There are many alterations that you can make in your life that can help to reduce or even get rid of your snoring problem entirely. Some of these changes are relatively minor, almost ‘tricks’ if you like, but others represent significant changes in your life, and you should understand that some of these larger scale changes do require a degree of sacrifice and/or effort.
Let us therefore begin looking at the lifestyle changes that you can make in order to reduce your snoring habit or that of a loved one by looking at the larger changes that are arguably going to be the ones that are hardest to handle.
Lose weight
No-one truly wants to be overweight or obese, and if you are anything like 90% of people who are carrying around too much flab, you probably already know that shedding the extra kilos is going to be good for you in almost every imaginable way.
You will be healthier, fitter, look better and very probably be a far happier person as a result.
Well, now you have found yet another reason for losing weight, because it is a fact that you are far more likely to snore if you are overweight or obese.
There are two reasons that this. Firstly, extra weight on your frame puts pressure on your lungs, and thereby reduces their ability to pull in enough air when you are inhaling, and to expel all the waste gas when you exhale. Thus, when the body of an overweight person slows down during sleep, the tendency to breathe ‘snatchily’ becomes much greater, and so the likelihood of snoring increases dramatically.
Secondly, if you are overweight, there is, by definition, extra flesh all over your body and it is perfectly possible that there is even additional soft flesh in the lining of your throat. In this case, there is simply more soft-tissue available to vibrate and make the snoring noise.
According to our friend Dr. Mahowald, even a relatively modest weight reduction program that sheds only 10% of your body mass will significantly increase your ability to breathe whilst sleeping without snoring.
Give up alcohol and tobacco
Overindulgence in alcohol shortly before sleep is probably one of the most common causes of snoring, particularly in people who would not otherwise snore. Indeed, the classic cartoon-character drunk is almost inevitably flat on his back or slumped in a corner snoring, and it really is no coincidence that this should be the case.
The fact is that overindulgence in alcohol will turn people who would not otherwise snore into snorers, and make the noise produced by people who have a relatively minor snoring habit into something akin to an over-amplified foghorn.
Of course, it is now relatively widely accepted that the odd glass of red wine, for example, can be good to you, but, in general, alcohol is a poison that your body is just not designed to ingest.
In short, consuming too much alcohol is every bit as bad for you as being overweight. It also will makes you sound like a Boeing 747 on takeoff, and from both of those reasons, you should avoid overindulgence in alcohol.
As for smoking, not only does it make you snore considerably more than you would otherwise, it is also gradually killing you bit by bit!
If you are still an active smoker, then you are almost certainly aware of the risks of your habit, but it even makes a major difference as far as your tendency to snore is concerned which you will not have considered before.
Most smokers understand the risks that they take, and are equally well aware that the chances of their habit getting them in the end are extremely high. Perhaps they consider the distress, trauma and misery that it will bring to their friends, family and loved ones when they suffer an unnecessarily early demise, but perhaps not.
However, if you are a habitual chronic snorer, that habit is bringing misery and distress to your family every day, right now. This is not something that might happen after you have gone and no longer here to worry about it – it is something that is happening right in front of your eyes every morning when people stumble bleary-eyed out of bed, and it is a problem that you can begin to address today by stopping smoking.
Snoring causes misery, unhappiness ass well as physical illnesses, sickness (you read in an earlier chapter what sleep deprivation can do to people) and often premature death. Your smoking habit is causing you to snore, and your snoring is making life miserable for everyone else.
Stop smoking, however, and the problem will gradually begin to get better.
For your own health and for that of the loved ones who surround you, smoking should be banished from your life for ever.
Give your a head a steam bath
Nasal congestion will naturally encourage you to breathe through your mouth whilst you are sleeping, and that is one of the primary causes of snoring.
It therefore makes sense to try to clear your nasal passages as much as possible before going to bed, and one of the easiest ways of doing this is with steam. Put a reasonable sized bowl on the table, fill it with boiling hot water, bend down to the bowl with a towel over the back of your head to prevent the steam escaping, and breath in through your nose.
