of alcohol on snoring here.)
There are many other factors that can cause people to snore and each have their own specific solutions. Improving your diet, getting more exercise and maintaining good sleeping posture via the right mattress and pillow are just a few methods that may help to eliminate your condition. For a more detailed selection of tips, check out our anti-snoring and insomnia guide. Some of the advice in our Better Sleeping post is also applicable to snorers.
You could also try tracking your snoring habits with a phone app like Snorelab. This is essentially a snore recording tool that presents you with a graph each morning that shows the intensity of your snoring as the night dragged on. You’ll see when you snored the most, when you were the quietest, and how long it took you to fall asleep. The app also records snore samples that you can play back if you visit a sleep specialist. You can check out a list of our favourite sleep-tracking tools here.
Using one of the above apps, you can trial different snoring remedies and see which ones are the most effective. As a last resort, there’s always nose strips.
If any readers have a fail-safe snore remedy of their own, let SP know in the comments section below.
Cheers
Lifehacker
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Comments
4 responses to “Ask LH: How Can I Stop Snoring?”
Alternatively if your unsure of the cause (aka alcohol, which is my snore vice). Could be a good idea to talk to your doctor, especially if you snore a lot and find yourself tired all day. They may then refer you to a sleep specialist for a sleep test. Snoring can also be a sign of sleep apnea, more so obstructive sleep apnea with frequent snoring the common culprit (I used to date a sleep apnea specialist many years ago. Looking at some of the charts she’d show me had some mad stuff on sleep patterns).
Lose weight, don’t sleep on your back, avoid alcohol, avoid getting physically exhausted. These all helped me.
The least intrusive/expensive products I can think of that are intended to alleviate snoring are nose clips/strips that are supposed to help airflow through the nose, but I have no experience with them.
I too suffer from this problem and happened to be seing a ENT (that’s ‘Ear, Nose and Throat’, for those who don’t know) specialist for another issue. I asked him about my snoring and he had a look up my nose and determined that I have a badly deviated septum which shall require surgery. A small thin camera was stuck up my nose and despite being a mere 2mm thick, it was quite snug; therefore I probably have a 2-5mm gap in the upper third of both nostrils.
There are only two ways this can occur; through a badly healed broken nose or being born that way. I certainly have never had my nose broken, so I have had it all my life. The surgery is called a septoplasty, where the nobbly bit of cartilage is cut out. I was told to expect at least one night in hospital, possibly two depending on how I bounce back or not. Then roughly 10 days recovery at home, where you’ll feel like you have a bad head cold for about 2-3 weeks.
I would recommend that you rule out the less invasive options as they may help, but it may also be worthwhile asking a doctor about it if the other methods don’t appear to be making any difference.
simple and easy, give her ear plugs 😉