Other Snoring Treatments

These methods may or may not be applicable to you. They may be reasonable options by themselves or may be combined with other treatments.

Weight Loss
If you are overweight, weight reduction may improve your snoring or sleep apnoea. Weight gain deposits fat into and around the soft palate, tongue and neck structures. Weight loss can reduce these fat deposits and enlarge the airway size thereby reducing snoring and sleep apnoea.

Sleep Position
Elevating the head of your bed and avoiding sleeping on your back may be helpful. A common way to train you to not sleep on the back is to place a tennis ball in the middle of your back during sleep. The ball is placed in a sock that is pinned to the back of a sleep shirt or placed in a pocket sewn into the shirt.

Avoid drugs and habits that cause airway narrowing
Alcohol and most sleeping pills relax the muscles of the throat and can worsen snoring and sleep apnoea. You should avoid alcohol for at least 3 hours prior to bedtime. Smoking can also worsen snoring and sleep apnoea, due to swelling of the nasal tissues.

Improve amount and regularity of sleep
It is helpful to go to sleep and wake up at approximately the same time every day. Ideally you should try to get at least 7 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Snoring and sleep apnoea is often worse if you are overtired.

Surgery
Surgery should always be a last resort in your effort to stop snoring. Being invasive there is always the chance of complications and pain. While in the short term it may reduce the sound of snoring it will not help underlying Obstructive Sleep Apnoea symptoms. Overtime most people begin to snoring again.