You can reduce or stop snoring through a combination of sleep position changes, weight management, mouth and throat exercises, and devices that open your airway. The right approach depends on what’s causing your snoring, since the underlying problem varies from person to person. Most snorers can make meaningful progress with lifestyle changes alone, while others need oral appliances or medical evaluation.
Why Snoring Happens
As you fall into deeper sleep, the muscles in your tongue, throat, and the soft tissue at the roof of your mouth relax. These sagging tissues partially block your airway, and as air forces its way through the narrowed space, it causes the tissues to vibrate. The narrower the airway gets, the more forceful the airflow becomes, and the louder the snoring.
Several factors make this worse. Carrying extra weight adds tissue to the back of the throat, further narrowing the passage. A naturally thick or low soft palate, or an elongated uvula (the small piece of tissue hanging at the back of your throat), can also obstruct airflow. Alcohol, sedatives, and nasal congestion all contribute by either relaxing muscles further or blocking airflow at the nose.
Lose Weight, Even a Little
If you’re overweight, losing weight is one of the most effective long-term fixes. In one clinical study, subjects who lost at least 7 pounds (about 3 kg) cut their snoring nearly in half, going from 320 snores per hour down to 176. Three participants who lost an average of about 17 pounds saw their snoring virtually disappear. Even modest weight loss reduces the fatty tissue compressing your airway, and unlike devices or sprays, the effect is permanent as long as you maintain the loss.
Change Your Sleep Position
Sleeping on your back lets gravity pull your tongue and soft palate backward into your airway. Switching to your side or stomach keeps the airway more open and can significantly reduce snoring. Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends side sleeping as a first-line strategy for snoring and mild sleep apnea.
If you tend to roll onto your back during the night, the simplest trick is the “tennis ball method”: tape or sew a tennis ball into the back of a sleep shirt. It’s uncomfortable enough to keep you on your side without waking you up. Wedge pillows and positional sleep trainers that vibrate when you roll over are also available, though the tennis ball works just as well for most people.
Skip Alcohol Before Bed
Alcohol relaxes the muscles in your throat and tongue more than normal sleep does, narrowing the airway and making vibrations louder and more frequent. This effect is strongest when you drink in the hours before bedtime. If you snore, avoiding alcohol for at least three to four hours before sleep can make a noticeable difference, especially if your snoring is otherwise mild.
Try Mouth and Throat Exercises
Strengthening the muscles that collapse during sleep can reduce snoring over time. This approach, called myofunctional therapy, involves daily exercises for the tongue, throat, and cheeks. Research suggests practicing for 10 to 30 minutes a day for at least three months to see results.
A few exercises worth trying:
- Tongue slide: Press the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth where your upper teeth meet the gums. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds. Repeat five times.
- Vowel sounds: Slowly and deliberately pronounce each vowel (A, E, I, O, U), exaggerating the sounds and holding each for several seconds. This targets the throat muscles.
- Lip purse: Pucker your lips as if whistling and hold for 10 seconds. Relax and repeat.
- Cheek hook: Place a finger inside one cheek and pull it outward while using your cheek muscles to resist. Repeat on the other side.
Regular singing has also been studied as a form of throat exercise. Limited research suggests that daily singing over three months can reduce the frequency, severity, and loudness of snoring.
Nasal Strips and Internal Dilators
If congestion or narrow nasal passages contribute to your snoring, mechanical nasal dilators can help. These come in two types: external adhesive strips (like Breathe Right) that pull the nostrils open from outside, and internal clips or cones that prop the nostrils open from within.
Both types work, but internal dilators tend to perform better. In one comparison study, internal nasal cones roughly doubled nasal airflow from baseline (from about 66 liters per minute to 139), while external strips increased it to about 102 liters per minute. That said, either option is inexpensive and worth experimenting with. They’re most helpful when your snoring originates from nasal obstruction rather than the throat.
Oral Appliances
Mandibular advancement devices are custom or over-the-counter mouthpieces that push your lower jaw slightly forward during sleep, opening the airway behind your tongue. They’re typically adjusted to about 50 to 75 percent of your maximum comfortable jaw protrusion, usually around 5 to 8 millimeters.
These devices work well for snoring and mild to moderate sleep apnea. Custom-fitted versions from a dentist are more comfortable and effective than boil-and-bite drugstore options, though the drugstore versions can be a reasonable way to test whether the approach helps before investing in a custom device. Side effects can include jaw soreness and excess saliva, both of which usually improve within a few weeks.
When Snoring May Be Sleep Apnea
Not all snoring is harmless. If your partner notices that you stop breathing during the night, or if you wake up gasping, feel excessively tired during the day, or have morning headaches, you may have obstructive sleep apnea. This condition carries real health risks including high blood pressure, heart disease, and daytime impairment.
Doctors often use a screening tool that evaluates eight risk factors: loud snoring, daytime tiredness, observed pauses in breathing, high blood pressure, a BMI over 35, age over 50, a neck circumference of 16 inches or more, and male sex. Scoring positive on five or more of these strongly suggests moderate to severe sleep apnea and warrants a sleep study.
Surgery as a Last Resort
When lifestyle changes and devices don’t work, surgery to remove or reshape excess tissue in the throat is an option. The most common procedure, called uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, trims the soft palate and uvula to widen the airway. According to Cleveland Clinic data, about 81 percent of people who are good candidates for the procedure experience symptom improvement. However, early versions of the surgery had a reputation for symptoms gradually returning over time, and it carries risks of bleeding and infection. Surgery works best when a doctor has identified a specific structural cause for the obstruction, so careful patient selection matters.
Combining Approaches
Most people get the best results by stacking several strategies. Losing some weight, sleeping on your side, avoiding alcohol before bed, and using a nasal dilator or oral appliance together will almost always produce better results than any single fix. Start with the simplest, lowest-cost changes first. If your snoring persists or your bed partner reports breathing pauses, a sleep study can determine whether something more significant is going on.