How many times do you have to scratch your head every time your wife complains about your hoarse snoring?
The metaphor used to compare your snoring to is endless.
Snoring is inevitably serious. Imagine how your sleep looks like every night if you put yourself in your bed partner’s shoes. You will realize how your snoring makes getting a good night’s sleep for your bed partner an elusive thing.
What can I take for snoring? You ask yourself this question with guilt. So you check the internet for answers. You’ve come to the right place. Exploring what to take to stop snoring might be the first best thing you’ve done.
What is Snoring?
Snoring is a piercing, noisy breathing sound produced when your tissues vibrate in your throat muscle and nose during sleep. This occurs because the air can’t move freely as it enters into the passages at the back of the nose and mouth.
If you feel embarrassed by your snoring, you are not alone. Do you know that about half of people snore every now and then? Just read on and this article will give you sufficient information about snoring. Your desire to know what to take for snoring is important for you and for your spouse or bed partner.
What are the common causes of snoring?
Sleeping Position
The snoring problem can start with the way you sleep. Sleeping on your back can cause your tongue to fall backward. This obstructs the air that enters the passage and moves through the throat during the breathing process.
What To Do:
Sleep on your side while you hug a pillow to maintain this position. You can also place a tennis ball at the back of your shirt so you won’t go back to sleeping on your back.
Weight Gain or Being Overweight
Snoring can get worse if you are overweight or obese. Putting on weight means you also gain those extra fats around the throat. Breathing is affected as those fats around the neck and throat can narrow the airway, thus causing snoring.
Obese children can be inflicted with snoring or sleep apnea. Men, on the other hand, have a tendency to gain fat around their necks more than women.
What To Do:
You need to lose weight to alleviate or eliminate your snoring habit. You have to form new healthy habits. Bike with a friend. Jog with your dog every morning.
Start eating healthy food. Yes, it’s not that easy to live a healthy lifestyle. But once you’ve maintained a healthy weight, you not only reduce or eliminate snoring but you also improve your overall health.
Smoking
People can be stubborn when it comes to smoking. The different health risks of smoking are crystal clear but the percentage of people who smoke is still high. Unfortunately, smoking can also cause snoring.
Smoking can easily get your throat dried out. The smoke causes irritation of mucous membranes and bronchial tubes in your mouth and throat. This irritation can eventually lead to inflammation that narrows your airway.
What To Do:
You have to quit smoking although it is a very challenging thing to do. A lot of people tried and failed. But if you are highly motivated and persistent, you can victoriously stop smoking.
Get support from your family, friends, and doctor. Getting yourself committed to effective methods is essential in getting ready to stop smoking. People around you can also benefit from your success.
Alcohol
Alcohol can relax your body muscles including the muscle throat. The muscle tone of your throat is reduced due to the sedative effect of alcohol. This obstructs airflow which leads to snoring.
What To Do:
Avoid consuming alcohol at least 5 hours before you sleep.
Nasal Congestion
When you have nasal congestion, you usually have to breathe through your mouth instead of your nose. Nasal congestion causes narrowing of the nasal passages making it difficult for the air to enter into your air passage.
Another cause of nasal congestion is a deviated septum, which is a structural defect between your nostrils and nasal septum. These factors that congest your nasal can often lead to snoring.
What To Do:
Herbal pills that contain enzymes can reduce nasal congestion. Nasal strips can also help you get a good night’s sleep.
Allergies
How often do you have to sneeze every day? That annoying act of sneezing can be a cause of snoring because of allergies that obstruct your airways. Common allergens consist of dust mites, animal dander, molds, and seasonal pollens.
What To Do:
Always clear your room or your house to get rid of any possible allergens. Treat your allergy. Use a hypoallergenic pillow. Make sure that your air conditioner ducts get cleaned out regularly.
Snoring Statistics
About 48.0% of nearly 70 million US adults, who have a sleep disorder, snore. Nearly 30 percent of adults who reach the age of 30 and above are snorers. An astonishing 40 percent surge is observed among middle-aged people.
Children also snore habitually and they make up 5.6% of the population. Sleep apnea, which is also medically known as obstructive sleep apnea, can affect adult snorers in as much as 20 to 40 percent. People who have sleep apnea experience pauses in breathing during sleep. Most of those who have sleep apnea snore.
How common is snoring?
Light Snoring and Habitual Snoring
Light snoring doesn’t really affect the overall quality of your sleep. Those who are lucky enough to have light snoring do not really get complaints from their spouses or bed partners.
Habitual snoring though is very serious as it can keep people, who sleep in the same room as the snorer, awake throughout the night. Sleep deprivation takes a toll on your health when you sleep with a habitual snorer. The habitual snorer, on the other hand, can suffer from different health risks of snoring.
How can snoring affect my life?
Snoring can disrupt your sleep which will result in sleep deprivation or disorder. The first one to experience it is most probably your bed partner or spouse who complains about your irritating snoring.
In a relationship, snoring is one of the problems some couples have a great challenge with. The bed is where you share intimacy with your spouse. Snoring can possibly tear that intimacy apart as it can force your spouse to sleep in a separate bed.
