Cures for Snoring
Snoring can be a symptom of a serious disorder called obstructive sleep apnea which may require evaluation by a sleep specialist. Snoring that isn't related to sleep apnea, responds well to home remedies. If home remedies do not succeed, consult a physician or an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor). If you choose to try a dental appliance for your snoring, you will need to see a dentist specializing in these devices. There are many medical solutions to snoring, some even involving surgery. Your doctor can give you advice in this regard. The most important point to make about the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), or Snoring Syndrome, is that effective treatment requires several related problems to be treated simultaneously.

Some tips for snorers:
Sleep on your side: Snoring is exacerbated when you sleep flat on your back because the flesh of the throat relaxes and can block the airway. Changing your sleep position may stop snoring if you are a mild snorer, but severe snorers usually snore in any position.

Lose weight: Many snorers are overweight. Losing weight will reduce the fatty tissue in your airway. Eating less and improving your fitness level can significantly improve your ability to breathe freely when you sleep.

In the bed: Sleep without a pillow: Pillows can block your airway by bending your neck. Elevation of the head of your bed by 4 inches may make breathing easier and encourage your tongue and jaw to move forward. Elevating the entire head of the bed is better than using a pillow, which can crimp the neck and contribute to snoring.

Stop smoking: Smoking relaxes muscles and also creates nasal and lung congestion. Smoking thus contributes to snoring. Stopping smoking can help with the noise and intensity of your snoring. Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause the same snoring problems as smoking does.

Watch what you eat and drink: Avoid eating food or drinking alcohol before bed. These both relax your muscles and therefore increase the likelihood of snoring. Avoid high-fat dairy milk products or soy milk products before sleeping. Non-skim milk products and soy milk products, because of their thickness, can keep mucus from draining properly. The result is mucus retained in the throat, which can lead to snoring.

Be careful of medications: Avoid antihistamines for allergies or stuffiness. They relax the throat muscles, which can cause snoring. Avoid sleeping pills or other sedatives, which aid sleep, but also relax the neck muscles, which contribute to snoring. Try nasal decongestants to clear nose passages and assists breathing through the nose while sleeping. Nose breathing circumvents the snoring sound from breathing through a blocked throat.

Alcohol: It is the partial collapse of the airway (breathing tube between nose, mouth and lungs) that is the immediate cause of snoring, and its complete collapse that is the immediate cause of apnea. Alcohol causes too great a relaxation of the airway during sleep. This, and other effects of alcohol on the body, means that it can either cause or greatly contribute to the development of loud snoring and apnea.

Organization of sleep: There are two periods of sleep which, given the right circumstances, are especially vulnerable to the development of unstable breathing. These are Stage 1 sleep, which should only occur when a person is first falling asleep but can occur many times during the night if sleep is poor; and REM sleep, which is the time when dreaming most frequently occurs. If a person has very unbalanced sleeping habits during the week, it can result in the development of very significant respiratory instability during sleep. Unstable sleeping patterns lead to unstable breathing. Therefore, regulate your sleep by getting at least 7.5 hours of it per night. Sometimes, this is all that is required.

Medical problems: Anything that can lead to a blockage of the nose, throat, or lungs potentially plays a role in the development of OSA. Pertinent nasal problems include allergies to air-borne particles such as animal dander, and dryness of the nose because of a wood-burning stove. Factors that can block the throat include large tonsils, large adenoids, excessive amounts of fatty tissue, and at times, the enlargement of some of the complex tissue at the back of the throat. In these cases, surgery can help by removing unwanted or excess tissue.

Snoring can also be a symptom of diabetes or hypothyroidism. Therefore, sometimes the best treatment for snoring and apnea is to go to the source of the problem and treat the medical problem itself.

Lifestyle changes: The impression is growing that to a large extent, many cases of obstructive sleep apnea and snoring may be related to Western culture. The risk of significant obstructive sleep apnea increases with the numerous factors described above, many of which are problems currently rampant in our society. Correction of OSA generally requires that these factors be eliminated. At times, elimination of these factors completely resolves the problem.

If you are an excessive snorer, and constantly get complaints from friends and loved ones, look at your lifestyle very carefully first. Try changing some bad habits to good ones, and exercise more.

If after all this, you still snore excessively, then go and see a physician or a nose, ear and throat specialist. Always make surgery your last resort. Even though proven to be safe, surgery can still do damage to your pockets, when all you needed to do was quit smoking or join a gym.