Ways to stop snoring
What are the best ways to stop snoring?
Snoring refers to a vibration of respiratory structure during sleep. Throat weakness, fat gathering around the neck, wrong positioning of the jaw, obstruction in nasal passage, and improper sleeping styles are some of the main causes of snoring. Often, snoring is recognized by a friend or partner of a sleeping snorer.
Apart from its psychological and social damage to sufferers, snoring may cause sleep deprivation, daytime drowsiness, irritability, lack of focus, etc. therefore attention should be given to find ways to stop snoring. Following is some of the self-help techniques that can help snorer’s to overcome their problems and improve the quality of their sleep.
Exercise; Exercise in general can help an individual to reduce his/ her fat. Apart from overall smartness, it also helps to reduce fatty tissue in the throat which causes snoring.
Throat exercise like repeating each vowel (a-e-i-o-u) loud for 3 minutes throughout the day is a very effective technique but perhaps somewhat distracting to others. You can also place the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth.
Slide your tongue backwards for 3 minutes a day. Another exercise is done with the mouth open, move your jaw to the right and hold for 30 seconds and repeat it to both sides.
Nasal Passage; a stuffy nose leads to a vacuum in the throat which in turn leads to snoring. A nasal strip or a nose clip can help keep the nasal passage clear.
Quit Smoking; smoking weakens the respiratory (Sinus) structure by causing airways to be blocked. Smoking irritates the membranes in the nose and throat. Therefore, if you smoke, there’s a good chance that you snore.
Diet; one can also control his/ her snoring by avoiding large meals in dinner, excessive dairy products, alcohol, Caffeine sleeping pills and other relaxants.
Sleeping posture and atmosphere; elevating your head by four inches can help your jaw and tongue remain forward thereby opening the airway. Further, dry air from air-conditioning in the bedroom snoring by irritating membranes in the nose and throat. Using a humidifier in bedroom can be an effective remedy in this regard.
If the self-help tips aren’t working well to control your snoring, various medical treatments could make all the difference. Following is some of the widely used medical cures for the treatment of snoring.
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP); since snoring is caused due to irregular airflow through a respiratory (Sinus) structure, a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is used to pump a controlled stream of air through a flexible hose to a mask that a snorer can wear on the nose, mouth or both.
Dental Appliances; these appliances are increasingly becoming a popular technique for controlling the snoring problem immediately and cheaply. These appliances mainly function through opening the airway by marginally advancing the lower jaw and thereby keeping your tongue somewhat forward.
Surgery; It attempts to widen the airway by removing tissues in the back of the throat that cause the snoring problems. However, there are certain side effects of surgeries. Some patients complain about sleep apnea (repeated stoppage of breathing during sleep) after surgery. Thus, the decision of going through surgery requires extensive medical tests and frequent visits to surgeons.
Surgery is indeed the very last resort in finding ways to stop snoring and should only be done for the most serious cases.