Snoring, and how to Stop Snoring

Around half of people are affected by snoring. Many people are snorers themselves whilst others have their sleep disturbed by their partners snoring. Most people don't realise that snoring can be stopped, and instead simply put up with it. Many of these people will have tried a snoring remedy from a chemist and given up when it didn't work.

Why didn't it work?

The problem with simply picking up a snoring remedy from a chemist is that many supposed snoring remedies are complete nonsense. And even those that aren't can only possibly resolve a single type of snoring!

Many supposed snoring remedies are not physical interventions and instead propose to teach the snorer not to snore or to prevent snoring in some strange pseudo-medical way. The fact is that snoring is a physical problem, one cannot be trained not to snore, and only physical interventions can prevent snoring.

Snoring is caused by a part of the upper airway vibrating. The problem is that different parts of the airway can vibrate. If someone wants to stop snoring, they first need to discover which part of their airway is vibrating and causing their snoring.

The best way to do this is to follow the self-diagnosis tests available at the website of the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association.

Once this is known they can try an appropriate product to treat that type of snoring.

It's important to realise though that some people have more than one part of their airway vibrating. Most often these people will need to use a combination of products in order to stop snoring. Some people (very few) though will need to use a CPAP machine to stop them from snoring. CPAP stands for Continous Positive Airway Pressure. CPAP treatment involves having air blown up your nose (or sometimes mouth) to increase the air pressure in your airway. If the pressure is great enough the airway will not vibrate and snoring is eliminated. CPAP is usually used for sufferers of sleep apnoea, which can be thought of as the most severe form of snoring in which the airway not only vibrates but collapses completely leading to cessations of breathing during sleep.

CPAP treatment is less comfortable than using other snoring remedies and has a much higher initial cost. Beacuse of this it is usually only considered as a last resort.