Home Remedies for Snoring Relief

Are you a constant snorer who feels embarrassed about your condition? Well, fear not! You’re are not alone in this situation. About 45% of the American adults alone are snorers, according to a recent survey done on the same.

Sleeping next to a constant snorer can make it tricky to get a good night’s sleep. Constant snoring may not only affect your health, but also impacts on your interaction with the people around you.

Snoring is a condition that occurs when air tries to force its way through the relaxed tissues at the back of your throat. This causes vibrations at the tissues which then leads to that irritating snoring sound. Although in some cases snoring may be an indicator of related serious health problems, it’s also a nuisance to your bed partner and other family members!

For that reason, this article aims to explore some of the lifestyle changes and other natural home remedies that may help you to stop snoring and find some snoring relief. Even if your snoring condition is not much of a hindrance now, it should never be ignored because the chances are it will get worse and worse with time.

Symptoms that indicate you are a Snorer

In most cases, snoring is associated with a sleeping disorder known as the Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). Although not all snores are the victims of OSA, the following symptoms may be the signal or warning sign that you need to see a physician for further examination.

• Excessive sleepiness during the day
• A sore throat
• Chest pain during the night
• Restless sleep
• Headaches in the morning
• Low concentration levels during the day
• High blood pressure
• Gasping or even chocking when asleep

So what can you do to help reduce the chances of snoring becoming a constant issue for you or your bed partner? Below you will find some useful information and recomendations that you can try at home in order to rectify the snoring problem!

13 Home Remedies for Snoring

Below are some home remedies that can bring relief to your snoring problem and indeed the snoring problem someone else faces.

1. Changing your Sleeping Position

When you lie on your back, the soft palate and the base of your tongue collapses at the back of the throat. This tends to cause vibrating sounds during sleep hence leading to snoring. However, if you adjust your sleeping position to sleeping on the side, you may reduce the snoring issue.

In other cases, you may opt for a full-length body pillow which supports your whole body easily fixing the situation. This type of pillow helps snoring patients to maintain the side sleeping position for the entire duration of the night. Other people have been known to attach a regular tennis ball onto the back of their pajamas in order to stop themselves from rolling over and sleeping on their back during the course of the night.

In other cases, some people opt for using a reclining bed so they can adjust their bed automatically, ensuring that their head is uplifted and raised in a similar way to how an anti-snoring pillow works. This ensures that their nasal airways remain open hence preventing them from snoring. However, such sleeping positions may cause neck pains in the long term.

2. Weight Loss

By getting rid of some weight, you will reduce the excess tissues in your body especially the ones located in the neck area that may be causing your snoring problem. Weight loss can be achieved by reducing the intake of foods with high levels of calories including sugars and unhealthy fats, and keeping a regular exercise schedule. A nutritionist may give you the right guidance in such a case.

Weight loss is a great remedy for snoring but it may not be effective for everyone. This is because even the slim and fit people snore. But if your snoring issues have emerged just after gaining some weight, then perhaps cutting some weight may be of help to you.

Most of the time when you gain excess weight, you end up having excess tissues in your neck region. This increases the diameter of your of the internal air passage of your throat. It makes it possible for your throat tissues to open enough during sleep and may trigger snoring as a result.

3. Avoid Alcohol

Sedatives and alcohol reduce that resting muscle tone of your body. Therefore although you may feel nice and relaxed by taking a nightcap just before you head to bed, alcohol actually induces an excessive level of rest to the muscles at the back of your throat, and indeed your whole body. That is why having alcohol before you head to bed may only make your snoring situation worse in a lot of cases.

A study conducted on the same shows that people who don’t snore are likely to start snoring after drinking alcohol. And that is why, its best to avoid taking alcohol from 4 to 5 hours just before bedtime.

4. Opening your Nasal Passages

There are two different types of snorers; those who snorer through their mouths and others who snorer through their noses. Therefore if your snoring starts at your nose, it’s advisable to focus on keeping your nasal passage open as much as possible. This allows the air to flow in through your nose at a slower rate and with greater ease.

If your nose is clogged in any way or the nasal passages are narrowed due to nasal congestions these blockages can increase the level of fast-moving air through the nose which can lead to having that snoring sound occurring. There are a few remedies that you can take in the convenience of your home to take care of these nasal congestions.

A hot shower just before heading to bed can help open up the airways. You can try keeping a saltwater rinse bottle in the shower with so that you can rinse your nose out afterwards. Rising out your nose when you are having a shower ensures that your nasal passages are kept open throughout and leads to a more effective treatment.

Rinsing your nose with any form of saline solution also helps to eliminate the presence of any contaminants in the nose that may be causing blockage in the nasal passages or the sinus cavities. If you maintain such a routine on a daily basis, you likely fully eliminate the effects that come with dust, pollen, and pollution related issues.

5. Changing you Pillows and Bed sheets Regularly

Allergens which accumulate in your bedroom, in and around pillows and bedsheets are sometimes the biggest contributors to snoring, without you even knowing. Think about the last time you dusted your bedroom or replaced your pillows. A certain level of bedroom hygiene may be helpful especially in the case where you have an allergic reaction to dust.

If this is the case you could employ a cleaner to carry out the cleaning and dusting process if you hate the thought of it setting off your allergies in the process. You could also ask a family member to do it and in return offer to do something for them, like cook a meal or something similar.

Dust mites that often accumulate on pillows can especially cause an allergic reaction which leads to snoring once the effects of the allergy set in. Also another thing worth noting is that, allowing your pets to sleep on your pillows and in your bedroom at night can cause you to breathe in animal hairs and fluff particles which is also a type of irritant that leads to allergies and snoring.