Snoring can immensely affect the state of your health. The different health risks of snoring include depression, GERD, stroke, high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes, memory problems, heart failure, and dementia.
What Can I Take for Snoring?
What can I take to stop snoring?
How many times have you asked this question?
Maybe you’re one of those snorers who want to reduce snoring by taking some herbal medicines.
Over-the-counter medicines/Pills for Snoring
SnoreStop® FastTabs is a chewable tablet that can enhance the muscle tone of your upper airway. This tablet is convenient to take as it dissolves quickly in your mouth. This can also lessen nasal allergic reactions and balance any nasal secretions.
Baywood’s Dr. Harris Original Snore formula contains plant enzymes: Protease, Amylase, Lipase, and Cellulase. This stops mucous secretions that might congest the nose or throat. This pill has an herbal component that lessens the inflammation that affects breathing.
SnorEase by Natures Sunshine has three main ingredients: bromelain from pineapple fruit, immature bitter orange, and CoQ10. These combined ingredients enhance the flow of air through your nasal passages.
Essential Oils for Snoring
Essential oils can treat snoring according to research published in 2004 in the UK. Choose a therapeutic-grade oil if you want to make use of essential oils for your snoring.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus has been known to relieve chest colds. This can also help you with your snoring problem. Simply add eucalyptus leaves in a steam inhaler then breathe through your nose or mouth. Doing this can clear your sinuses.
You don’t have a steam inhaler? Then use a steam bowl added with eucalyptus leaves or eucalyptus essential oils. Place your head over a bowl of hot water. Cover it with a clean towel so you can adequately inhale the steam.
Peppermint
Inhaling vapors of the peppermint oil is found to help alleviate or reduce snoring. If you have a throat spray at home, you can fill it up with mixed water and essential oils. Spray it in your throat at night to avoid snoring.
Foods to Take to Stop or Reduce Snoring
You can simply regulate your diet by combining ingredients or foods that can help alleviate or reduce snoring.
Honey
Honey has components that act as a snoring aid. It is both anti-inflammatory and lubricant. Its anti-inflammatory property alleviates any swelling in the air passage so that the air can freely enter without pressure.
The lubricant property of honey lessens the possibility for tissues to vibrate which creates the annoying snoring sound.
Add honey to your herbal tea or hot water and drink it before you sleep at night.
Garlic
Garlic is commonly known to treat colds. It works by decongesting the air passage to eliminate mucus buildup.
Simply add garlic as an ingredient while cooking. Some people take it raw.
Soy Milk
It’s time to switch to soy milk and start getting rid of cow milk. Why? Cow milk contains glutton that triggers allergic reactions. It is also widely believed that drinking cow milk develops the production of mucus. These factors can lead to snoring.
Olive Oil
Olive oil has a lot of health benefits to mention. As a snorer, olive oil can keep the tissues at the back of your nose and throat moist. Olive oil has a lubricant property that helps reduce tissue vibration so you are able to manage your snoring at night.
Consuming olive oil can keep your air passage free from possible swelling due to its anti-inflammatory component. Simply mix olive oil with honey in equal proportions before bed.
Tea
Tea functions as a decongestant to eliminate mucus that blocks or congests your airway. When the airway is always open, the air can freely enter and can at least reduce your snoring.
You may try different kinds of teas that help in reducing or eliminating snoring: chamomile tea, green tea, white tea, or black tea.
Peppermint
Your airway can benefit from peppermint because of its anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic components. These properties keep the air passages open. Peppermint can also prevent swelling.
Before going to bed, you can gargle water with 2-3 drops of peppermint.
Turmeric
The curcumin ingredient in turmeric has an anti-inflammatory property that can restrain possible swelling along the air passage. This helps maintain a free flow of air movement that can reduce your snoring.
Vitamin C
Whenever you have sinuses that can restrict your airways, your mouth is prompted to open and the uvula vibrates producing that annoying snoring sound.
Vitamin C strengthens our immune system. A healthy immune system can easily get rid of sinuses. So don’t forget to take your daily dose of Vitamin C.
Spearmint
This common garden mint can help in curing indigestion. Snoring can also be the result of indigestion due to an acid problem. Spearmint can remove body acid to decrease or eliminate your snoring. You can buy a liquid, pill, or powder form of spearmint.
Immature Bitter Orange
Bitter orange has been known to reduce or treat snoring in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has a high amount of Vitamin C which strengthens our immune system. Immature bitter orange has a natural component called synephrine which can give the snorer relief in nasal congestion or allergic reaction.
Most of these things that you can take for your snoring are helpful when your snoring is caused by nasal congestion or allergies. But it’s always worth a try since these foods, herbal medicines, and essential oils are available almost anywhere.
These are great options you can choose before you try any anti-snoring devices. Consult with your doctor if you’ve observed that your snoring gets worse.
About The Author:
Usman Raza is a health and fitness blogger, as well as the co-founder of usmandigitalmedia.com. I am very passionate when it comes to writing about staying healthy and fit, and it is a continual goal to frame my life around that sort of lifestyle. When I’m not working, I am likely spending my time reading a great book or prepping myself further on health and fitness knowledge.
