Most people snore throughout the night, unfortunately those are the very people who will fail to realize that because there is no way to tell if you’re snoring or not, unless your sleeping partner provides feedback to you.

The main reason why we snore at night is because there is a blockage in our breathing pathway, and thus we turn to using our mouth to compensate as the airflows are disrupted. When you do that, it will vibrates the soft palate located at the back of your throat, and the result is the awful and somewhat funny noise of snoring.

To make matter worst, the blockage can be caused by many factors, from the muscles in your mouth to a block in you nasal breathing pathway, therefore currently there is no one single answer on how to stop snoring. What you can do is to minimize your snoring from happening, here are a few tips to do so:

• Sleep on your side – It is widely accepted that sleeping on your back promotes snoring, therefore sleep on your side tonight and see if it helps you with stopping snoring. If you’re having trouble with sleeping in one position only at night, try the tennis ball trick! Simply put a ball at your back pocket and find yourself struggling to move around at all.
• Clear your nasal breathing pathway – Allergies, cold and flu can promote a blockage in your nasal pathway, therefore you should aim to clear it before you go to sleep. One way to do so is to make sure your room is clear of anything that can incite your allergies, as well as taking appropriate medicine to help with your cold and flu.
• Mouth muscles and keeping them strong – Some have said that weak mouth muscles can cause you to snore due to it hindering your breathing pathway and capability, therefore like any other muscles train and strengthen them to keep them in their natural position at night. Consuming alcohol and smoking are most likely the reason why your muscles are weak when you sleep, therefore stop consuming any of these substances before bedtime.

Tips above can generally help a mild snorer to effectively stop snoring at night, however if you’re a heavy snorer, you might be suffering from more than snoring! Snoring is more than a condition, it could be a tell tale sign of sleep apnea, therefore you should seek immediate consultation with your doctor.

Smoking induced risks include high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. When the required supply of oxygen is not sent to the lungs, heart and vascular system are strained, which results in their increased burden and work time. The most crucial factor here is that, most snorers do not realize they snore while sleeping, or that it could be a symptom of an underlying serious condition leave aside the disturbance it causes to them. When you have a disturbed sleep or reduced sleeping time, due to snoring it also adversely affects the person’s driving capabilities increasing accident toll by up to 7%.

Treatments for Snoring: A good place to start would be your personal physician who can associate if any risk factors are involved with snoring and recommend a treatment procedure if needed from a sleep clinic. positive life style changes to medical devices and minor surgery.

Change your life style to control snoring: Your doctor may recommend the following lifestyle changes that can help manage snoring:

Lose weight: excessive weight is one of the main reasons for snoring. Your doctor might be able to suggest an efficient way to manage your weight. So, if you want to learn how to stop snoring, reduce your weight.

Exercise: Sound sleep is essential and physical activity can help you attain this by keeping you busy, healthy and manage your weight too. Physical exercises likewalking, jogging, running and hiking improve your quality of sleep. Just remember to avoid strenuous exercise at least three hours before sleeping.

Quit smoking: Your symptoms are likely to increase with smoking because of throat irritation and coughing at night, leading to snoring.

Sleep Scheduling: Going early to bed and waking up early and almost always same time aids in bringing about a healthy sleeping cycle. Tiredness due to lack of sleep resulting in snoring can be avoided by going to bed and rising at the same time each day.

Refrain from alcohol and sleeping pills: Alcohol and few drugs like sleeping pills, pain killers etc can make the throat muscles relax or contract that it usually does, leading to obstructions or narrowing. It might also make it tough to get up in the morning, resulting in longer ignored hours. They may also make it more difficult for your brain to wake you up when this happens, causing longer, more serious pauses in breathing.Overtime this can lead to serious damage to the body.
Sleep on your side: Scientists have found, sleeping with back rested on the bed enables gravity to narrow airways further more and increase snoring.

A sleep disorder clinic, may be involved for serious cases for further observation and tests either at the person’s residence or at the clinic. Breathing devices might be included for treatment like CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) equipment. This device is a filter air blower that intakes regular room air and funnels it into a mask at a pressure determined by your doctor. This equipment is typically worn over your nose and the specified pressure enables smooth and free airflow thus reducing snoring.

Dental equipment is another option which will be worn during sleeping hours, to widen the air passage by keeping the lower jaw and tongue forward. Radio wave treatments are used to shrink tissue in the throat or tongue and surgeries that reduce the tissues in the nose, uvula, and palate (roof of mouth) or the bony tissues in the back of the throat to decrease the risk of blockages.