Throat Exercises for Snoring
It is never advisable to ignore heavy snoring, essentially because it can often signify a more serious underlying condition. Excessive grunts and snorts each and every night might be an indication of a condition known as sleep apnea. It’s especially the case when snoring is complemented by frequent interrupted breathing which may sound like choking or gasping. This condition will not only disturb you and your partner’s sleep it can also cause some health complications like heart trouble for the person snoring incessantly. This is why it is important to let your doctor or ideally a suitably qualified sleep or snoring specialist know immediately once you notice these signs.
Snoring takes place when air doesn’t flow smoothly through the nasal or throat passages and causes vibrations to occur over the relaxed tissues when you breathe in and out. The soft palette behind your mouth as well as the muscles in the throat and nose relax while you are sleeping. There are throat exercises for snoring which can help lessen this condition although again, it is a must to seek professional medical advice prior to starting any form of snoring treatment especially related to loud and excessive snoring.
Anti-Snoring Exercises – Do They Work?
Some studies have discovered that exercises were able to lead to substantial improvements in snoring and sleep apnea symptoms in the patients tested.
Results have proven that exercises to combat snoring work particularly well in patients who suffer from primary snoring issues and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Based on a study, there was a significant reduction by as much as 59% in the snoring power and 36% reduction in the frequency of snoring.
It means that patients suffering from poor quality of sleep which has not led to OSA can count on throat, mouth, and tongue workouts to keep the situation from getting worse and turning into a more pressing complication over time.
There are several exercises recommended to address sleep apnea and snoring.
Prevent Snoring with Throat Exercises
For sleep apnea to be prevented, you should try to tighten the muscles in your throat to lessen the floppiness that exists. For many people, the issue is at the back of the throat or mouth. Some of the things you can do to breathe much better and more quietly every night and lessen the noise include the following:
- Elevate the mouth’s roof at the back.
- Make sure that your uvula is also elevated.
- Say vowel A again and again.
- Do a total of 20 repetitions 3 to 4 times daily.
On the other hand, you can also open your mouth as wide as possible. Try repeating the vowels loudly for around 3 minutes. You can do it 3 to 4 times every day to get faster and better results.
Sip Through a Straw
This is a form of exercise which can enhance the movement range in the throat muscles. The flexible muscles of the throat must close and open to allow air to flow smoothly in and out when you breathe while sleeping. Try to inhale with pursed lips like you are sipping through a drinking straw. Make your lips flat and press them together then swallow. Hold the position for 5 seconds, relax then do the exercise five times daily to strengthen and stretch your muscles in the throat.
Chin Presses for Throat Muscles
Snoring is actually common to those who are overweight, have respiratory conditions, and indeed elderly people since these conditions frequently cause the occurrence of weak throat muscles. An exercise to strengthen such muscles and stop them relaxing when you sleep is placing a finger on your chin and pressing it back and down gently so it is tucked in slightly. You should feel the muscles on the side of neck tense when you do this. Just hold it for a few seconds, relax, and consider repeating it a few times before going to your bed at night.
Say Ahh
Relaxing your tongue and the soft palette of your mouth’s roof is a common cause of snoring wherein your palette and tongue push against one another and obstruct the air flow. Strengthen your tongue and muscles around the opening of your throat by sticking out your tongue. Keep the tongue flat and consider sticking it out straight as far as you can. Move your tongue from left to the right and down and up to ensure that you are not curling it. After moving tongue in every direction, consider taking a short break and repeat the exercise for 3 times.
Get Rid of Snoring By Singing
Whenever you are awake, consider singing to stop snoring whenever you’re asleep. Singing basically forces you to open your mouth much wider and expands the throat when inhaling. For you to tone your throat, sing for twenty minutes daily.
Tongue Exercises
Loose or weak tongue muscles contribute to snoring because of the floppiness present. Professionals recommend that you work to strengthen such muscles in order to get rid of snoring in the quickest time possible. Even though the tongue is known to be a strong muscle of the body, it may generate noise when sleeping if it becomes weak.
Mouth and Breathing
The mouth also contributes to snoring. It affects breathing directly, particularly at night and will likely be part of the process of snoring. Strengthening cheek and jaw muscles may go a long way to cure sleep apnea quickly.
When exercising your cheeks, try to open your mouth a little wider. Hold it for several seconds and close it and pucker your lips as if you’re giving a kiss. Hold that for about fifteen seconds. Do ten to twenty reps three times daily.
With the jaw exercises, you may strengthen neck and mouth muscles to enhance your condition drastically. For you to do this, smile widely and tighten your neck while you are in the smiling posture, then hold it for about ten seconds. After that, release and relax. You can repeat this several times to make the muscles of your mouth stronger, more toned and less prone to vibration.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that aside from doing throat exercises for snoring, they will also keep your oropharyngeal muscles in good shape. It is also crucial that you try losing weight as it’s one of the primary reasons for the occurrence of snoring in adults. Eat healthy meals as much as possible and exercise your body regularly to keep your weight in check.
These tips will help you go a long way to curing your snoring. However if the idea of spending time honing and toning your tongue and throat muscles doesn’t sound that appealing there are other effective solutions worth considering. Because you are reading this well assume you are a mouth snorer. There are many great solutions available for mouth snorers including anti-snoring mouthpiece and anti-snoring chinstraps. If you think you might snore through your nose then you should consider nasal dilation devices and nasal strips as very effective solutions to solve snoring.
We recommend checking out our other posts and indeed pages where you will find more useful tips and tricks as well as recommended products to help you on your snore free journey.
If you found this post helpful or would like to add a comment please do so below. We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on how snoring impacts your life and how you plan on solving it. If you have used a product or indeed someone has recommended a particular product or treatment to you please also share as this information may help others in the same position.
