Brief overview
- Treatment: Depends on the form or cause of the snoring; for simple snoring without breathing interruptions, therapy is not absolutely necessary, home remedies possible, snoring splint, possibly surgery; for snoring with breathing interruptions (sleep apnea) therapy after medical clarification
- Causes: Relaxation of the mouth and throat muscles, tongue sinking back Narrowing of the airways, e.g. due to a cold, allergy, anatomical features such as enlarged tonsils
- Risk factors: Age, alcohol, smoking, certain medications e.g. sleeping pills, sleeping on your back
- When to see a doctor? A visit to the doctor is always advisable to clarify the cause; always necessary for snoring with breathing interruptions
- Diagnostics: Doctor-patient consultation, physical examination, especially nose and throat, possibly snoring test device and/or sleep laboratory
What helps against snoring?
Home remedies for simple snoring
Sometimes simple snoring can be prevented by simple measures that those affected can control themselves:
In the long term, losing weight is the most effective method against snoring. The fat in the throat area, which promotes snoring, disappears with the kilos.
Learning to play a wind instrument can also help against snoring. This way you train your throat and palate muscles. According to one study, the didgeridoo, for example, is well suited to this. Singing may also have a positive effect.
Other tips for stopping snoring (possibly immediately) include
- Avoid alcohol two hours before going to bed. It makes the muscles even more relaxed and reduces breathing activity.
- Avoid sedatives, sleeping pills and allergy medications (antihistamines) if possible. They have the same effect as alcohol.
- If you do not like sleeping on your side, it is best to lie on your back with your upper body slightly elevated. The wedge pillow can also be helpful here.
Home remedies have their limits. If the symptoms persist for a long time, do not improve or even get worse, you should always consult a doctor.
Help against snoring from the dentist
Some people benefit from a snoring splint (lower jaw protrusion splint). It keeps the airways open by bringing the lower jaw slightly forward. This also shifts the tongue and palate and ideally prevents snoring.
Dentists fit such a splint to the upper and lower jaw individually. However, the snoring splint is quite expensive and does not always help. It is almost impossible to predict how effective they will be in individual cases. This is particularly true for prefabricated (ready-made) snoring splints.
If you have misaligned teeth or jaws, treatment by an orthodontist can help with snoring.
Operations against snoring
- Tonsillectomy
- Surgery on the paranasal sinuses, nasal septum and/or turbinate
- Soft palate plasty or stiffening of the soft palate (implants)
- Operations on the base of the tongue or hyoid bone
Treatment of snoring through the nose
Breathing through a blocked or obstructed nose can also produce noises and promote snoring. Nasal dilators (“nasal spreaders”) may then help. They are inserted into the nostrils to widen the nasal entrance and make breathing easier.
In the short term, sufferers can also try decongestant nasal sprays or drops. They will show you whether surgery on the nasal concha will eliminate the snoring. But be careful: do not use these products for longer than a week. Otherwise they could permanently damage the mucous membrane there.
Therapy for snoring with breathing pauses
You can read about how to treat sleep apnea syndrome in our article “Sleep apnea therapy”.
What can cause snoring?
Basically, the muscles in the upper airways relax when you sleep. This causes the airways to narrow and the air you breathe to pass through more strongly. The tissue vibrates and the soft palate and pharyngeal uvula flutter with every breath. Sometimes so strongly that the disturbing snoring noises occur.
Sometimes the airways are narrower than usual, for example in the case of an acute infection such as a cold or acute sinusitis. Allergies such as hay fever also cause the mucous membranes to swell and narrow the airways. This increases snoring, and some people only snore in such situations.
There are also various factors that generally promote or intensify snoring and may cause breathing interruptions. These include, among others:
- age
- Overweight or obesity
- Alcohol and nicotine consumption
- Increased tissue in the area of the soft palate
- Certain medications such as sleeping pills or allergy medications (antihistamines)
- Sleeping on your back, because the base of the tongue sinks backwards in this sleeping position
Women and men usually snore for the same reasons. However, an altered hormonal balance is another possible cause of snoring, especially in women after the menopause.
In some people, the airways close completely (repeatedly) when the tissue relaxes. Breathing then stops and the brain receives less oxygen at times. Doctors refer to this as obstructive sleep apnea. In other people, the cause of the pauses in breathing lies centrally in the respiratory center.
You can find out exactly what causes this syndrome in the article on sleep apnoea.
What is snoring?
With simple (primary) snoring, those affected make loud snoring noises. Breathing interruptions do not occur. Around 62 percent of men between the ages of 45 and 54 snore. Among women in this age group, the figure is around 45 percent. However, the figures vary greatly in the literature.
Sleep apnoea, on the other hand, is associated with short interruptions in breathing during sleep. Here too, this is usually triggered by a narrowed upper airway.
Is snoring dangerous?
Simple snoring is primarily considered annoying. However, scientists are also discussing whether it can be unhealthy, particularly for the heart and circulation. There are indications of this, but the data is very uncertain, as sleep apnoea could not be ruled out with certainty in the studies.
The health risk here is certain: snorers with nocturnal breathing pauses have an increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, heart attacks or strokes, for example.
When to see a doctor?
It is best to visit an ENT doctor or a clinic that has a snoring center or sleep laboratory. Especially if you snore loudly and irregularly, it is advisable to see a doctor as soon as possible. This is the only way to rule out an increased health risk.
You should also see a doctor if you suffer from chronic (daytime) tiredness even though you sleep long enough at night (six to eight hours). This may be due to sleep apnea, which is a health risk.
If your child snores, it is also advisable to consult a doctor. Enlarged pharyngeal or palatine tonsils or nasal polyps are usually the cause of snoring, which requires medical treatment.
How does the doctor examine snoring?
In an initial consultation, the doctor will take a medical history and ask the patient and, if possible, their bedmates about the details of their snoring. Possible questions include, for example
- How often does the snoring occur?
- How is the snoring (regular/irregular, frequency, volume)?
- Do you wake up repeatedly during the night, possibly with shortness of breath?
- Is there daytime sleepiness? Do you find it difficult to concentrate?
Those affected are often also given a special questionnaire. The doctor will then examine your nose and throat, possibly using special instruments such as a laryngoscope. If necessary, he first administers sleeping pills and then examines what narrows the airways during this simulated sleep (drug-induced sleep endoscopy, MISE for short).
To determine whether breathing pauses occur, the doctor gives the patient a test device to take home. It analyzes breathing during sleep and snoring (“snoring test device”). Sometimes those affected go to a sleep laboratory for further examinations with an overnight stay (polysomnography).
Once the doctor has found the cause of the snoring, he or she will usually recommend a suitable treatment such as weight reduction, a snoring splint or possibly an operation.
