Snoring is a difficult thing to deal with- whilst it may just be a minor nuisance, it can also be the source of real distress, and a cumulative loss of sleep for a partner which can cause so many problems over time. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that people are willing to try all sorts of unusual home remedies, or improvised methods to try and deal with the problem. Here’s a run-down on a few of them, and the pros and cons of them all.

One popular one is the pillow placed underneath the snorer, which stops them from rolling onto their back. This can help the sleeper by keeping them on their side, but it can also reduce the quality of the sleep, by making them uncomfortable. For those who try this approach and find it doesn’t work, there is also the practise of sewing a tennis ball into a pocket in one’s night clothes. This is virtually impossible to sleep on, and very effective indeed.

Another option is using essential oils. These are intended to help with breathing, and snoring is at its base a problem of the breathing passages. A small dose of something like eucalyptus either placed in an oil burner, sprinkled on a pillow or placed sparingly under the nose has been shown to help some people. If nothing else, it’s certainly a good way to make one’s sleeping environment a pleasant place, which is actually a vital part of getting a good night’s sleep.

Another option is the herbal sleep pillow, which is simply a normal pillow with a built-in sachet which holds aromatic herbs (typically lavender, hops or marjoram) and can surround you with a relaxing aroma as you go to sleep, and sooth inflammation of the . Another hot tip in terms of herbal remedies is products from lime trees, particularly the flowers. A small amount of dried lime flowers slipped into the pillow is said to be a very effective thing.

Of  course, there is still considerable debate about whether these kinds of remedies can actually make a difference, or whether something like placebo effect is at play. One thing which can be said, however, and which we’ve already touched on, is that the act of making your sleeping area a more pleasant place to be in, through adding something like a pleasant smelling herb or oil, is always going to be beneficial. This won’t necessarily cure your snoring, but it will make going to sleep at night a slightly more luxurious and pleasant experience.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

A Few Home Remedies You Might Want To Try To Stop Snoring

Snoring aids are a very useful and effective way to treat the problem of snoring. They are also easy to obtain and, once you find the right one, very reliable.  One drawback to them, however, is that if you are still using an anti-snoring pillow, for example, you are still faced with the fact that the underlying physical cause of your snoring is still there, it’s just being dealt with by your snoring aid.

There is another way to deal with this general problem- exercise. Now, I don’t just mean exercise in general, although both snoring and the rather more serious variant, sleep apnea have been found to have a link to obesity. Whilst it’s always a good idea to get out and active a few times a week, it is also possible to tone up those areas of your body most involved in the production of those irritating rasping sounds at night.

The benefit of specific exercise is a strengthening of  the muscles around your mouth and throat, as one common cause of snoring is weakness or softness in the tissues surrounding the breathing passages. If you can strengthen these, then you’ll find that that’ll help you snore a lot less.

There are two main types of exercise, which use the tongue and the voice. To exercise the tongue, it’s like exercising any other muscle- you need to move it, tense it, and hold it still. Try sticking your tongue out as far as it will go, holding it for ten seconds, and then relaxing and repeating. A set of ten of those, followed the same process only sticking the tongue out and pushing upwards to touch your nose, will go a long way to improving the muscle tone of your tongue.

To improve your throat muscles, you can use vocal training, in the same way an actor or a singer would. Learn a set of scales (this can be as simple as the classic ‘doh-ray-me-fah-so-la-te-doh’ of Sound of Music fame, and there are a lot of instruction videos online) and repeat them, holding each note for a few seconds as you sing it and concentrating on the muscles of the neck and throat.

You’ll find that as time goes on, you’ll get better and better at this, and you’ll also start to feel like you can breathe more easily. This will, hopefully, have quite an impact on your snoring, too.

If you persist with these exercises, it won’t take long at all to see a difference in your snoring.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Some Thoughts On Anti-Snoring Exercises

There are a lot of different snoring aids out there on the market, and each different type is effective in its own way. Not every product is effective, of course, and some are better made than others, but by and large there’s a lot of good anti-snoring aids available to the snoring sufferer. It’s a common experience, however, that someone will buy a proven anti-snoring aid or try a widely recommended method, only to find that it just doesn’t work for them.

