Everyone knows what snoring is, whether because you yourself do it, your partner, a friend, the overplayed grandpa snores on TV. What most people do not know is what causes it. Whatever the cause, these snoring home remedies can help to prevent you from snoring again.

The main thing behind snoring is that airflow- in some way- is troubled or slowed down. Whether it be that your nose is clogged, or your tongue does odd things in your sleep, the tissue around your nose or throat vibrate, and this is what makes you snore.

Risk Factors

There are little sub-branches of why you can snore- reasons behind your breathing is restricted when you sleep.

Being out of shape and or overweight can play a card on why your snore. The extra fat and misshapen tissue can make you snore or make your snoring worse.

Being a man can also have an effect simply because men have more narrow airways than women do. Sometimes snoring is not because of anything that you are doing wrong, you just snore.

Age can change the shape of your body, believe it or not. You always hear about elderly people losing height, but you rarely hear about the narrowing of air passages that some people have as they get older.

Smoking is never good for you. Smoking affects your lungs and throat, there is no surprise that it make your snoring louder or more often. 

Snoring Home Remedies

Yes, snoring is annoying for both the person who is snoring and the people around them that can hear them. On the bright side, there are ways that you can ease the snoring so that you can sleep better.

1. Sleep on Your Side

This can be a difficult thing to keep yourself doing in your sleep, but if you try sleeping on a couch of some sort and find that it helps, there is a trick so that you do not keep rolling onto your back.

Sew a sock to the back of a nightshirt and put a tennis ball in there. As weird as it sounds, the tennis ball in the sock makes it uncomfortable to lay on your back so you have to roll back onto your side to be comfy.

Quick note: you should consider switching the side you sleep on everyone night or every other night so that your shoulders and hips do not get sore from the pressure.

 

2. Elevate Your Head

One cause of snoring is your tongue being in the wrong position, right? Well, there is a solution for even that. You can either make your own stack of pillows or find a way to elevate your head or there are pillows you can buy that are made especially to help with snoring. Elevating your head can help because it helps to keep your jaw and tongue forward so that your tongue cannot block your airways.

3. Unstuffing Your Nose

Having stuffy nose because of a cold or allergies is the worst and it can even make you snore. To unstuff your nose, you can try over the counter allergy pills (these help with the congestion of colds, not just allergies), neti pots, nasal sprays, or there are even these little strips that look sort of like band-aids that you put across your nose before bed and they help you to breath.

 

4. Lose Weight

Another cause of snoring was being overweight. The easiest way to rid yourself of this cause is to lose the extra weight. Exercise, go on a diet program. You should, however, talk to your doctor if you are considering going on a diet as they can help you know a healthy weight and give you help and support with it.

5. Moist Air

Breathing dry air can swell your nasal cavity and tissues. One of the best ways to add moisture to air is to use a humidifier.

 

6. Avoid Alcohol and Sedatives

Both of these can make your snoring worse before they relax the muscles in your throat a little too much. When they get to relax, it makes it easier for them to be moved around by air that you inhale and exhale. If you are on a prescribed sleeping pill or a medication that can make you drowsy, talk to your doctor if you think it might be making your snoring worse.  

 

7. Stop Smoking

Smoking is a hard habit to kick, but it can be done. Smoking causes so many different kinds of cancer on top of making it hard to breath when you try to sleep. If you stop smoking, most studies show that there are a milestone of your body working on rebuilding itself shortly after you stop smoking.

 

8. Dilator

This odd little contraption might look a bit scary at first, but it can help you breathe better at night. Dilators are also called snoring clips or nose vents. This small clip slides into your nose and holds your nostrils open so that air can come and go more easily. You do not have fear the little supports being left behind because there is a little loop that catches on the barrier between your nostrils.

 

9. Do Not Mouth Breath

Breathing through your mouth is a huge trigger for snoring, but there is a decent way to stop yourself from breathing through your mouth. There are these little things like a mouth guard, but they are specially made to stop yours from snoring.

10. Get Enough Sleep

This might seem mean or backward, but it really can help. Sleep keeps your body healthy and helps to rebuild different things while you are resting. Have you ever wondered why you sleep so much when you fall ill? It is because sleeping lets your body to fight off the illness quicker. The better sleep you get, the less you get sick, the less you snore because of a stuffy nose.

 

11. Sleep Diary

If one or more (or none) of these tips work, write it down. You can try each tip one by one and use the one the that works best or try combining one or two of them to help you as much as possible.

12. Exercise

Oddly enough, there are exercises you can do that strengthen the muscles and tissues around your airways so that you breathe easier in your sleep. Exercising your muscles makes them stronger, but it must be rare to hear of exercising your throat.

Some exercises you can try to help are. say every vowel aloud for three minutes; with your mouth open, slide your jaw to one side for 30 seconds, slide it to the other side and hold for another 30 seconds; purse your lips with your mouth closed for 30 seconds; sing through the day; chew with both sides of your sides of your mouth.

 

13. Drink Water

Dehydration produces thick mucus in your throat and nose which can make it harder to breathe. You want to drink enough water so that your body has enough, but not so much that you wake up in the middle of the night because you need the bathroom.

14. Healthier Eating

There are foods and drinks that you can avoid so that your throat and nasal passages do not get blocked or swelled. Do not eat or drink dairy products before bed as they can produce more mucus, and avoid foods that processed, have lots of sugars or an abundance of fats.

 

15. Aromatherapy

There are different essential oils you can use that can help to clear airways or help to fight off illnesses. There are also some that can help you to sleep better and faster without the effects that a sleeping pill can have on your throat. Eucalyptus and peppermint are good for fighting illnesses and lavender is wonderful for helping you to sleep. To learn how to do aromatherapy, check out our article How To Do Aromatherapy.

 

16. Warm Shower or Bath

Warm water and steam power together to clear out your nose and other airways. Taking a warm bath with a couple drops of lavender oil or simply a warm shower before bed will both relax you and clear your sinuses.

Sometimes, snoring can be caused more dangerous underlying issue and snoring is one of its symptoms. If using these tips after a couple weeks does not help, please talk to your doctor for advice.

Sources

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a23066346/how-to-stop-snoring-immediately/

https://www.tuck.com/how-to-prevent-snoring-naturally/

https://www.tuck.com/how-to-stop-snoring/

https://www.sleepassociation.org/sleep-disorders/snoring-solutions/how-to-stop-snoring/

https://www.sleep.org/articles/prevent-snoring/

https://www.healthline.com/health/snoring-remedies#remedies

https://somnishop.net/how-to-stop-snoring-five-tips/

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/evewoman/article/2001252835/how-to-stop-snoring-best-solutions-and-remedies-to-help-reduce-the-noise

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/snoring-tips-to-help-you-and-your-partner-sleep-better.htm