Snoring is relatively common. Roughly half of us snore either regularly or occasionally. So, a little whistling while you snooze is nothing to be embarrassed about. But it can be frustrating, whether your own snores startle you awake, you hear complaints from your bed partner, or your bed partner’s snoring keeps you from sleeping through the night. Here’s what you should know about snoring and how to find the best expert-approved home remedies and medical solutions to help.
What is snoring?
The first step to curing snoring is figuring out why it’s happening. Understanding the science behind snoring can help you determine which methods may be right for you or your partner.
“When people sleep, their muscles relax,” explains Dr. Steven A. Thau, the division chief of the Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Department at Phelps Hospital/Northwell Health. “There’s a gravitational force at play that impinges on the soft portion of the airway above the Adam’s apple, above the trachea.” When the tissue is relaxed enough to partially block the airway, airflow in and out can cause a vibration, leading to what we commonly refer to as snoring.
Why do people snore?
There are two main types of snoring: One is called simple or primary snoring, and the other is known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Obstructive sleep apnea is when the muscles and tissues at the back of the throat relax, causing your airways to narrow or collapse — or become obstructed — during sleep. The obstruction prevents easy breathing throughout the night, sometimes stopping the person’s breathing for 10 to 30 seconds. As a result, your body wakes you up so that you can begin breathing again. OSA is a serious medical condition and can be dangerous if not treated.
If you snore but don’t have symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, such as daytime sleepiness, insomnia, or sleep disruption, then the snoring is likely simple snoring from muscle relaxation. While it may seem simple to figure out which type of snoring you have, to get a diagnosis of primary snoring you first have to rule out OSA, which may require a sleep study.
Snoring can be both chronic, meaning it happens every time you drift off, or it may just occur from time to time, depending on different factors. According to Lauri Leadley, a clinical sleep educator and the founder and president of Valley Sleep Center, some factors that can contribute to snoring include obstructions to air passages, physical changes, and lifestyle habits.
What causes snoring?
Now that you know the basics of what causes snoring, let’s take a closer look at the main factors that contribute to the noises we make at night.
Obstructed nasal passages
Blocked nasal passages are a common cause of intermittent snoring. You might have diminished breathing from a cold, deviated septum, or narrow nasal passages, Leadley explains. Ultimately, when we have an obstructed nose, we’re forced to breathe through the mouth, but mouth breathing more than doubles upper airway resistance, which can lead to snoring.
Enlarged throat tissue or neck circumference
You might have “bulky throat tissue,” Leadley explains, obstructing your airway, which can be caused by enlarged tonsils or adenoids or obesity, which is a chronic medical condition. Snoring is more prevalent in those who have obesity. Interestingly enough, neck circumference tends to be higher in snorers than non-snorers. However, research shows this is true for all BMI ranges.
Reduced muscle tone
Another snoring contributor is reduced muscle tone in the throat. Reduced muscle tone can lead to your muscles having less tension and control to hold themselves in place. When it comes to your throat, this means losing muscle tone can cause your airways to shrink. “This occurs with normal aging,” Leadley explains, and is one of the reasons why snoring prevalence is higher in older age groups. Additionally, the muscle tone in our bodies fluctuates as we sleep. “Our muscle tone changes as we move through different stages of sleep,” Schellenberg says. She goes on to explain that while we’re in REM sleep, our airway muscle tone is the lowest, thus causing snoring to more likely occur.
Sleep position
The position you sleep in can have a big impact on whether you sleep noisily. “For most people, the back is going to be the worst position,” says Dr. Joseph Schellenberg, a pulmonologist and sleep specialist at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Pennsylvania. “The tongue and your jaw are like a drawer. If you’re on your side, the drawer can lay open. And if you’re on your back, the drawer is going to close.” But belly sleeping can also cause the jaw and tongue to move backward, he added.
Lifestyle factors
Lifestyle factors that can contribute to snoring include drinking alcohol and smoking. Alcohol disrupts sleep and can worsen breathing-related events and reduce oxygen saturation. Smoking, which irritates the airways, is also associated with sleep disturbances and snoring.
Is snoring bad?
While snoring can be annoying for a bedmate once in a while, snoring isn’t much cause for concern. Lots of things can cause short-term snoring, such as a cold or allergies. It’s when it becomes a regular occurrence that you should start talking to your doctor. “There is no doubt that snoring is a nuisance and a disruption to the snorer and their partner,” Leadley says. “However, habitual snoring should be taken seriously, as it presents a set of health risks which cannot be ignored.” Long-term snoring, or OSA, can lead to a variety of health problems.
