Most snoring happens when relaxed tissues in your throat partially block your airway and vibrate as you breathe. The good news: several natural strategies can reduce or eliminate snoring by keeping that airway open, strengthening the muscles around it, or removing what’s blocking it. The most effective approach usually combines a few of these methods rather than relying on just one.
Strengthen Your Airway With Mouth and Throat Exercises
The muscles in your tongue, throat, and soft palate can be trained like any other muscle. When they’re stronger, they’re less likely to collapse and block airflow while you sleep. This type of training, called myofunctional therapy, has solid evidence behind it, and the exercises take only a few minutes a day.
Here are five exercises you can start tonight:
- Tongue slide: Press the tip of your tongue against the back of your top front teeth, then slowly slide it backward along the roof of your mouth. Repeat 5 times.
- Tongue stretch: Stick your tongue out as far as possible and try to touch your chin while looking at the ceiling. Hold for 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat 5 times.
- Tongue press: Push your entire tongue upward against the roof of your mouth and hold for 10 seconds. Then press it down against the floor of your mouth with the tip touching the back of your lower teeth. Hold 10 seconds. Repeat each direction 5 times.
- Simulated chewing: Close your mouth and go through the motion of chewing gum while humming. Do this for 10 seconds, then repeat 5 times.
- Tongue clench swallow: Gently hold your tongue between your upper and lower front teeth (don’t bite hard). While holding it there, swallow 5 times. Repeat the set 5 times.
Consistency matters more than intensity. Doing these exercises daily for several weeks builds the kind of muscle tone that keeps your airway from collapsing at night. Think of it like physical therapy for your throat.
Lose Weight, Especially Around Your Neck
Excess weight around the neck and throat compresses the airway, making snoring louder and more frequent. A neck circumference greater than 17 inches for men or 16 inches for women is a recognized risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, the more serious cousin of simple snoring.
You don’t need to lose a dramatic amount of weight to see results. In one clinical study, subjects who lost just 3 kilograms (about 6.5 pounds) cut their snoring rate nearly in half, dropping from 320 snores per hour to 176. Three participants who lost an average of 7.6 kilograms (roughly 17 pounds) virtually eliminated their snoring entirely. Even modest fat loss around the neck and jaw can meaningfully open up your airway.
Stop Drinking Alcohol Close to Bedtime
Alcohol is a sedative that relaxes the muscles in your mouth and throat. That loss of muscle tone makes loose tissue far more likely to block the upper airway, which is exactly the mechanism behind snoring. Even people who don’t normally snore often start after a few drinks.
The timing matters as much as the quantity. Your last drink should be at least four hours before you plan to fall asleep, giving your body enough time to metabolize the alcohol before your throat muscles need to hold your airway open on their own. If you snore regularly and drink in the evenings, shifting your last drink earlier is one of the simplest changes you can make.
Open Your Nasal Passages
When your nose is partially blocked, you breathe through your mouth, which increases the speed and turbulence of air moving through your throat. That turbulence is what makes tissues vibrate and produce snoring sounds. Keeping nasal passages clear can redirect breathing through the nose and quiet things down considerably.
Nasal strips and internal nasal dilators are two over-the-counter options. Both work, but they’re not equal. A review published in The Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England found that internal nasal dilators (small cone or stent-shaped devices you place inside your nostrils) improved airflow significantly more than external adhesive strips. One study found internal dilators improved nasal airflow by 3.4 times compared to baseline, outperforming external strips. People also wore internal dilators for over 50% longer than external strips, suggesting they’re more comfortable for overnight use.
Beyond devices, a saline rinse before bed can flush out allergens and thin mucus that narrows the nasal passages. A hot shower also helps, as steam naturally opens the sinuses.
Stay Hydrated
Dehydration thickens the mucus lining your nose, throat, and soft palate. When that mucus becomes sticky and dense, it narrows your airway and creates more resistance to airflow. Keeping your body well hydrated maintains thinner, more fluid mucus that doesn’t obstruct breathing as easily.
This doesn’t mean chugging water right before bed (which just leads to bathroom trips). Focus on steady hydration throughout the day, particularly if you exercise, sweat heavily, or spend time in hot or dry environments, all of which can dehydrate you faster than you realize.
Optimize Your Bedroom Humidity
Dry air irritates the membranes in your nose and throat, causing swelling that narrows the airway. If you wake up with a dry mouth, cracked lips, or a sore throat, low humidity is likely making your snoring worse.
The EPA recommends keeping indoor relative humidity between 30% and 50%, while some sleep researchers suggest 40% to 60% is the sweet spot. A simple hygrometer (available for a few dollars) can tell you where your bedroom stands. If it’s consistently below 30%, a cool-mist humidifier can make a noticeable difference, especially during winter when heating systems dry out indoor air.
Change Your Sleep Position
Sleeping on your back lets gravity pull your tongue and soft palate backward into your airway. Side sleeping keeps these tissues from collapsing into the throat. For many people, this single change is enough to stop or significantly reduce snoring.
If you tend to roll onto your back during the night, a few tricks can help. Sewing a tennis ball into the back of a sleep shirt makes back sleeping uncomfortable enough that you’ll roll over without fully waking up. A body pillow or wedge pillow propped behind you can serve the same purpose. Some people elevate the head of their bed by about four inches using risers under the front legs, which changes the angle of the throat and reduces tissue collapse even if you do end up on your back.
Skip the Dairy Myth
You may have heard that avoiding milk or cheese before bed reduces snoring by cutting down on mucus production. This is a persistent belief, but it’s not supported by evidence. Drinking milk does not cause your body to produce more phlegm. What actually happens is that milk and saliva mix to create a slightly thick coating in the mouth and throat, which feels like extra mucus but isn’t. Studies in children with asthma, who would be especially sensitive to airway congestion, found no difference in symptoms between those drinking dairy milk and those drinking soy milk. Your time is better spent on the strategies above.
When Snoring Signals Something More Serious
Natural remedies work well for simple snoring, but they can’t fix obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where the airway fully closes repeatedly during sleep. Warning signs include gasping or choking during sleep, waking up with headaches, feeling exhausted despite a full night’s rest, and having a partner report that your breathing actually stops for seconds at a time.
Risk factors that push simple snoring toward sleep apnea include a neck circumference over 17 inches (men) or 16 inches (women), a BMI over 35, being over 50, and high blood pressure. Screening tools like the STOP-BANG questionnaire, which doctors use to assess sleep apnea risk, flag scores of 5 or higher out of 8 as having high specificity for moderate to severe sleep-disordered breathing. If natural strategies don’t improve your snoring within a few weeks, or if you recognize any of these red flags, a sleep study can clarify what’s going on.