Almost everyone snores at one point or another, but for some, the noise can be more detrimental to their sleep and their partner’s. Snoring often disrupts the quality of your sleep, leading to exhaustion and fatigue throughout the day. Not only does snoring affect your circadian rhythm, but it can often lead to partners sleeping in separate bedrooms, affecting your personal relationships.
Whether you find you snore more often during allergy season, after drinking, or when you’re suffering from a cold, there may be something you can do about it. Making changes can range from effortless to distinctly purposeful and could be as simple as taking CBD oil for sleep or as difficult as quitting smoking.
So What Causes Snoring?
By definition, snoring is the soft, harsh, or irritating sound that results from the relaxed tissues in your throat vibrating as you breathe. This can be caused by a number of factors, including how you sleep, if you have severe sinus issues, suffer from allergies, and even your gender. Did you know that men are more likely to snore than women because they have narrower air passages?
Snoring doesn’t just affect you, but also your partner and anyone else who sleeps within hearing range. This means you’re not the only one impacted by your snoring and the sleep deprivation it can cause.
How You Sleep and How Well You Breathe Matter
There are many factors that could contribute to how often or how harshly you snore. Do you find you usually sleep on your back? Try sleeping on your side so that when your throat relaxes as you sleep, it won’t block your airways as much. The natural anatomy of your mouth and sinuses can also make you more likely to snore because you may have a smaller airway or more tissue in your throat.
If you suffer from constant sinus issues, you and your partner probably wake up multiple times during the night due to your snoring. Whether you’re always congested or have a deviated septum, it may be worth discussing with your doctor to see if the problem can be remedied.
Unfortunately, there’s no one solution or guaranteed way to figure out how to stop snoring immediately. You may have to try a combination of different solutions, addressing a number of outside factors, to determine the root cause of your snoring.
Many Factors Can Contribute to How Much You Snore
One of the most common reasons for ongoing sinus issues is the presence of allergens in your environment. Depending upon your specific allergies, the solutions to these problems can differ, as we’ll discuss later. Aside from allergies, there are multiple other factors that can contribute to how badly you snore.
Do you drink a fair amount of alcohol? Increased alcohol consumption relaxes your throat muscles so that they sag into your airway as you breathe. Suffering from a cold? A stuffy nose can just as easily lead to snoring and is one of the most common culprits of snoring in “people who don’t snore.”
Many people who suffer from intense snoring and their partners often experience an increase in sleep deprivation and fatigue. Ironically, the more exhausted you are when you lie in bed at night, the more your muscles and throat can relax when you sleep. It can be a vicious cycle.
Snoring Does More Than Annoy You and Your Partner
You and your partner can both experience irritability and daytime fatigue thanks to a single person’s snoring, leading to disrupted sleeping patterns that can result in mood changes, mental fog, and reduced judgment. There are also several health complications that can result from a lack of sleep.
Snoring can also affect the relationship between you and your partner. Not only are you both likely to be irritable in the morning thanks to your reduced quality of sleep, but a lot of couples who struggle with snoring during the night end up sleeping in separate bedrooms. This can cause stress on the relationship and lead to a disconnect between partners.
How to Stop Snoring Naturally
By committing to a combination of lifestyle changes and home remedies, you should naturally achieve better and quieter sleep. As always, some changes will be easier than others, and some may take a decent amount of effort and willpower to accomplish.
These changes could include quitting smoking, working out more regularly, rinsing out your sinuses with saline every night, and washing your sheets more often. While more severe cases may call for discussions with a doctor and medication, in most instances, a few lifestyle changes and new routines may be all you need.
Lifestyle Changes That Could Eliminate Your Snoring
Some major life changes may also have an impact on your ability to get a better night’s sleep without snoring. Believe it or not, daily exercise and weight loss can actually decrease the intensity of your snoring by tightening the muscles in your nose and throat.
As we mentioned above, alcohol consumption can drastically relax the muscles in your throat, decreasing the size of your airway and causing your snoring to worsen. This means you may have to try cutting out alcohol entirely to remedy your snoring.
Not only will quitting smoking increase your quality of life, but it can also lessen the degree to which you snore. Smoking irritates the membranes in your nose and throat, which can increase the volume and harshness of your snoring.
At-Home Remedies for the Snore-Prone
Allergens can easily contribute to an increased level of snoring and diminish your quality of sleep. If you suffer from airborne allergies, try adding an air filter to your bedroom or other areas of the house. Dust and dust mites can also be combated by vacuuming and changing your sheets and pillowcases more often, as well as adding a mattress protector.
Sinus issues can be dealt with in a few different ways, such as adding a neti pot or saline spray to your nightly routine. By rinsing and clearing out your sinuses before bed, you can increase the likelihood that you will have a more restful night’s sleep. Dry air can also wreak havoc on your sinuses by drying out the membranes in your nose and throat. Try adding a humidifier to your bedroom, especially during those winter months when you have the heat pumping.
The snorer can also try elevating their pillow to open up their airways more. While your partner does their part to stop snoring, remember there are a few things you can do to keep the harsh snoring from disrupting your sleep as well, such as using earplugs or trying out a sound machine.
If either you or your partner has trouble falling asleep, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of having a better night’s sleep.
How to Sleep Better
While you work through the various methods to decrease your snoring, there are a number of things you can do throughout the day to help you get better, more restful sleep in general. Staying away from blue light at night and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule can go a long way toward increasing the quality of your sleep.
When it comes to supplementing your sleep routine, CBD oil, melatonin, and other beneficial herbs can work wonders. Especially when used in combination.
Increase the Quality of Your Sleep
Some modern conveniences may be to blame for your lack of quality sleep. The blue light emitted from phones, TVs, and other electronics sends suppression signals to the part of your brain responsible for melatonin production. This means you may need to put down the phone and shut off your TV an hour or two before bed – or invest in some blue-light-blocking glasses.
Caffeine can easily become another modern convenience that keeps you up at night, which is why many doctors recommend cutting the caffeine out approximately eight hours before bedtime. While you’re at it, working on maintaining a consistent waking and sleeping routine will greatly increase your chances of attaining restful sleep. And yes, that means going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
Having trouble waking up in the mornings? Try opening the blinds first thing in the morning or getting a sunrise alarm clock. The bright morning light sends signals to your brain telling you it’s time to get up.
CBD Oil for Sleep
One of the greatest tried and true methods to better sleep is adding a combination of melatonin, valerian root, CBD oil for sleep, and other soothing herbs. In other words: CBD PM.
Using CBD oil for sleep has become popular over the past few years, which is why cbdMD provides CBD PM in both tinctures and capsules. Oh, and make sure you keep an eye out for CBD for sleep gummies!
Made with Superior Broad Spectrum hemp extracts, our melatonin and CBD formula can help maintain your sleep cycle, support your daily wellness routine, and manage signs of daily stress, especially those caused by sleep deprivation. This means CBD PM could be just the thing you need to supplement your new anti-snoring routine! All you need to do is take it up to an hour before bed and let it go to work.
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