Try These Snoring Cures, but Don’t Forget to Check out CPAP Therapy!

Summary: English writer and composer Anthony Burgess once humorously misquoted Ella Wheeler Wilcox saying, “Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone.” Burgess would have probably been very interested in finding some kind of “cure” for snoring, so that he could make his nights better for many reasons. He probably tried some of these old home remedies to help stop or at least quieten snoring. There is no guarantee that any of them will work for everyone at every time but they may work for moderate snorers. If you are a heavy snorer, it would be a good idea to check into the snoring to see if it a sign of a more serious problem.

First of all, many people who snore are often overweight, or are smokers. Dropping about 15 per cent of excess body weight does often help men to snore less, but women need to be considerable more overweight than men – about 40 percent overweight – before obesity affects the amount they snore. Cutting back on smoking usually helps with snoring as well.

If you want a good night’s sleep, consider that sleeping aids, like sedatives, sleeping pills or antihistamines could make the problem worse! They relax the tissues around the head and neck, and relaxed tissues are one of the problems. Taking nasal decongestants or allergy pills during the day however, could help by unblocking the nasal passages at night.

Another suggestion is to sleep on your side, as more people snore when they sleep on their backs. This may help the moderate snorer, but apparently has little effect on heavy snorers. Never the less, one idea was to sew a tennis ball into the back of your pyjamas so that you would either roll back onto your side or wake up. The thinking behind that one was that no one snores when he or she is awake. That’s not the best solution either!

A trip to the snoring aids section of the pharmacy and the suggestions there to try are nasal strips, mouthpieces and nasal sprays, as well as anti-snoring pillows. All of these can be expensive, and probably won’t solve the problem every time. However, if you want to learn more about these, talk to a pharmacist to see what they would recommend, but remember that these are mostly just for the light to moderate snorer.

The greater concern is what is causing the snoring. It may just be a common thing, annoying to your bed partner, but no big thing, and in that case, try some of the above suggestions. But snoring can be a sign of something more serious and it is a good idea to learn why you snore. Sleep apnea is a common sleeping problem and one of its most significant and telling symptoms is snoring. Not all those who snore have sleep apnea, but everyone with sleep apnea snores. Sleep apnea causes your airways to close while you sleep so that you wake up again to start breathing. Some people wake multiple times every hour. If you are finding that night-time snoring, or excessive and unexplained daytime tiredness is causing you lifestyle problems, then visit a sleep apnea clinic like CPAP Solutions Inc. and find out if wearing a CPAP mask that keeps your airways open at night will help you.