This works particularly well if you add an additional natural decongestant to the water, such as an onion. Surprising as it may sound, onions are natural decongestants (have you ever noticed that, when you chop a strong onion, it might not make you cry, but it certainly makes you sniff a lot), so adding a couple of slices of onion should make this treatment even more effective.
However, for many people, the steam on its own is more than enough to free up their nasal passages, making it far easier and more comfortable for them to breathe through their nose after they go to bed. This in turn reduces their reliance on breathing through their mouth, hence it also reduces the chances of them snoring.
Have you changed your pillows recently?
People who have allergies or are prone to allergic reactions are often people who snore as well. It therefore makes a great deal of sense to banish potential sources of allergic reactions from your night-time environment, and one of the most likely sources of such a reaction is an old, well worn pillow.
Old pillows are often home to millions of unwanted visitors whose bodily secretions will often trigger allergic reactions in humans.
Because it is literally impossible to get rid of these ‘visitors’ by washing and cleaning your pillows, the only solution is to buy new ones.
And, when you do change your pillows, go for a firmer variety rather than a softer one. Softer pillows encourage your neck muscles to relax, so that your head tilts back and the ‘snoring mechanisms’ engages, and within a few moments, you are snoring at the top of your ‘voice’ once again!
It is even possible to buy special anti-snoring pillows such as the ones that you can ‘price shop’ on on this page. These are pillows that are designed by sleep experts to provide a sleep angle where snoring will be all but impossible for both those whose sleep on their back and on their side (although you need different pillows depending on how you sleep).
Some are not especially expensive either, so it could be worth a try!
Whatever type of new pillow you choose, whilst it may or may not help to alleviate your snoring habit, even if it does not do so, you must surely sleep easier every night knowing that there are a few million less creatures sharing your bed with you!
Natural nasal strips
Studies have shown that applying nasal strips to your nose can bring temporary congestion relief. This is significant because, as already suggested on several occasions, if you can breathe more easily through your nose, it makes it less likely that you will breathe through your mouth, and thus the chances of you snoring are significantly reduced.
The problem, however, is that the vast majority of nasal strips on sale in pharmacies and high street stores do not use natural ingredients or decongestants in the manufacturing process. On the contrary, most commercially manufactured nasal strips use chemical pharmaceuticals as their primary ingredient.
There are, however, a couple of places where you can buy natural nasal strips online. For example, in the USA, you can buy a completely natural product from Amazon.com, whilst in the UK you can buy the same thing from InfoHealth.co.uk.
The problem with using nasal strips as a way of reducing the chances of snoring is that, whilst they will clear your nose and therefore make it easier for you to breathe, they do not actually force you to do so. And, as a regular snorer, you have already established a pattern of breathing through your mouth.
Thus, the chances that you will suddenly stop breathing through your mouth simply because you can do so a little more easily are fairly remote.
Consequently, the ideal solution would be to use something like the Chin-Up Strips that we looked at earlier to force you to sleep with your mouth closed, and natural nasal strips to keep your nasal airways clear.
Change your sleeping position
The noise of snoring is generated when your soft palate, tongue, tonsils, uvula and the muscles in the back of your throat all rub against one another as air passes over them.
Quite obviously, this is far more likely to occur when you are lying flat on your back than it is in any other sleeping position, because whilst lying in this position, everything will naturally be falling backwards into your throat.
Thus it is that many sleep experts recommend that people who snore should sleep on their side, because in this position it is far less likely that the soft tissues of your throat will be able to vibrate in the way that they have to in order for snoring to happen.
In a similar manner, if you elevate your head by using a thicker pillow or several pillows so that you are in a semi-prone position, you once again change the angle or direction in which the soft tissue will collapse when you fall asleep. Consequently, sleeping in this ‘head up’ position should significantly reduce the chances of you snoring once again.
Section summary
• If you want to stop snoring, you will have to make some significant lifestyle changes.
• The first is that you must lose weight, the second is that you should refrain from overindulging in alcohol, and the third is that you must stop smoking.
• In addition, you should use steam as a nasal decongestant, as well as considering using natural nasal strips whilst you are asleep for the same purpose.
• Also, make a habit of changing your pillows on a regular basis, particularly if you are susceptible to allergic reactions.