Is this because there’s some people can’t be helped? Not at all. It’s because some people aren’t trying the anti-snoring aid which works for them. Everyone is different, and whilst snoring is fairly well understood and easily alleviated, the reasons and ways a person can snore are different, and each product will achieve different things. Here, then, is an overview of the different kinds of anti-snoring aid which we can use, and what each one can do for us.

The anti-snoring pillow: it is for the person who sleeps with their head at an unusual angle, causing a constriction in the breathing passages. It holds the head up comfortably, in a position where they can breath without obstruction.

Nasal strips: these tapes go over the nose and keep the airways open, letting you breathe more easily through the nose and keeping air flow away from the soft tissues of the mouth. This can also help if you have quite narrow nasal passages, or tend to ‘whistle’ through the nose as you sleep.

The anti-snoring chin strap: this stops the jaw from lolling and hanging open, pressurising the throat. If you are a ‘slack-jawed’ snorer (often one of the loudest kinds!) then this will hold the jaw in a more natural and comfortable position even when all the muscles of the throat are relaxed.

There are others, such as adjustable beds, sprays, and even hypnotic devices. These first three, however, are the most widely used and generally effective anti-snoring treatments out there.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

How To Pick Your Snoring Aid

There’s a lot of debate about which of the many snoring aids out there on the market is the best of the bunch. The issue is a slightly contentious one, simply because snoring is not something like a common cold- it has many different causes, and therefore many different treatments. People can snore from the throat, the nose or the mouth. It can be a result of damage to cartilage of the nose, or inflammation of the throat. Because of this, there’s a lot of different treatments out there, and it’s often the case that what works for one person will not work for another.

Still, there are a few common solutions out there.  for the extreme cases, surgery is a good solution. This is only helpful for people whose problem is structural, for example cartilage damage or Sleep Apnea. It’s also a little bit of a sledgehammer approach.

One method which has proven very useful is the anti-snoring chin strap or jaw supporter. This is a relatively useful device which can be tried with a minimum of inconvenience, and does help a lot of snorers.  The kind of snoring it copes with is what is known as open-mouth snoring. This occurs when a person’s jaw hangs open as they sleep, thus narrowing the breathing passages of the throat. The resulting increase in air pressure as the sleeper breathes in and out is what causes the sound of snoring.

The way that the chin strap works is that it holds the sleeper’s jaw in place, keeping their mouth closed and preventing this open-hanging mouth. Despite the patient’s mouth being kept closed, it is actually  easier for them to breath. If you think about this, it’s not that surprising- when we are awake, our jaw is typically held in a closed position, yet we have no trouble at all breathing. All a chin strap does is to do the work that the jaw muscles would when they aren’t at rest.

There are some objections commonly raised to this device, most often discomfort, but in actual fact if you get a good strap, then they are adjustable and very easy to get used to. It’s possible to eat, drink and talk with it on, and after a while it’s no more uncomfortable than wearing a hat or a watch.

So, if you are looking for a simple solution to your snoring and you think you might be a snorer of this type, maybe the Snoring Chin Strap is for you.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Snoring Chin Straps And Their Usefulness

If you go looking on the internet for cures for snoring, you’ll find all kinds of products advertised. Chin straps, jaw supporters, homeopathic infusions, shaped pillows, medication, nose strips, laser surgery, nose plugs, and god knows what else.  Some of these products work. Others, well, let’s just say the jury’s out and that some people feel like they’re helped by them.

How can you tell one from the other? It’s very easy to look a website for a product, any product, and be impressed with what you see.  There’s an art to making something look good, but that’s an art that a lot of people know these days. How do you tell the people who are the real deal from the shysters?

Here’s a good first hint.

Is the product you’re looking at being touted as a ‘cure’ for snoring?

Yes? then be suspicious.

I guess this might be a confusing answer. Surely that’s what every snoring aid is for, you might think? To cure the problem?

Well, yes and no. The thing is, you see, it’s not possible to eradicate snoring entirely. Can’t be done. As long as air is passing through those soft tubes in our nose, mouth and throat, it can make the soft tissues of the body vibrate, and produce a snoring sound now and then. It’s just a fact of life. I’ll say it again; you cannot cure snoring.

Of course, some people want to say they that.  It’s obvious why- competition. Everyone wants to promise more than their competitors.