Weight gain
Although obesity is a risk factor for snoring, you could be dealing with a chicken-egg scenario. Snoring may also contribute to weight gain. “Poor sleep quality can lead to hormonal imbalance in the body,” Leadley says, “which can trigger excess weight gain or obesity. Excess weight around the neck, in turn, can lead to snoring and sleep apnea.”
Worsening metabolic health
Snoring can lead to additional metabolic health concerns, including prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes. This is because snoring is associated with impaired glucose metabolism, even in healthy adults.
Heart disease and stroke
Snoring may also contribute to heart disease risk. “Poor sleep quality caused by sleep disorders such as snoring and sleep apnea can increase the risk potential for cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension and coronary heart disease, which in turn can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes,” Leadley explains.
Stroke is of particular concern. “In snorers, there is an increased risk of the narrowing of the neck arteries which supply blood to the brain,” Leadley adds. “If the blood supply to the brain is poor or blocked, it can result in a stroke.”
Mental health issues
Finally, snoring may also impact your mental health. “In most cases, snorers suffer from poor sleep quality,” Leadley says, “which in turn can lead to decreased mental capacity, depression, mood swings, irritability, and anxiety disorders.”
How does snoring affect sleep quality?
Snoring can affect sleep quality by interrupting your sleep stages and sleep cycles. We have four sleep stages. Three of these phases do not involve rapid eye movement (REM) and are labeled NREM 1, 2, and 3, with 3 being the deepest state of sleep. The final phase is labeled as REM. We must cycle through these phases about four to six times per night to achieve quality sleep. Snoring could wake you up, even slightly, during various phases, interrupting the cycling pattern and delaying or preventing the next phase of sleep. These disruptions can leave you feeling fatigued and foggy the next day.
Natural home remedies and lifestyle changes to reduce snoring
In many cases, you can treat snoring at home with noninvasive measures. Here are a few to consider.
Open your nasal passages
Irrigate stuffy sinuses before bed. “Nasal saline, a neti pot — you can’t go wrong there,” Schellenberg adds. Nasal irrigation will help mitigate congestion or a runny snout. If you live in a drier climate or it’s winter and you’ve got the heat on, add a humidifier, which can help reduce airway irritation that can lead to swelling.
Remove allergens and treat allergies
Banish dust mites with hypoallergenic bedding and pillows you can wash frequently in hot water. But also treat those sniffly symptoms that are associated with snoring. Thau says oral non-sedating antihistamines, as well as steroid and antihistamine nasal sprays, can help decrease tissue swelling if allergies are the root cause of nighttime reverberation. But avoid nasal sprays that contain phenylephrine and oxymetazoline, which shrink the blood vessels and damage the nose.
Change your sleep position
If you’re a back or stomach sleeper, try sleeping on your side instead. However, if you just can’t fall asleep this way because you’re used to being on your back, try elevating your head. An adjustable base can help pinpoint an optimal sleep position.
Avoid alcohol before bed
Having a single drink with your early dinner likely won’t impact your sleep, but if you drink excessively or too close to bedtime, the booze might lead to or exacerbate snoring.
Quit smoking
Smoking and vaping are both airway irritants. Both Thau and Schellenberg say that quitting is a good choice to help mitigate snoring as well as to boost overall health.
Devices to stop snoring
Getting yourself to stop snoring doesn’t have to involve surgery or an expensive machine all the time. Here are some easy-to-use at-home devices that may also provide relief from snoring for you and your bedmate. Here are a few to consider.
Nasal dilatator
A nasal dilator is a small device you insert into your nasal passages to keep them open.
Anti-snore strips
Special adhesive strips can be strategically placed on the face to pull open nasal passages.
Chin straps
If your mouth tends to fall open while you sleep, leading to increased breathing sounds, a chin strap can help keep your jaw closed.
Oral device
You can buy an over-the-counter mouthpiece or dental device that will pull your jaw forward and help keep your airways more open while you sleep. Thau mentions Zyppah as an example, but there are several options available online. A more upgraded option would be a customized dental device like the SomnoDent.
Smart pillow
A smart pillow comes with a small device to detect sound. If snoring is detected, the pillow will inflate slightly to adjust your sleep position.
