Learn How To Stop Snoring Without Surgery Blog

Question: My friend tells everyone that her husband snores so loudly, she has to sleep in another room. Can you help her and him?

Answer: When air rushes into the nose and throat, any redundant or lax tissues there vibrate like a reed in a clarinet — but the sound produced is not the soft, relaxing music of the night.

An answer to the problem can lie in something as simple as weight loss, if that is indicated. Alcohol relaxes throat muscles and throat tissues and leads to snoring, so an alcohol ban should be enforced after dinner. Smoking irritates throat tissues and causes them to swell, another remedial cause of snoring.

Sleeping on the side opens the throat and diminishes snoring. Your friend can sew a tennis ball into the back of her husband’s pajama top to keep him on his side during the night. If he wears a soft neck collar, the kind used for neck strains and found in many drugstores, it lifts the chin upward and keeps the throat tissues from sagging. Oral appliances can do the same job. Dentists can obtain them for your friend, as can ear, nose and throat doctors.

If snoring is disruptive and is not solved by the above measures, a number of procedures can pare away excess throat tissue and quiet the nighttime noise. Some of those procedures involve using a laser.

Snoring is not a joke and is not to be taken lightly. It can be a sign of a serious problem — sleep apnea. In that condition, snoring grows louder and louder until there is a silent pause of 10 or more seconds. The pause comes about because the snorer stops breathing — apnea. These no-breathing spells can happen hundreds of times during the night and have a profound effect on health. A sign of sleep apnea is chronic daytime drowsiness. Sleep apnea can also have adverse effects on blood pressure and the heart. Have your friend observe her husband for apnea spells while he’s sleeping.

(info from http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_17484.php)