Although common and most often harmless, snoring can be a sign of a medical condition, such as sleep apnea. Snoring occurs when throat tissue becomes too relaxed, blocks your airways and vibrates when you breathe. The more your airways are blocked, the more intensely you snore. Many factors contribute to snoring, including the structure of your mouth, tongue and throat, being overweight, alcohol consumption and sinus problems, such as chronic nasal congestion. There are a variety of ways to correct snoring, depending on the nature of the problem.
Lifestyle Changes
Some people can control snoring by making certain lifestyle changes to treat underlying causes. If you are overweight, losing weight can help alleviate snoring. Sleeping on your back allows your tongue to lay in a manner that can block your airways, so it may be helpful to sleep on your side. Cut back on alcohol consumption and use of sedatives and sleeping pills. Alcohol and sedative medications can cause over-relaxation of throat tissue and can be particularly problematic for people with sleep apnea.
If you have allergies or other sinus or nasal conditions that interfere with the flow of air through your nose, you have to treat your congestion in order to eliminate snoring. Natural ways to accomplish this include saline sprays and nasal irrigation. If these methods don't work for you, speak to your doctor about other treatments for chronic congestion.
Appliances
Adhesive nasal strips available at any drugstore can be worn on the nose while sleeping to increase the size of the nasal passage and allow air to move through more easily.
Specially designed mouthpieces and pressurized masks can help eliminate snoring. Mouthpieces, which are fitted by a dentist, help keep your airways open by controlling the position of your tongue.
Continuous positive airway pressure is a method used for people who snore due to sleep apnea. To keep airways open, a pressurized mask worn over the nose while sleeping delivers forced air to breathing passageways via an attached pump.
Surgery
Can you say "uvulopalatopharyngoplasty?" It's a big word for the traditional procedure surgeons use to tighten the relaxed tissue in your throat that is causing you to snore.
For more serious snoring, a doctor may perform multiple laser surgeries or tissue ablation using radiofrequency signals, both of which are outpatient procedures. Surgery is recommended only when other methods fail to eliminate snoring, and the type of surgery performed depends on the root and severity of the problem.