Therefore to correct such situations and eliminate them becoming a factor into the future, put your pillows in the air and fluff them up after two weeks of use, keep them washed regularly and replace the pillows after ever six month period of use. This helps to minimize the possibility of dust mites breeding and helps keep the allergen risk to a minimum. Also, as hard as it can be, try to keep pets out of your bedroom as much as possible.

6. Keep your Body Well Hydrated

Your nasal secretions in the soft palate and the nose tend to be thicker and stickier when the body is dehydrated. And this kind of a situation can lead to more chance of blockage and more snoring than usual. That is why women need to take at least 11 cups of water and men 16 cups of water on a daily basis from all the drinks and foods that they eat.

When the body is well hydrated, the nasal secretions are also well hydrated, reducing the chances of snoring. Therefore if you are a regular snorer, a higher intake of fluids may help correct the situation.

7. Quit Smoking

Cigarettes have an irritating effect on the throat lining and this can cause swelling to occur in the neck region. A study conducted a little while ago on chain smokers showed that they are also loud snorers when compared to the non-smokers. Therefore, quitting smoking especially if you are a constant heavy smoker may help to rectify such a situation.

The smoke from tobacco is known to irritate the mucous membrane lining of the neck, mouth and throat which leads to a narrowing of the airways. And this is the reason why most of the smokers studied also had issues with their nasal congestion and snoring.

8. Get a Humidifier/ Steam Vaporizer

Sometimes snoring is caused by inhaling cold air. Cold air is denser and contains a higher volume, compared to warmer air. There are lots of ways you can battle cold air, one of which would be to get a steam vaporizer or a humidifier to help correct the situation. A humidifier keeps the air in the bedroom moist hence making it easy to keep your nasal passageway moist too. They are easy to setup and you only really need to make sure that you clean the humidifier on a regular basis.

Making sure that you are breathing right is one of the key things that will help to reduce snoring. This is because having a stuffy nose creates a kind of a vacuum in the throat aggravating the total or partial collapse of the soft tissues in this region.

Another cheaper but more time consuming way for you to keep your nasal passages moist is by filling a bowl with hot water then draping a towel over your head. You should then bend over into the bowl for precisely 15 minutes. By breathing deeply through the nose you will have created a moist nasal passage free from any form of irritation. You can mix essential oils that are known decongestants into the water like eucalyptus, peppermint, clove etc. which will add to the beneficial effects.

9. Practice Good Sleep

Poor sleeping habits are also a major contributor to snoring and may have similar effects as smoking or drinking alcohol. Working for long hours without having enough sleep means that you are likely to be excessively tired at the end of the day.

And one main problems of going to bed when you are extremely tired is that your muscles are likely to become floppier as your body drifts into a deeper sleep. And for this reason, it’s almost inevitable to avoid snoring during such situations.

10. Use Products with Peppermint

Some herbal medicines which contain peppermint like peppermint oil and peppermint mouthwash may help to relieve mild snoring conditions. Try rubbing peppermint oil around your nose to help open up the nasal passages for improved breathing before going to bed.

The peppermint mouthwash, on the other hand, helps to shrink the excess tissues of the neck region. If you are also using a humidifier to relieve your snoring conditions, you could try adding a few drops of the peppermint oil into it before heading to bed and breathe in the minty aroma while you sleep.

11. Avoid Heavy Meals Before Bedtime

Eating heavy meals before bed can cause your throat muscles to excessively relax as a result of your body putting all of its effort into breaking down the meal you have just eaten. Therefore to avoid snoring, you may need to have your meals at least two to three hours before going to bed.

12. Consider Throat Exercises

Certain throat exercises may help to strengthen flabby and weak throat tissues and muscles. There are certain sets of an exercise that you can try for at least a minimum of 30 minutes on a daily basis.

Some of these exercises include;

• Elevating your palate and uvula up to 20 times
• Sticking your tongue out as far as possible and then moving it up and down and to the sides without curling it.
• Moving the jaw up and down in a motion that resembles chewing for about a minute. Ensure that you have nothing in your mouth when doing this particular exercise
• By closing your mouth and pursing your lips up and down for about 30 seconds

There are more throat exercises for snoring that you can do. Just ensure that you practice consistently in order to see results from strengthening and toning the muscles of the throat.

13. Use Homemade Herbal Treatments

There are certain homemade treatments that you can use that have anti-inflammatory agents. These include using olive oil which can ease and clear respiratory passageways. Certain homemade herbs and remedies can lessen the soreness and reduce the vibration in the throat that is caused by and indeed causes snoring.

Other herbs that can be used for this purpose include;

• Turmeric
• Cardamom
• Nettle
• Chamomile
• Garlic

Homeopathy is also another potentially useful tool in the snorers toolkit. While conventional medicine has little time for homeopathy as a solution to most medical conditions, it might be worthwhile consideration if nothing but to learn a little more. Homeopathy is not as widely embraced across america and is more popular across Europe and in many eastern cultures like greece and India.

Final Verdict

A good diet and a healthy sleeping routine are some of the factors in reducing snoring. You should make sure that you consume foods that are rich in antioxidants as well as have anti-inflammatory agents.

This is because such nutrients in combination with the other routines outlined will help to reduce snoring in many cases. Try to incorporate the above-mentioned home remedies into your daily routines and you may find snoring becomes a thing of the past.

If you are looking for a more consistent and effective way to eliminate snoring without the trial and error we recommend looking at the anti-snore range of products available that might provide the added level of snoring protection you are looking for in conjunction with the list above.

If you are a mouth snorer check out the best anti snoring mouthpieces and in particular the Airsnore Anti-Snoring Mouthpiece.