After a thoroughly exhausting day, the idea of collapsing into your cozy bed may sound like just the thing you need to recharge your batteries. However, you find that your constant snoring wakes you and your partner up several times during the night. Instead of feeling refreshed the following morning, you feel more drained. You cannot remember the last time you enjoyed a deep, undisturbed slumber. If not treated on time, your chronic snoring can cause numerous health problems, both physical and mental.
How can you put an end to snoring?
The very first step to recovery is acceptance of the problem. Many snorers prefer to live in denial and will refuse to accept the sheer intensity of their snoring and how it can affect their lives. It is also important to understand that your chronic snoring could be a sign of a more serious health condition, particularly obstructive sleep apnea. Once you accept that your snoring could pose serious issues in the future, you will be more open to finding a solution that best suits your snoring.
- Get your allergies out of the way:
Snoring as a result of a blocked nasal passage is very common. In many cases, the blockage is caused simply due to a seasonal flu or common cold. In such a situation, the airway gets blocked and the air that passes through creates vibrations, which result in a snore. Before you begin with any kind of treatment for your snoring, you must first eliminate the allergies and get them out of the way so you can be sure that the snore is, in fact, caused by a reason other than a seasonal change.
- Start living an active lifestyle:
Being overweight not only poses serious health risks like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, it can also create troubles in your daily life, one of them is snoring. As unlikely as this sounds, excess weight contributes to additional fatty tissues in the area around the neck. This creates an obstruction when you breathe and the air passing through the airway experiences vibrations leading to snoring. By incorporating some kind of activity that you enjoy for mere 30 minutes every day, not only will you feel energized, you will also put an end to numerous health issues, snoring being one of them.
- Sleep on your sides:
Most of the times, treating a snore is as simple as changing your position when you sleep. Essentially, when you lie on your back while sleeping, the tongue slips further back into the throat. Naturally, this then blocks the airway and creates a barrier for the air to pass freely. The resulting vibration then causes snoring. Sleeping on your side helps eliminate this issue. A cleared-up airway can help you breathe freely and result in sound sleep in the absence of snoring.
- Reduce alcohol and smoking considerably:
Consuming alcohol just before bedtime can lead to snoring. Alcohol is known to take the edge off, which essentially helps you relax. The muscles in your throat are no different and as they relax, they expand and cause hindrance to the free movement of air through the airway.
Smoking, both active and passive can lead to snoring by blocking the airways too. The smoke, nicotine and all the other harmful elements within a cigarette cause severe irritation to the throat. It also encourages mucus build-up. The subsequent inflammation within the throat causes an obstruction in the airway, which does not allow the air to pass freely. This causes vibrations in the passageway leading to snoring.
- Consider CPAP Therapy:
The CPAP therapy is particularly helpful if you suffer from sleep apnea. Typically, in case of sleep apnea, your breathing is not just irregular but can also stop completely several times during the night. This is also the reason you may wake up constantly, leading to disturbed sleep. CPAP therapy helps with the air pressure in the throat, keeping the airway cleared up at all times during your slumber. Not only does this help dramatically reduce snoring, it also ensures proper rhythmic breathing as well.
- Use Mandibular Advancement Device for the right jaw position:
Lifestyle changes can help dramatically improve the snoring situation that you may be in. However, when combined with an anti-snoring device, you can be assured that any barriers in the airway will be cleared up. Using a mandibular advancement device is one such solution. It is essentially a dental device, which when inserted, pushes the jaw forward. This in turn also ensures that the tongue doesn’t fall back into the throat, thereby keeping the passage clear and letting air pass freely.
Concluding Remarks
As trivial as it may seem at first, chronic snoring can be nothing short of a nightmare. It can cause serious sleep deprivation to both you and your partner. If not treated on time, it could further deteriorate your condition leading to much more grave situations that could affect your heart and your brain. Making simple lifestyle changes today can work wonders in the long term.