We’re not going to pull the wool over your eyes. We’ll try to be honest. So, given that you can’t cure snoring, the good news is that you can reduce it. Stop it from being constant, turn the volume down to acceptable levels, and turns something from a constant problem into an occasional irrelevance.

Now that, we can promise.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Why There’s No ‘Cure’ For Snoring.

Here’s another treatment for Sleep Apnea which looks like it could bring sufferers some much-needed relief, and be an improvement on the CPAP (Continuous Postive Airway Pressure) machine that is still the standard treatment for this condition. There’s just one catch- would you fancy getting a series of electric shocks to the throat throughout the night?

This treatment’s been developed at Baltimore’s John Hopkins University, and is designed to be a more convenient and comfortable way to treat the main problem of Sleep Apnea, which as you are most likely aware, occurs when the sufferer’s soft throat tissues are too loose to remain consistently open and maintain a clear airflow during sleep, leading to snoring, reduction in the quality of sleep sustained, and a wide variety of other unpleasant and undesirable side-effects.

The way a CPAP machine combats this is through maintaining steady air pressure inside the throat, thus holding the throat open and preventing the problems of sleep apnea from occurring. This works well enough, however the apparatus itself is claustrophobic and a little uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, no-one wants to go to sleep with what is basically an oxygen mask strapped to their face.

That’s what this new device is looking to circumvent- it works by making the throat keep itself open, rather than forcing air through. A series of electrodes are placed on the throat, and a sequence of electric shocks are given. These stimulate the nerves of the throat, which makes the muscles around the airways keep the breathing passages open.

So far the researchers claim that this process is yielding good results, and a reduction in discomfort and snoring symptoms. This is all well and good, but I can imagine that for some people, they might have a bit of a problem with shocking their throat into simulated wakefulness whilst they sleep.

Then again, if you’re a sleep apnea sufferer already prepared to submit yourself to a CPAP machine, maybe this will look like a welcome relief.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

John Hopkins Uni Working On A New Sleep Apnea Treatment

We all know that eating well can lead to good general health. But did you realise that there are some changes you can make to your diet, which may help you to snore less?

There are two areas you can address with diet; Hydration, and Congestion of the breathing passages.

Dehydration is something you might be surprised by. It makes sense, though- if your throat is dry, it’s more likely to become irritated and inflamed, and more likely to constrict. If you’re well hydrated, it’s also easier for your body to ‘flush’ out excess mucus and blockages from your breathing passages. Simply drinking a decent amount of water throughout the day, and before you go to bed at night will help with this.

Here’s another option- eat hot soup. The associated humidity will help clear out your nasal passages and make it easier to breath through your nose.  Garlic and onions can also help in this, if you make sure to include them in your diet.

In general, spicy foods are also good for this. If you eat decent amounts of cayenne, scallions, mustard greens, leeks, horseradish, or seaweed, this will also help. You will also find that getting a good amount of Vitamin C will help to bring down inflammation in the breathing passages (this is why it’s so good to drink orange juice when you have a cold, for example).

Hot herbal teas are another good way to achieve both of these aims in one- good hydration, and a lot of them, such as ginger and peppermint, are full of beneficial herbs.

In general, the healthier you eat, and the more well-hydrated you stay, the more likely you are to snore less.  As with so many things, the key is to maintain a good lifestyle.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

A Few Dietary Tips To Help Keep Snoring In Check.

Salt therapy is also called halotherapy (after the Greek ‘Halos’ or cave-  an allusion the the early practice of treatments being carried out in caves) is widely regarded as an effective treatment for a number of respiratory and breathing problems, such as asthma, pneumonia or bronchitis. It can also help with snoring.

Salt is a natural antiseptic, and in salt therapy an aerosol solution is inhaled by the patients. This then penetrates deep into the respiratory passages, and helps to kill any unwanted bacteria or viruses which may be lurking inside the patient, causing problems like mucus build-up or inflammation.

As we have already said, this is mainly used for allergy conditions such as Asthma, or infections like pneumonia, but it is also highly useful to some snorers- the salt particles can help to clear the nasal passages and reduce the swelling in some of the loose tissues which can be causes of snoring.  It can also help with issues like sinus drainage.

The only problem with this is that it’s fairly rare- as we mentioned earlier, you need a salt-infused environment, which is why it was first practised in caves, deep in the belly of salt mines. These days, it is possible to simulate these environments, but this is expensive- it’s more common to find customised salt caves used for the practice.

