If you snore or sleep with a snorer, you are no stranger to restless nights. Both people often experience daytime sleepiness and sometimes brain fog if severe enough to cause sleep deprivation. Snoring should be taken seriously because it’s one of the most prominent signs of sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that goes undiagnosed in 80% of those who have it.
Why People Snore
The snoring sound is from air rushing past a partial obstruction in your airway. The blockage could be from loose or bulky soft tissue in your throat or blocked nasal passages. There are a variety of reasons why these blockages might occur.
Whatever the reason, it’s critical to figure out why you’re snoring and pay attention to the severity. The louder the snoring, the more likely you have a medical condition that, with treatment, could eliminate your snoring and provide better sleep to you and your sleeping partner.
Remedies and Lifestyle Changes to Stop Snoring
Try these snoring remedies. You may stop your snoring with a lifestyle change or a little time to clear up a cold. Other times, these remedies may help but not eliminate the problem, and you may need intervention from a Rochester sleep dentist.
Sleep On Your Side
One of the leading causes of snoring is low muscle tone in your throat. Without muscle tone, your soft tissues sag and cause a partial obstruction. If you’re a back sleeper, it may help you sleep on your side instead. Sleeping on your side will aid in keeping your airway open.
If you were previously a back sleeper, looking into a new pillow might help you sleep more comfortably on your side. Side sleepers will sleep easier with a loftier pillow.
Avoid Alcohol Before Bed
Do you snore more or lounder after drinking alcohol? Alcohol relaxes your tissues and muscles, so when you drink too much or at all before bed, your snoring will naturally be louder. Alcohol also relaxes your tongue, which can fall backward and obstruct your airway. For people who snore loudly already, alcohol exacerbates the problem and results in sleep apnea episodes.
Avoid Sleep-Aids
If you’re experiencing sleep deprivation, you might want to take a sleep aid. But the best thing you can do for your sleep is to avoid these types of medication! Like alcohol, they relax the tissues in your airway, and the obstruction causes snoring. Sleep aids and snoring are a vicious cycle because they make sleep deprivation worse. The medication causes snoring, and snoring causes more sleep deprivation, leading to more medicine.
If you’re having trouble sleeping, try reducing your blue light exposure before bed, getting more exercise, eating a healthier diet, and making your room a relaxing environment for sleep.
Quit Smoking
It’s best to avoid smoking anyway, but to add another con to the list, smoking causes snoring. Smoking inflames the tissues in your airway, causing them to narrow. The narrower the airway, the more loudly you’ll snore. Smoking also causes mucus production, which can build up in your airway, like congestion. Smokers are two times more likely to snore than non-smokers. If you smoke, consider quitting to give you and your partner a better night’s sleep.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Being overweight can cause you to snore because of the excess bulk in your airway. Not everyone who is overweight snores, and not all snorers are overweight, but if you snore and are overweight, try eating a healthier diet and exercising. You’ll experience a reduction in the intensity of your snoring and have more energy throughout the day.
Treat Your Allergies
You might snore because of allergies or just a common cold. Your airway extends into your nose, so you may snore at night if you are congested. If you notice you snore only during certain times of the year or have just started snoring but are also ill, treat your allergies or cold, and your snoring will likely cease.
Many of these remedies will treat situational snoring or a very mild case. If you pay attention to when you snore, you can do things differently to avoid it in the future. However, if situations simply make your snoring worse, it’s time to seek help from a sleep dentist. Sleep apnea is a deadly condition that has dangerous consequences when left untreated.
Get Sleep Apnea Treatment in Rochester
Sleep apnea is when you experience stoppages in breathing for at least 10 seconds at a time while asleep. But they can last much longer and happen multiple times per hour. These pauses deprive your brain of oxygen and interfere with your sleep cycle. People with sleep apnea experience many symptoms, but snoring is one of the most prominent. If your snoring is loud enough to wake up your partner, get tested for sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can cause heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and depression.
Look at the other symptoms of sleep apnea and contact Contemporary Dentistry today. With treatment, you can sleep soundlessly.
But, even if you don’t have sleep apnea, our sleep appliances can help with snoring so you and your partner can get a good night’s sleep at last. Call (585) 244-3337 or make an appointment online today.
