What are the Best Sleeping Positions to Stop Snoring?

If you or your partner are troubled by snoring at night, you probably need to know what the best sleeping positions to stop snoring are. While there are really no hard and fast rules about this, there are some things you can try that might have a positive effect on you or someone you know.

When looking for that perfect sleeping position for you personally, you need to remember that not everyone has the same ideal positions for sleeping and what is comfortable for one person may not be quite so comfortable for another. This article takes a look at different sleeping positions and how that may help you to get a restful night's sleep.

Sleeping on the Back

Most people who snore, tend to do so most when they sleep on their back. This is because the soft palate, tongue and throat are all relaxed and gravity allows aspects of this area to vibrate more easily when the sleeper takes a breath.#

Now I know that doesn't sound very scientific, but hey. I'm not a doctor and I don't pretend to be offering any medical advice here. This is purely from a lay person's perspective who has a partner that used to snore through the night and now doesn't thanks to finding the best solution for him.

So for most people, sleeping on the back is probably the worst position to sleep in when that person snores!

Sleeping on the Right Side

Now you notice I qualified this section with the "right side" and not just "the side". That's because there is a slight difference depending on which side you sleep on, as I shall explain.

As long as you haven't eaten anything for several hours before going to sleep, laying on the right side can be very comfortable, for one thing. At the same time it is a relatively good side to sleep on to prevent snoring. Why?

The best way I can describe this is that gravity pulls the soft tissues in the respiratory system sideways effectively opening them enough to allow easy passage of air through the airways without causing that irritating vibrating sound that gets louder and louder as the snorer slips into a deeper level of sleep.

Sleeping on the Left Side

The small difference between sleeping in the left side to the right is more to do with when and how much a person has eaten prior to going to bed. If your stomach still contains a sufficient amount of undigested food when you go to sleep, then sleeping on the right side can lead to some discomfort as gravity affects the digestive tract as the sleeper relaxes into sleep.

I know from personal experience that I get a little acid reflux or indigestion when I sleep on my right side if I have eaten some food too soon before going to bed. Yet when I turn over and lay on my left side, the problem goes away. You may have noticed this yourself.

How does this affect snoring?

It doesn't directly affect the level of snoring, but what it does do is interrupt the sleep pattern causing the sleeper to drift in and out of deep sleep to the point of waking them if the indigestion gets too bad. Then they go through the whole process of drifting back off to sleep and the snoring restarts!

Sleeping on the Front

For many snorers, my partner included, sleeping on the front is the best way to effectively reduce and even eliminate snoring. It is also a comfortable way to sleep if you have eaten too close to bed time and there is undigested food in your stomach to be processed.

Laying on your front seems to alleviate the indigestion that is the result of stupidly eating right before hitting the sack!

The only problem with sleeping on the front for some people is it can lead to stiffness in the neck especially if the head is not supported correctly with a good pillow. You have to weight up the pros and cons of this way of sleeping and discover for yourself if it's comfortable for you or not.

Everyone will be different in how comfortable or not a certain way of sleeping is.

Using an Anti-Snoring Mouthpiece

Of course my partner did away with the problems of how to sleep by simply buying the anti-snoring mouthpiece that is promoted in the clickable image banner above right. It is so simple and effective that he gets a good might's sleep regardless of how he sleeps and the bonus is that I get a good night's sleep too!

Of course, you do not have to buy one of these if you don't believe it will help you or your partner. I just know it worked for mine!

How to Stop Snoring Naturally

People who snore when they sleep can read this and discover how to stop snoring naturally without resorting to drugs or surgery that can work for most people. Of course that's not to say it can work for everybody as there will be some exceptions where other avenues will need to be explored.

However, in most cases of snoring during sleep, by following some of these suggestions, you can effectively reduce and even eliminate the problem of snoring in a natural and safe way. So without keeping you hanging on for the juicy part of this post, let's get right to it:

Natural Stop Snoring Solutions:

Let's make this easy and list the main points that you can experiment with to alleviate your own problem, then expand on them further down.

Lose weight (if you are overweight)

Stop smoking (if you smoke)

Cut down on alcohol (if you drink)

Eat a healthy diet, avoiding certain foods before bed time

Avoid catching colds by boosting your immune system

Exercise if you aren't doing any

Alter your sleeping position

OK, they are the main points and while they may seem like you have to sacrifice something you like doing or do something you don't like the sound of doing, you have to ask yourself if the quality of your life will improve more than the loss of that "something" would make it worth while.

