Enduring the loud and rumbling sounds of a spouse's snoring can make sleeping next to a grumbling bear seem like a dream come true. Snoring most commonly occurs as relaxed muscles and soft tissues in the throat and mouth narrow airway passages during sleep. Non-surgical remedies for snoring include exercises that strengthen throat and tongue muscles while promoting deep nasal breathing.
Tongue Stretches
The relaxation of your tongue while sleeping can narrow your airway passages and partially block airflow. This often results in an annoying rumbling sound as the tongue vibrates against throat tissues during breathing. Deep breathing and daily tongue stretches can minimize this type of snoring and increase airflow by conditioning throat muscles to remain at attention while you sleep. Give your tongue a daily stretch through several repetitions of downward and upward extensions -- extending your tongue to reach your chin and nose.
Nasal Clearing
According to the late Russian physician Konstantin Buteyko, training your body to breathe less is the key to stifling snoring associated with nasal congestion. Blocked nasal passageways often result in throat and palate snoring patterns due to excess fluid build-up in throat tissues and hyperventilation. Buteyko claimed that passageways generally become blocked from over-breathing. Conditioning your body to breathe deeply through your nose throughout the day can alleviate the throat spasms and breathing arrhythmia that trigger nasal snoring at night.
Jaw Alignment
Tense jaw muscles place pressure on air passageways that often results in popping throat tissues and snoring. Dr. George Lewkovitz of Snoring.com.au says that airflow is increased through proper jaw alignment, or bringing the lower jaw and tongue forward. Deep breathing and mimicking the chomping of chewing gum several times a day will produce this effect. Protruding the lower jaw out further than the upper jaw -- teeth showing -- for 10 seconds five to 10 times a day is also beneficial.
