3 Types of Snoring and How to Deal With Them

Some of the more dangerous effects of snoring, for both the snorer and the people sharing a room with them include excessive daytime sleepiness due to the fact that neither the snorer nor their partner can get enough sleep during the night. Snoring can be quite loud and encumber nighttime sleep, which leads to constant exhaustion, making the person unable to take on their daily tasks and lead a normal life. In severe cases, snoring is a sign of obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea causes patients to struggle to breathe during the night, which can be really dangerous and the person who suffers from symptoms of sleep apnea shouldn’t try to treat it by themselves but visit a professional physician instead.

Snoring is loud because the vibration of the throat and nasal tissues that occur during snoring can be quite loud and encumber sleep. Snoring is also very common and as many as 40% of adults, regardless of gender, suffering from snoring. It is also assumed that as people grow older, they begin to snore excessively.

All of this makes it imperative that people find snoring solutions which will work for them. It is possible that plenty of snoring solutions will not work for the patient due to the fact that most of the medications and treatments have a subjective rate of success – meaning that if a snoring solution has worked for one patient, it might not work for another patient. This is because there are three basic forms of snoring, caused by vibrations in different tissues in the air passages of the nose and mouth. Identifying the correct cause of snoring is essential in finding a proper snoring solution.

Snoring through the Mouth

Snoring through the mouth means that during sleep, the patient normally breathes through the mouth instead of the nose. A very simple way to identify whether mouth snoring is the problem is for the patient to spend some time sleeping with their mouth closed, while being monitored. If this is indeed the problem, a very effective solution are dental devices which help keep the mouth closed.

Tongue problems with snoring

When a person sleeps on their back, there is a high probability that the tongue will fall back into the passage of the uvula and cause snoring, at the very least, or block the airflow to the extend that the person wakes due to lack of breath.

A very good method to deal with this type of snoring is to ensure that the tongue is resting between the teeth, or at the front of the mouth. This will help reduce the snoring, and probably eradicate it. Another solution is to ensure the person sleeps on their back.

A mandibular advancement device can also be helpful in this situation, as it keeps the jaw and tongue forward. There are some certified devices listed at Nosnoresolutions.com, feel free to go through them. However, it can be quite uncomfortable to sleep with the device on, and the snoring is only prevented when the patient wear the device during sleep.

Snoring through the nose

When the nasal passages of the nose are blocked or congested, it can cause snoring in patients who normally breathe through their noses during sleep. This problem can be caused by a collapsing nostril – a nostril blocked by the swelling of the turbinates and blood vessels in the lateral sides of the nasal passages. Additionally, this swelling can be caused by allergies and other kinds of irritations, and can be easily eradicated as causes for snoring. In these cases, the best solution is to use nasal dilators in the form of breath strips, or allergy remedies and various nasal sprays and solutions which will clear the congestion in the nose.

Snoring through the throat

The throat – uvula, palate and passage – can become a snoring cause if the person naturally breathes through the mouth during sleep. In this case, the loud rattling sound of snoring is produced by the vibration of the palate and soft tissues in the uvula. This vibration is caused by the airflow which dries the tissues, makes them stiffen and produce the rattling sound. This is a very difficult cause and it can't be eradicated as easily like the causes described above. Below, we have presented several methods that can help, but a patient should seek the help of a professional, just as in the case of an obstructive sleep apnea.

How to identify the cause of snoring

Since most of the symptoms occur during sleeping, the patient will need the help of a friend or a partner to monitor them while they are sleeping. The person who will monitor the sleeping person needs to be attentive and alert to any change in the noise, as it can indicate the reason behind snoring. Some people only snore when they are lying on their backs, and as such, they will need to repeat the monitoring while they are lying on their side during sleep.

Tips to reduce snoring

Snoring can be pretty difficult to eradicate, because so far, there has not been a cure discovered that will not only work for all patients, but will not cause additional health problems and long term issues.

One of the most common remedies is a change of lifestyle, as lifestyle habits are often the most common cause of snoring. Other tips include managing allergies, changing sleeping positions, as they are the secondary most common cause of snoring.

Healthy lifestyle

Exercising and losing weight can be really helpful in lessening the intensity and frequency of snoring. It is said that overweight people with large necks snore more than people that are not overweight, but this has been disproved recently. It is the change of lifestyle and diet that helps people stop snoring – otherwise, even people who are relatively fit, but have unhealthy lifestyles suffer from snoring during sleep.

It is not only losing weight which will cause an improvement. Reducing alcohol and other medicine intake can also help prevent future snoring in the patient.

Change of sleeping position

As we said above, changing the sleeping position will help a patient stop snoring. About 50% of snoring cases are caused by lying on the back during sleep. This is why a change of position is the first thing proposed to patients suffering from snoring. There are many ways to ensure that the patient doesn’t sleep on their backs. Using pillows to prevent the person from rolling from their side to their backs is a very good method. Another is to use a small tennis ball and place it on the patient’s pajama top.

Surgical treatments

Surgical treatments can be used in severe cases of snoring, especially if the patient can't eradicate snoring using natural methods. In these cases, surgery is highly recommended as a solution. However, before undergoing surgery, the patient will need to be tested properly to ensure that they are not suffering from sleep apnea. As such, the surgery should and can only be performed as long as sleep apnea is removed as a cause. There are many kinds of surgical treatments for snoring and patients should consult with otolaryngologists (Ear, Nose and Throat specialists) to ensure that they use the right surgery for the patient.

About the Blogger

Rashmi is a qualified nutritionist with over six years of experience in the Indian food industry. She has completed an MSc in Human Nutrition at Chinmaya degree College (BHEL) in Haridwar, Uttarakhand.