It’s common for one partner to snore loudly, disrupting their partner’s sleep. It often feels like nothing can stop someone from snoring.
This article was inspired by research from the Eternal Heart Care Center in Jaipur, India, which suggests people may snore less if they periodically blow into a large seashell as if it were a wind instrument.
Professor Michelle Spear of the University of Bristol says snoring is more serious than many realize. “Snoring is often perceived as a harmless quirk or a joke. However, it can signal deeper problems that go beyond mere acoustic annoyance,” she says.
Professor Spear proposes five methods for combating snoring that she considers effective and time-tested. These tips relate to five parts of the body involved in the process: the nose, jaw, tongue, soft palate, and throat.
Nasal Strips
Snoring is often caused by nasal issues such as congestion, polyps, or a deviated septum. These conditions force a person to breathe through their mouth, increasing airflow turbulence.
Professor Spear says several solutions can help in this case: “Saline nasal rinses and sprays help remove allergens and mucus, promoting unobstructed airflow. Mechanical devices like nasal strips improve nasal breathing.”
Sleeping on Your Side
Some people who snore have jaw issues.
“A lower jaw that is too far back—due to genetics or injury—can cause the tongue to fall back during sleep, blocking the airways,” she explains. “If the mouth is open, it disrupts the balance between the space in it and the surrounding soft tissues, increasing the likelihood of snoring,” she adds. The simplest solution is to sleep on your side, which helps prevent what she calls gravitational collapse.
Try gently taping your lips together with hypoallergenic tape to stabilize the jaw and encourage nasal breathing.
Tongue Exercises
During sleep, the muscles around the throat gradually relax. For most people, this isn’t an issue. However, if the tongue is large, if its muscles are weak, or if the frenulum is stretched, the tongue can fall back and partially obstruct the airways, causing snoring.
If the tongue causes problems during sleep, Professor Spear recommends specific exercises. “One such exercise is ‘tongue push-ups,’ where you press the tongue against the roof of your mouth and hold it that way for a few seconds before relaxing,” she says.
Another exercise involves sticking the tongue out as far as possible and moving it up, down, and side to side to increase flexibility and muscle tone.
Playing the Shell
The soft palate helps control airflow and prevents food or liquid from entering the nose. However, during sleep, the muscles that usually lift the soft palate relax, which can make breathing more difficult.
Among exercises to strengthen these muscles, Professor Spear recommends blowing into a shell, as mentioned earlier. Researchers in India suggest doing this for 15 minutes, five days a week. During the exercise, deep inhalations alternate with powerful, long exhalations through tightly closed lips. This exercise may also help relieve sleep apnea.
An even simpler method is to mimic chewing movements while pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth.
Singing
Ultimately, the cause of snoring may lie in the throat, the muscular tube that connects the nose and mouth to the larynx and esophagus.
“The throat muscles help keep the airways open when you’re awake, but they relax during sleep. With age or after consuming alcohol or taking sedatives, these muscles can weaken. In people who are overweight, excess fat in the neck area can also put external pressure on the airways, especially when lying down,” she says.
She recommends breathing and vocal exercises to strengthen those muscles. The simplest of these is singing, especially using sounds like “la” and “ka.” Singing is a straightforward way to strengthen throat muscles and combat snoring.
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