The Best Sleep Positions to Stop Snoring
The constant habit of snoring can definitely make life difficult. It can impair the quality of sleep not only of the snorer but also of others around them. Snoring can lead to numerous problems which can have a serious effect on both your emotional and physical wellbeing over time and even without you realizing. Some of these problems include decreased cognitive function, daytime sleepiness, even relationship issues. If you belong to the 75 percent of snorers who suffer obstructive sleep apnea, it may even increase your long term risk of experiencing heart disease.
The million dollar question now is, is there such a thing as the best sleep position to stop snoring? Can the way you lie in your bed at night really impact on your chances of snoring? Well in many instances yes it can! Different studies throughout the years have uncovered the benefits and drawbacks of each sleeping position together with a few expert recommendations as to the most beneficial ones for you.
Understanding the Impact of Sleep Position on Snoring
While partners may usually overlook or just try to get used to teeth grinding, bad breath, sleep talking, fidgeting, or even hogging the bed covers, snoring is one habit that others cannot simply take for granted.
It is said that around 30 to 50 percent of today’s population are snorers, which is a considerable amount of people who have to listen to an annoyance they could avoid with a little useful information. What is more interesting however is that snoring can in many cases wreak serious havoc on relationships both emotionally and physically. There are countless couples across the globe who simply choose to sleep in different rooms just to give the non-snorer a chance to get decent sleep. This unfortunately can lead to a vacuum forming between couples at night that given enough repetition and time, can form a new habit that becomes a destructive nighttime routine and may seem difficult to break. If you happen to be a snorer or you are the partner of a snorer, you will understand the logic behind it this statement to some extent.
But, did you know that your sleeping position has an impact on snoring? If your spouse constantly wakes you up and tells you to roll on your side, it is possible that you are a positional snorer. If this sounds like an occurrence you maybe accustomed to, then it should be worth noting that the simple act of changing your position when you sleep can make a big difference.
This one little switch could at least prevent a wall from forming between you and your partner and improve your relationship for the better. Sadly, it is not always that easy to change your sleeping position. Just like other habits, you might not even realize that you do it, and even when you do sleep initially on your side, you might end up moving to your back once you are almost asleep right before you travel to dreamland.
Having said this, how can a change in your sleep position make a monumental difference, then? Breaking this habit is what you call positional therapy. Doctors have recommended this snoring solution for many years as it can help ensure that your airway remains open throughout the night.
Every time you sleep, all the tissues and muscles in your body relax, including the ones in your throat. Once the throat tissues start to relax, they flap around as well as vibrate with each other as air is passing through. It’s frequently amplified once you assume a back sleeping position due to the fact that gravity pulls everything to the ground. This means that the tissues drop to the back of your throat and restrict the airway.
In other people, the air flow is cut off for the reason that the airway gets blocked completely. It interrupts breathing and may become dangerous. This is referred to as OSA or obstructive sleep apnea. Because of the reduction in the levels of oxygen, the person wakes up gasping for air, which may happen a few times each hour. It’s also an involuntarily action and the person affected remembers it rarely in the morning. While you might not remember this from happening, the interrupted sleep pattern might leave you tired and unable to figure out why this may be the case. If you went to bed on time and feel you got sufficient recommended sleep then perhaps this might be a factor in why you are feeling tired in the mornings.
This same idea also applies to snoring. You might not realize that your body isn’t getting enough oxygen or peacefully resting, yet you might notice that you haven’t felt fully recharged after sleeping. You might also catch cold’s and flu’s on a more regular basis compared to the ones you know you would normally get, since your immune system is much weaker from having no sleep.
Best Sleep Positions to Get Rid of Snoring
There are lots of people across the globe who suffer from snoring problems and want to stop it no matter what it takes. Snoring doesn’t only cause issues to the snorer itself, but also to some family members who are sleeping beside the snorer. There are some remedies that have had very positive feedback in helping people to get rid of snoring, many of which are listed on this site. There are also some sleeping techniques and positions that can help stop snoring in its tracks, and finally give you a peaceful sleep.
There’s a huge chance you are likely to snore once you sleep flat on your back. Since when you sleep on your back, your tongue falls backwards, which causes your airway to block completely or narrow to an extent that causes restriction of airflow. Snoring occurs once you breathe in your sleep. Air flows through the throat that causes relaxed tissues in your throat to vibrate as well as cause irritating and harsh snoring sounds. So finally with all that being said here are our recommendations when it comes to the position you assume while sleeping. Try the suggestions below and experiment. Get feedback from your partner or others in the house on whether there was any difference in your snoring. They will be the most honest indicator to the success of any anti-snoring solution steps you implement.
Some of the types of sleep positions to get rid or stop snoring are as follows:
- Sleeping on your Side – It’s a good way to start to resolve a snoring problem, yet it may be hard to maintain once you move around during your sleep. Therefore, in order to regulate your sleep position we recommend you purchase a body pillow which will help you remain in the same position throughout the night and boost your quality of sleep.
- Elevating Your Head While Sleeping – This will alter the angle of your throat and neck which in turn will help you open up blocked airways and let you breathe much easier. It can be achieved through the use of a thicker pillow or indeed using a specially designed anti snoring pillow.
- Elevating Your Chin While Sleeping – This will help you firm up your skin around your neck, which creates a tension that firms up throat tissues and reduces vibrations as you breathe. This of course is easier said than done however there are neck strap type anti snore devices available to help you do just that.
- Elevating Your Abdomen While Sleeping – this is also a good way to open blocked airways and lessen vibrations and blockage for sound free sleep during the night.
You can start by choosing any of the above sleep positions, basically whichever one feels most comfortable and you deem to be most effective is ideal. As with anything a little trial and error is always the best way to find what works in order to stop snoring. Another caveat worth mentioning is that you should try and ensure you adopt your chosen sleep position regularly as it can be easy to slip back into bad habits this will enable you to enjoy sleeping without the annoying sound that snoring makes in your life.
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