No More Snoring Remedies

No More Snoring Remedies – How to Stop Snoring

Snoring is not only an annoying problem, but can also lead to health problems. Here are some snoring prevention remedies that may help you to stop snoring.

Just about everybody snores sometimes. Sometimes even a baby will or your pet dog or cat. However, if the snoring is chronic and very loud, it can be very disturbing not only for your partner, but sometimes even for everybody at home. Snoring is usually caused due to the constriction of the airway. With the airway getting narrowed, it hinders smooth breathing, thus creating the snoring sound. By finding out about what causes snoring and how to stop snoring, apart from improving your sleep and health, it will also make a great difference to your relationships too.

What Causes Snoring?

Snoring is basically caused either because of abnormalities in the soft tissues of the throat or because of poor posture while sleeping. The air passages in the nose and throat usually become constricted due to too much nasal and throat tissue, which is also known as ‘floppy’ tissue. Hence, the air that is inhaled and exhaled has to force its way through a narrower passage. This, as has been mentioned above, is what causes the snoring. The tongue’s position can also hinder the smooth passage of air through the air passages.

Snoring can either be mild, which means that it stops when the person who snores wakes up and shifts the position of his/her body, or it can be severe, meaning that the person continues snoring, irrespective of his sleeping position.

The causes of snoring and its risk factors vary. While some are within our control, others are not.

The causes of snoring that are not within our control include:

Advancing age: With advancing age, not only does the tone of the muscles of the throat decrease, but in addition there is also narrowing of the throat passage.

Hereditary factors: Usually physical features like a narrow throat or the other physical abnormalities that have been mentioned above are inherited genetically.

Being male: Compare to women, men have narrower nasal and throat air passages, and hence are more liable to snore.

Sinus infections, cold, asthma, or allergies: Breathing problems like these block nasal air passages, making inhalation difficult, which then causes a vacuum to be created in the throat, leading to noisy breathing.

The causes of snoring that are within our control:

Being a smoker: Smoking causes the muscles to relax while also creating congestion of the nasal passages and the lungs. This includes being exposed to second-hand smoke.

Being out of shape or overweight: Excessive weight results in fatty tissue accumulating in the neck, which results in the throat getting constricted. Loss in muscle tone and slack muscles are also contributory factors to snoring.

Medications and alcohol: Certain medications and alcohol lead to the relaxation of the muscles in the tongue and throat, which increases the likelihood of smoking.

Posture during sleeping: Lying flat on the back while sleeping leads to the relaxation of the throat and tongue muscles, thus blocking the air passages.

Note: The way a person snores can help in diagnosing why they snore. For example, if an individual snores with their mouth closed, the culprit could be a problem with the tongue. However, if they snore with their mouth open, it could be because of problems with the throat tissues.

How to Stop Snoring by Using Self-Cure Methods

If the snoring is a mild problem and is not associated with sleep apnea, home remedies can alleviate it. Curing your snoring problem will lead to an improvement in the quality of life both for you and the people who live with you. Given below are some tips that will help you to prevent snoring or at least provide some snoring relief.

Get into shape: One of the best snoring remedies is shedding excess weight will help in reducing fatty tissue accumulations around the air passages. By exercising and eating healthy food, you can improve the ability of breathing easily and freely while sleeping.

Stop smoking: Quitting smoking or reducing being exposed to second hand smoke can go a long way to providing snoring relief by helping with the intensity and noise of the snoring.

Improve your sleeping posture: If you sleep lying on your back, chances are high that you are aggravating your snoring problem. In this position, the soft tissues that are at the base of the throat along with your tongue have a propensity of sliding backwards, thus obstructing your air passages. If your snoring problem is mild, changing you sleeping position by lying on your side may be one of the best snoring remedies.

Change the position of your head: Try doing without a pillow while sleeping. Because you neck is bent when you use a pillow, it blocks the air passages. Or, you could use special pillows designed for snorers, which you can get at specialty stores or online.

A better idea is to your bed’s head by 4 inches, which will make it easier to breathe and help your jaw and tongue to shift forward. It is better to lift the whole head of the bed rather than using a pillow, which bends the neck thus constricting the air passage. The angle of the mattress can be changed easily by putting rolled towel under the top end of the mattress.

Avoiding sedatives, alcohol, and certain foods before bed: If you are in the habit of drinking alcohol in the evening, it is best to try and cut it down. Alcohol relaxes the muscles, including those in the air passages, which will exacerbate the snoring. Similarly, if you take tranquilizers or sleeping pills as sleeping aids, you need to be aware that these too relax the muscles.

It is also advisable to avoid soymilk products and high-fat dairy milk products before going to bed. The reason being that these products, due to their thickness, can prevent mucus from getting drained properly. Mucus in the throat causes the same problem of obstruction of air passages, leading to snoring.

Keep your nasal passages clear: Breathing becomes difficult if you have a stuffy nose, which leads to noisy breathing. As a matter of fact, non-snorers or those who snore occasionally will find themselves snoring when they are afflicted by a cold or allergies that affect the nasal passage.

In order to clear the nasal passages, nasal decongestants or homeopathic solutions, such as nasal strips, can be used. However, you need to avoid using antihistamines for stuffiness or allergies because these will relax the muscles of your throat, resulting in snoring.

Medical Treatments to Cure Snoring

If the self-cure methods to stop snoring do not work, it is best to consult an otolaryngologist, or an ear-nose-and-throat doctor. If you want to use a dental appliance to prevent snoring, a dentist that specializes in such devices has to be consulted.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP: In order to keep the nasal air passages open while sleeping, a machine that can be kept by your bed can be used to blow pressurized air into a mask worn by you on your face.

Dental appliances, oral devices, and lower jaw positioners: Dental devices that often look like the mouth guards that athletes wear are helpful in keeping the air passages open by bringing the tongue or lower jaw forward while sleeping.

Most of these devices are made of acrylic, which are fitted inside the mouth. Others can be fitted around the head and chin in order to adjust the position of the lower jaw. A dentist who specializes in sleep disorders will help in fitting one of these devices for you.

Using surgical methods: Certain types of surgeries like adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy, Thermal Ablation Palatoplasty, or TAP, and Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, or UPPP help in increasing the size of the air passages by surgically correcting abnormalities or removing tissues. A surgeon can use a microwaving probe, also known as radiofrequency energy, laser, or scalpel to remove excess tissues, adenoids, or tonsils in the nasal passage or the throat, or to reconstruct the jaw.

The palatal implantation, also referred to as the pillar procedure, is a new surgical method that has been showing positive results as a cure for snoring. Small implants made of plastic, which are less than an inch in size, are inserted inside the soft palate with the help of an instrument akin to a syringe. This surgical procedure is generally carried out under local anesthesia in a doctor’s clinic. There is a build up of scar tissue around the vicinity of the implants, resulting in the stiffening of the soft palate’s tissue, which is what helps to stop snoring. The drawback of this procedure, or any type of surgical method, is the cost, and surgery for snoring is not covered by most insurance.

Consult your dentist or doctor in order to find out more about the medical treatments that are available and to make a decision about which one will be most suitable for curing your snoring.

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