How to Stop Snoring: Causes, Fixes, and When to See a Doctor

Snoring is one of the most common sleep complaints — and one of the most disruptive, especially for whoever is lying next to you. If you or someone you love is losing sleep over it, you are not alone. Roughly half of adults snore at least occasionally, and for many it is a nightly occurrence. The good news is that most snoring responds to straightforward changes. The key is understanding what is actually happening and why.

Why Snoring Happens

When you fall asleep, the muscles throughout your body relax — including the muscles in your throat and the soft tissue at the back of your mouth. As air moves through a partially narrowed airway, the soft tissues (the soft palate, uvula, tongue, and throat walls) vibrate. That vibration is the sound of snoring.

The narrower the airway, the faster air has to move through it, and the louder and more turbulent the sound. In some cases the airway collapses almost entirely, which stops airflow altogether — that is obstructive sleep apnea, which we will come back to. For most snorers, though, it is a partial obstruction: uncomfortable and noisy, but not a full blockage.

Common Causes

Sleeping on Your Back

This is the single most common snoring trigger. When you lie flat on your back, the tongue and soft palate fall backward toward the throat, narrowing the airway. Many people who swear they snore every night discover they snore far less — or not at all — when they sleep on their side.

Alcohol and Sedatives

Alcohol relaxes the throat muscles more than normal sleep does. Even one or two drinks in the evening can significantly increase both the frequency and volume of snoring. Sedating medications (including some antihistamines) have a similar effect.

Nasal Congestion and Allergies

When your nose is blocked, you automatically shift to mouth breathing. Mouth breathing bypasses the nose’s natural filtering and humidifying function and tends to produce louder snoring because the airway geometry is different. Seasonal allergies, chronic sinusitis, and a deviated nasal septum all contribute.

Weight

Excess weight — particularly around the neck — puts pressure on the airway from the outside. Even a modest weight gain can noticeably worsen snoring in someone who is already prone to it. Conversely, losing even a small amount of weight can provide meaningful relief.

Age and Anatomy

As we age, throat muscle tone decreases, making the airway more prone to vibration. Some people are also born with structural features — a longer soft palate, enlarged tonsils or adenoids, a narrow throat — that increase the likelihood of snoring regardless of lifestyle.

Chronic Dry Air

Low indoor humidity can irritate and inflame the nasal passages and throat, worsening congestion and increasing tissue swelling. This is especially common in winter when heating systems dry out indoor air.

Lifestyle Fixes That Actually Work

Sleep on your side. This is the most reliably effective first step. If you tend to roll onto your back during the night, a body pillow along your back can help. Some people sew a tennis ball into the back of a sleep shirt — inelegant but surprisingly effective. Positional pillows designed specifically for this purpose are a more comfortable option.

Cut back on alcohol before bed. Try keeping a gap of at least three to four hours between your last drink and bedtime. If your snoring improves noticeably, you have found a significant contributing factor.

Address nasal congestion. Over-the-counter saline sprays and rinses can clear the nasal passages before bed. If allergies are the culprit, treating them consistently — not just on bad days — often leads to real improvement. Talk to your doctor about antihistamines or nasal corticosteroid sprays if lifestyle measures are not enough.

Use a humidifier. Adding moisture to the bedroom air, particularly in winter, can reduce throat and nasal irritation. Aim for a relative humidity of around 40 to 50 percent.

Maintain a healthy weight. If excess weight is a factor for you, even modest weight loss can reduce the fat deposits around the upper airway that contribute to narrowing.

Elevate the head of your bed. Raising the head of the mattress by a few inches can reduce the tendency for throat tissues to fall backward. A wedge pillow is a simple way to try this without adjusting the bed frame itself.

Products and When They Help

Nasal dilator strips. These adhesive strips are placed across the bridge of the nose and gently pull the nostrils open, improving airflow. They work best when nasal congestion is the primary cause. They are inexpensive, available over the counter, and worth trying as a first step.

Nasal dilators (internal). Small soft devices that sit inside the nostrils to hold them open. Similar principle to external strips, useful for the same group of snorers.

Mandibular advancement devices (MADs). These are mouthguards that hold the lower jaw slightly forward, which in turn keeps the airway more open. Custom-fitted versions from a dentist are significantly more comfortable and effective than the generic over-the-counter versions, but even a basic boil-and-bite device is worth trying if positional and lifestyle changes have not helped. They are not suitable for everyone — people with jaw joint problems or certain dental conditions should check with a dentist first.

CPAP therapy. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the gold-standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, and it also eliminates snoring entirely. However, CPAP requires a formal diagnosis and a prescription. If you have not been evaluated for sleep apnea, do not start here. If you have been diagnosed, it is worth the adjustment period — most people who stick with it report a significant improvement in how they feel.

Surgery. Procedures like uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) or laser-assisted techniques can address anatomical causes of snoring. These are a last resort and are only appropriate after medical evaluation confirms they are likely to help your specific situation.

When Snoring Is a Red Flag: Sleep Apnea

Snoring by itself is not dangerous. But snoring can be the most visible sign of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) — a condition in which the airway repeatedly collapses during sleep, causing breathing to stop for seconds at a time. OSA is underdiagnosed and, when left untreated, is associated with increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and other serious health problems.

Pay attention to these warning signs:

• Witnessed apneas. A partner notices that you stop breathing, then gasp or snort and start again. This is the clearest indicator that something beyond ordinary snoring is happening.
• Gasping or choking during sleep. You wake yourself up struggling to breathe.
• Excessive daytime sleepiness. You feel unrefreshed even after what should be a full night of sleep, or you fall asleep easily during quiet activities.
• Morning headaches. A dull headache that fades during the day is a common symptom of overnight oxygen dips.
• Difficulty concentrating or memory issues.
• Mood changes, irritability.

If any of these apply, schedule an appointment with your doctor. A sleep study — which can often be done at home with a take-home device — can confirm or rule out sleep apnea. Do not use products like mouthguards or position devices as a substitute for diagnosis if you have these symptoms.

If You Share a Bed With a Snorer

Being the partner of a snorer is its own particular exhaustion. You are the one lying awake listening, nudging, eventually retreating to the couch — and then feeling guilty about it. A few things that can genuinely help:

Go to bed first. Falling asleep before the snoring starts means you may sleep through it rather than being woken by it.

Use earplugs. A good pair of foam earplugs can reduce the volume enough to make sleep possible. It takes a few nights to get comfortable with them.

Try a sound-masking app. Background noise — white noise, pink noise, rain, or similar ambient sounds — can mask the snoring enough that it stops waking you. Dozy offers a range of ambient sounds designed specifically for sleep, and many people find that a steady background sound prevents them from fixating on intermittent noise like snoring.

Encourage your partner to see a doctor. Snoring often goes unaddressed because the snorer does not notice it themselves. Framing the conversation around concern for their health — rather than your own disrupted sleep — tends to go over better.

Consider a temporary separate sleeping arrangement. This is not a relationship failure. Getting enough sleep matters, and a few nights apart while you work on longer-term solutions is a reasonable stopgap.

Try Dozy Tonight

If snoring is costing you sleep — whether yours or your partner’s — it is worth starting with what you can change tonight: your sleeping position, your alcohol intake, the air in your room. And if you are on the receiving end of the noise, a reliable sound-masking solution can make an immediate difference.

Download Dozy on the App Store