Wedge pillow
A wedge pillow with a gentle slope can help if you want to give your head some height.
Adjustable bed base
You might also choose to invest in an adjustable bed base to gain some upper-body elevation. Some bases can even sense when you’re snoring and adjust accordingly. Just be careful not to raise your head too high. If your chin tips or tucks too far toward your chest, that can also exacerbate snoring, Schellenberg explains.
Medical treatments for snoring
Once you seek medical treatment for snoring, your doctor will likely perform an examination and possibly recommend a sleep study or examination. If you are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, your doctor may prescribe a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. CPAP therapy is one of the most frequently prescribed treatments for sleep apnea. When using a CPAP machine, you wear a mask or nosepiece that delivers a steady stream of air pressure to keep your airways open while you sleep.
Snoring surgery
Some surgical procedures can also help with snoring. For example, those with OSA may look into laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty, which uses a carbon dioxide laser to remove part or all the uvula and other soft palate tissue. “You won’t snore because there’s nothing vibrating to make the noise,” Thau explains. “But that is a sleep apnea surgery.” It’s not a treatment for the occasional snorer.
If your snoring is caused by a deviated septum, a surgery called septoplasty may be a viable option and is something Thau recommends. “Either it works, or it makes it more likely for something else to work,” he says. Correcting a deviated septum can help make treating sleep apnea easier, for example. It can also help alleviate congestion.
When should you see a doctor because of snoring issues?
Even simple snoring can disrupt sleep and may lead to health issues down the road. So, if your sleep is suffering or your bed partner complains on an ongoing basis, it’s likely time to see your doctor, who may refer you to a sleep specialist.
If you or your partner notice that you stop breathing during the night, either regularly or occasionally, that’s definitely a reason to see your doctor as soon as possible. Another important warning sign is if you regularly feel sleepy during the day. Both factors can be signs of sleep apnea, a serious and dangerous medical condition that can be deadly if left untreated.
“Almost everybody who has sleep apnea snores,” says Dr. Madan Kandula, founder and CEO of ADVENT, an ear, nose, and throat clinic. “Not everybody who snores has sleep apnea. But there is no simple way to know, and so if somebody's snoring on a consistent basis, they, in my opinion, deserve to be evaluated.”
Our conclusion
Snoring is super common and nothing to be embarrassed about. However, it can be disruptive both for the person who snores and for anyone sleeping next to them. Disrupted sleep can have serious health consequences and should be addressed. Thankfully, plenty of at-home remedies can help mitigate snoring. If these solutions don’t help, be sure and talk to your doctor so they can address underlying causes and find solutions so you and your bedmate can rest easier — and better.
Frequently asked questions about snoring
Your top snoring questions answered.
Is snoring normal?
Snoring is common, but regular occurrences of snoring are not a normal aspect of sleep and should be addressed.
Why do I snore now when I never used to?
Snoring can arise if you’ve started smoking, are drinking alcohol too close to bedtime, have gained weight, have developed allergies, or if you’re getting older and losing throat muscle tone.
Why do I snore so loud?
Snoring exists on a spectrum, from heavy breathing to louder noises. One reason may be due to a narrowed airway. The narrower your airway is, the harder the airflow has to be. This increases tissue vibration in your throat, which can cause your snoring to grow louder. Talk to your doctor about possible causes for your snoring.
How to stop snoring immediately?
The quickest way to stop snoring is to change your sleep position or elevate your head.
How to stop snoring while sleeping?
There are many different ways to stop snoring, but one of the easiest ways is to turn on your side. Sleeping on your side helps prevent your tongue and soft palate from collapsing, which can cause snoring.
How to stop someone from snoring?
You will need to gently wake the person up and ask them to switch sleeping positions. Encourage them to try a different pillow as different lofts and fills may elevate their heads better, opening their airway more clearly.
How can I stop snoring permanently?
How to stop snoring depends on why you snore. Talk to your doctor about solutions that make sense for your unique needs and underlying conditions.
Can snoring impact overall health?
Yes, depending on the cause and frequency of snoring, snoring can be a risk factor for several serious health issues.
What are the potential health risks associated with chronic snoring?
Chronic snoring is a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, and more.
Is snoring more common in certain age groups or demographics?
Snoring is more prevalent in higher age groups and in men.
Can excessive alcohol consumption contribute to snoring?
Yes, alcohol can disrupt sleep and reduce oxygen saturation, both of which could lead to snoring.
