Stop Snoring. Sleep Better.

Steps to Help Control Your Snoring

If you’re a light to moderate snorer, especially one who snores only while on one’s back or after an evening of too late/too much food and drink, then there are steps to help you control your snoring at night for a more restful experience (and for your sleeping partner’s as well).

Here are some steps to take:

  • As we mentioned briefly above, sleeping on one’s back often can trigger snoring because the position helps clog the airway through the throat. People have been known to attach tennis balls to their backs so if they roll over to a prone position, it’ll be too uncomfortable to maintain.
  • Avoid alcohol within hours of bedtime, say at least for four or five hours. Ditto with food, and certainly ditto with caffeine products. All these substances can, for various reasons, prevent or hinder a good night’s sleep and cause tossing and turning and snoring problems.
  • Though you should avoid alcohol and caffeine too close to bedtime, as a general principle you should keep yourself well hydrated by drinking lots of water. The rule is, for good health and good nutrition, to consume one ounce of water a day for every two pounds of bodily weight.
  • Keep to a routine: Your body doesn’t adjust well to changes in sleep and waking times, or to changes in the clock (as you’ve experienced no doubt from traveling), so you should keep to a steady sleep routine and make sure you get at least eight good hours a night.
  • Avoid distractions: Keep the lights and sounds off. Your body and mind prefer a sleep-inducing atmosphere. Think cave in prehistoric times — or a farmhouse a century ago that wasn’t lighted and had no TVs or radios. Those were the days of good sleep! (Unless troubled by some prowling animal in your cave.)
  • The above represent good sleep-hygiene habits, but a a good snoring-amelioration habit to develop is to take a hot bath before bedroom to open your nasal passages. In fact, some people go a step further and rinse their noses out with warm saltwater while bathing. Sounds a bit weird, but it definitely helps open nasal passages.
  • Finally, changes in life-style can help. A lot of snoring develops because of one’s packing on extra pounds, causing the soft palate and other areas to soften up (with flab) and generally causing undue tolls on the body that can lead not just to snoring but to worse conditions such as hypertension and diabetes type 2.

Remember, these tips are for the “casual” snorer who isn’t chronic or worse, a sleep apnea victim. If your snoring is more than occasional and light, you definitely need to see a sleep professional for an evaluation and consideration of treatment options.

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