Snoring Home Remedies

Snoring may follow a regular or irregular pattern of sound when you sleep. It may vary from a low to a high pitch. It may sometimes be accompanied by heavy breathing.

Causes of Snoring

Snoring is usually caused by the vibration of the soft palate, which is in the back portion in the roof of your mouth. When you fall asleep the muscles in your soft palate and tongue, which support the opening of the airways, relax or collapse together. They vibrate as you breathe, leading to snoring. The vibrations of the uvula, which is the fleshy tissue between the tonsils, also cause snoring. Sometimes, the airways or nasal passages may become narrow, due to adenoids, enlarged tonsils, allergies or a cold, which leads to snoring. The position in which you sleep also affects the extent of snoring. When you lie on your back, your tongue tends to fall backward and block the airway. Thus people who sleep on their back have a higher chance of snoring as compared to those who lie on their side. Other factors for snoring are age, since muscle tone decreases with age. Certain medications, great physical exhaustion and alcoholic beverages also aggravate snoring.

Home remedies for snoring: There is no medicine to relieve snoring, but a few simple home remedies may help. Losing weight may be a good way to reduce snoring. Exercise and proper diet will help you to maintain normal weight and tone your muscles. Obese people also tend to sleep on their back, because of their weight problem, a position which induces more snoring. Reducing alcohol intake would be a great help, since alcohol relaxes the soft muscles and tissues in the throat leading to sleep apnea or snoring. Smoking may aggravate your snoring because it causes increased mucous in the throat and nasal congestion. This makes you breathe more through your mouth rather than through the nose, again increasing the chances of snoring. Stop smoking completely if possible, or reduce it drastically.

Make some changes in your sleeping arrangements. Try sleeping on your side, rather than on your back. If you tend to flip back on your back all the time, use heavy pillows or small sandbags next to your head to keep it in place. You might need to change your pillow, by getting one that is flat and not extremely fluffy and soft. It would be better if you did not use a pillow at all, since raising the head narrows the nasal passages and induces snoring. If you cannot sleep without a pillow, you may also find that elevating your entire upper body may prove helpful.