Ever dose off and wake up next to people telling you that you snore in your sleep? Well, it feels like many men seem to do that when they reach a certain age. But what causes snoring to happen, and how can a guy stop irritating others around him when he’s just taking an innocent night’s rest?
Well, I took the time to find out just why guys snore when they lay on their back so that you don’t have to!
Men snore more when they are lying on their back due to gravity. When they are on their back, the weight of their body tissue pushes against their airway, which makes it narrower. The narrower the airway, the harder they need to breathe to get air, causing them to snore.
Snoring is the noise you hear from the airway being pushed open and closed, trying to force air through the airway, creating a vibration. Studies have shown that 40 percent of men are habitual snorers, so if you think you’re the only one, you’re not alone!
What Else Causes Snoring?
Snoring is more than just the position you’re laying down when you fall asleep. Snoring can be caused by diet, weight, age, allergies, and even goes further to the anatomy of your mouth. Let’s look at these individual causes and go in-depth to see how they can affect your sleeping.
- Mouth Anatomy. The way your mouth is formed can cause vibration in your airway, which leads to snoring. For example, someone with a low, thick, soft palate or even an elongated palate will make your airway narrower, leading to vibrations occurring.
- Diet/Weight. For overweight men and women, the tissue fat around their airway becomes heavy on the airway, which pushes the airway together, making it narrow and leading to the airflow being obscured, causing those vibrations to occur.
- Allergies. Allergies can cause inflammation in the lining of your throat in your nose, which like all others, causes obstruction when trying to breathe.
- Nasal Deformity. Some people might not realize it or have had a bad accident that caused damage to their partition, which might obstruct airflow to their airway. The medical term for such a deformation is a deviated nasal septum, which causes snoring.
Pinpointing why you are snoring will help you determine the necessary remedies to fix the problem a lot quicker. Try to get your sleepy partner on board, if possible, as they are the ones that lay right next to you and get woken up by the snoring!
They actually might be able to see what might be causing it. Whether it’s the way you sleep, you’re positioning, or something is perhaps blocking your breathing.
How To Stop Snoring?
Thankfully, one can do a few things to stop snoring before seeing a doctor if it becomes a problem. The number one thing that would come to mind if someone is overweight is exercising and losing weight.
If a person can lose weight to reduce the fat tissue around the airways, it could reduce the chances of someone snoring.
If you only snore when you lay on your back, then simply repositioning yourself could help. Try to sleep on your side rather than on your back. Your breathing should improve by sleeping on your side as your body tissue wouldn’t be pushing onto your airways as much.
What also happens when you sleep on your back is that your tongue relaxes and pulls to the back of the throat, causing you to struggle to breathe.
If you can’t sleep on your side, a simple yet effective way is to add another pillow below the one you already use. By doing so, you raise your head above higher than normal so that your tongue doesn’t go to the back of your throat.
It’s also a great way to relieve your airway from the weight of any tissue around your neck, as it will be tilted upwards instead of directly being laid downwards.
If these simple methods don’t relieve you from snoring, then you’re going to have to look at other more clinical methods to resolve the problem. Make sure you get advice from your doctor first before looking at over top counter medication. There might be other methods that your doctor might advise, such as devices or procedures that could help.
Stop Snoring Devices
There are multiple products in the market that promise to relieve them from snoring problems, but be aware that not all of these products are clinically tested or would work for you. There are products such as mouthpieces, guards, nasal sprays, or even extreme respiratory devices that help you breathe in better oxygen.
Products such as MAD and TRD mouthpieces can decrease snoring from time to time. Though these devices are more affordable than upper airway surgery and other medical procedures used to treat snoring, they could cause discomfort for some people.
Nasal sprays could help someone who has allergies and tend to get blocked up before bed as they are made to loosen up mucus. Mucus being relieved from your nasal passageway would help clear the way for proper breathing during your sleep.
Nasal Dilators are also an over-the-counter option and have seen great feedback in stopping people from snoring. Nasal Dilators are also known as breathe right straps; these straps work by opening your nasal passage, decreasing the resistance to incoming air without resorting to medication.
They are put in the opening of your nose, the nostrils, and keeping them open. Think of it as plastic coil cups placed in your nose to ensure that your nose doesn’t close.
Conclusion
Though there might be a lot of ways to relieve your snoring, it would be best first to try the very simple basic ways to reduce the occurrence of snoring. If those methods don’t work, it is better to seek medical advice before spending money on a product that might cause you discomfort when trying to sleep and may not even work for you.