If you want to give it a try and you’re outside of Europe, you may find you have quite a trek on your hands- currently the only salt cave in America is in Naples, Florida.

Still, if you have an issue with snoring, and you don’t mind the underground, why not give it a go? If nothing else, it’s an experience you’re not likely to forget. Plus, after that, you can honestly say you’ve gone to the ends of the earth to try to find a cure for your snoring!

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Salt therapy- a natural treatment for snoring?

Here’s some good news- the more sleep you get, the easier it is to keep to a healthy diet, and to lose weight.

It sounds so obvious, but a lot of people aren’t getting a good night’s sleep. Obviously, sometimes sleep apnea can be the problem. In general, however, more and more people are sleeping less and less, anyway.

The amount of sleep the average American gets has dropped from an average of 8.5 hours per a night to around 7, by the end of the nineties.  This makes a difference, as people who sleep less have been shown to have larger appetites. One study of Chicagoans who were allowed a mere 5.5 hours of sleep showed a tendency to consume on average 200 more calories worth of sugar-rich foods than similar subjects given 8.5 hours. Another study found that women gained an extra three percent of body fat for every average hour of sleep lost. Apply that to our difference in Americans, and that’s a 5.5 increase in our body-fat.

As we know, obesity can lead all too easily to sleep apnea, which can then lead on to further difficulties. It’s a vicious cycle, and another good reason why it’s so important this is treated.

Of course, the other way to look at it is that if you start to make progress in the other direction, the health benefits can snowball too- lose weight, and you may find it easier to sleep well, snore less, and suffer less sleep apnea symptoms. This then makes it easier to lose weight and eat well.

It’s all about starting a pattern- small things like avoiding stimulants late at night, keeping a regular sleep pattern, and exercising regularly, can all make a difference!

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

How A Good Night’s Seep And Dealing With Sleep Apnea Helps With Weight Loss

Snoring is a night-time problem that affects over 50 million people in the United States alone!  Regardless if you are the snorer or if your co-sleeper is, snoring is more than just a night-time problem; a restless night without sleep can increase your stress, anxiety, and put a toll on your relationship.  There is good news though; there are many snoring aids available to provide relief.  Here are just a few of your options:

Snoring Pillow:

It has been noted by many medical professionals that men and women who sleep on their backs are more likely to snore at night.  Instead, side sleeping is recommended, but this can be a difficult change to adjust to.  This is where a snoring pillow comes in; the pillow resembles a ramp and it should have firm contours that are comfortable to sleep with, but designed to prevent you from rolling over on your back.

Snoring Ball:

One look and a snoring ball looks like nothing more than a homemade contraption and it is, but it is one that produces results.  Since sleeping on your back increases your risk of snoring, you want to sleep on your side.  The problem comes from the fact that many individuals can roll onto their back in their sleep without even noticing.  A snoring ball changes this because a ball is attached to your shirt and you will notice discomfort when your roll onto your back, alerting you to the fact you need to adjust your sleep position.

Dental Mouthpiece:

These stop snoring aids are one of your more expensive options, but they tend to produce the best, long-term results.  With a dental mouthpiece that is commonly referred to as a snoring mouthpiece or a mandibular advancement splint, the position of your jaw is adjusted.

This will either prevent your throat muscles from relaxing so much that they block your airways or it will keep your tongue in the correct position to prevent it from falling back and blocking your windpipe.  Made from soft and flexible plastic, these devices are very comfortable and available through your dentist or online without a prescription.

Snoring Spray:

These sprays are typically a successful snoring aid because it works to treat one of the main causes of snoring.  You snore at night because your throat muscles have relaxed to the point they now block a portion of your airway.  When they vibrate against the back of the throat, the snoring sound is produced.  One of the active ingredients in these nasal sprays is designed to shrink the tissues, which will reduce their vibrations.

Nasal Strip:

Also commonly referred to as a snoring strip, they are one of the most popular snoring aids.  They are typically constructed of one or two plastic bands that have a sticky, adhesive backing.  By positioning one of these strips as directed onto your nose, the adhesive backing will attempt to straighten the strip.  This results in the sides of your nose being lifted up, which opens your airways better to the throat and lungs.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Snoring Aids – Your Options Reviewed