Lose Weight

This first point is a sensible option for many people who are overweight for more reasons than just to help eliminate night time snoring. But that's the subject of a health article and outside the scope of this one.

Suffice it to say that by reducing your body weight and more importantly the amount of excess fat you're carrying in your body, the less chance you will snore. Experts tend to agree on this fact that lower levels of body fat reduce the strain placed on the body's resources especially the cardiovascular system.

Stop Smoking

Yes, this is truly a no brainer as not only will it potentially save your life down the line, it will improve your overall health. This will equate to a reduced impact on the lungs and your respiratory system, which can only be good news for snorers as it will reduce the tendency to snore at night.

With thousands of health articles written and published on the subject of smoking and how bad it is for your health overall, if you are still smoking you have to ask yourself why you are being so stupid! Wise up and give the gift of better health to your body by quitting smoking right now!

Alcohol

While low levels of alcohol are actually good for your health according to many recent studies, drinking to excess is certainly not. More especially, when you go to sleep after having drunk too much alcohol, your palate relaxes too much and vibrates more easily when you breathe, leading to the familiar noise you are so keen to prevent!

Put it this way, you can have a drink and enjoy yourself--nothing wrong in that as long as you're sensible. But if you snore and it happens most often after you've had too much to drink and you really want to stop, you're going to have to accept that "no alcohol" nights are going to have to be more frequent!

Does What You Eat Affects Snoring?

In some cases, yes it does. It goes without saying that you should eat a healthy diet anyway to maintain a good level of health. But you can reduce the chances of keeping yourself or your partner awake at night with the dreaded noise by cutting back on certain foods.

What you wan to reduce is the amount of phlegm your body produces which will in turn reduce the chances of your night time breathing being adversely affected (yes... the horrible noise again!). The most common causes of excess phlegm from food are dairy products and animal fats as these cause the body to manufacture more phlegm.

Avoid Catching Colds

Colds and flu cause an increase in catarrh while creating inflammation in your breathing passages, leading to a greater chance that you will snore while asleep. While you can't guarantee avoiding catching a cold at any given time, you can do something to reduce your chances of catching colds so often.

Bolstering your body's natural defenses against the common cold is one way and you do that by eating healthily and adding onions and garlic to your diet as these are natural immune system strengtheners! Increase your intake of vitamins C and E as well as these also help boost your immune system.

Exercise

The idea of doing any physical exercise for someone who doesn't do any is a scary notion. But it needn't be as long as you don't mistake exercise for meaning you have to pound away for hours in a gym or run miles every day!

Exercise can be gentle and still be effective. You can do things that are not considered strenuous exercise such as walking, swimming, gardening or some other pursuit that is pleasurable while keeping you active.

Sleeping Position

Lastly, something as simple as altering your sleeping position can be surprisingly effective at stopping snoring! many people breathe differently when they sleep on their sides than when they sleep on their back. In fact sleeping on the back is the commonest position for snorers, so by changing that, you can actually reduce or even eliminate the problem in this simple way.

You have to teach yourself to sleep in a different position so your body gets used to it. the best way to start is to deliberately lay on one side when you first get into bed, so that of you do drift off to sleep quickly, you will at least start the might in that position.

There are several ways of training yourself to sleep on your side (as long as there are no medical reasons why you should not do so), like placing pillows behind you to prevent you rolling onto your back while you are asleep. try them and see if it makes a difference. You might surprise yourself (and pleasantly surprise your long suffering partner).

Welcome to this blog that is all about learning how to stop snoring while sleeping. I've put together some info that will help you to do this for yourself or for your partner, if they are willing to participate.

Its all about you getting more quality sleep, after all. Its generally not the snorer that loses sleep, but their long suffering partner. Trying to sleep next to a noisy snorer can range from being a mild nuisance to a living hell.

But it really doesn't have to be that way.

There are plenty of simple methods that people can try that will help reduce or even completely eliminate the problem altogether. Some involve simple devices that the person doing all the snoring can wear at night to not only help their partner get a good night sleep, but to help them too.

You see, sometimes it happens that the snorer keeps themselves awake, or wakes themselves up periodically throughout the night through involuntary loud snores. By using an anti snoring mouthpiece or other similar device, the person can stay asleep all night without being disturbed.

That spells a peaceful night's rest for the partner as well, so its really a win-win situation here. All you have to do is accept that you snore and then be willing to try some things to make it go away.

After that, its all downhill cruisin'!

Brenda