How is Your Sleeping Position Affecting Your Snoring?

Does your partner constantly elbow you in the middle of the night to tell you to roll over? There is a very good reason. Your sleeping position really does affect your snoring. Now, this is not to say this is the case for everyone, but if you have been told you snore louder lying on your back, or if you wake up feeling less rested when you fall asleep on your back, you could be a positional snorer.

What Happens When You Lie On Your Back?

When you fall asleep, all of the muscles in the body relax. This includes tissues in your throat. If you are lying on your back, your soft palate and tongue collapse towards the back of your throat. Now, the relaxed tissues have fallen towards one another, so as every breath of air is forced through, the tissues flap around and vibrate.

Sleeping on your side may not remedy the snoring completely, but it could help reduce your symptoms, so you wake up feeling more recharged.

You may not realize it, but if you are snoring, your body is not receiving an adequate amount of oxygen. Ignoring the problem is never a good solution. Of course, you may be saying you try to sleep on your side, but always end up on your back. Make no mistake, breaking the habit can take time, but there are some tricks you can try that might help.

• Tennis Balls – Sew “pockets” on the back of your PJs to hold tennis balls. These should stop you from rolling over or at least wake you up, if you try. This is an old budget-friendly method some find helpful.
• Wedge Pillow – Placing a wedge pillow behind you may be all you need to keep you in place. If you are a fairly stationary sleeper, a large body pillow might help. Otherwise there are expensive wedge pillows designed specifically for this purpose.
• Lifestyle Changes – If you are struggling to break the habit of sleeping on your back, you may want to evaluate your lifestyle and see if there are other changes that can make to help reduce your symptoms. This could be avoiding alcohol and cigarettes, changing your diet, or losing excess weight.
• Mouthpiece – Some positional snorers find it helpful to use our favorite anti-snoring mouthpieces designed to help you stop snoring. These devices hold your lower jaw forward slightly, so the tongue and soft palate don’t fall back into your throat. Be sure to read our latest reviews on SnoreRx, ZQuiet and Zyppah.

Snoring can be very bad for your health. Every time the flow of breath is interrupted it disturbs your sleep pattern. Without quality sleep, your immune system will struggle more to protect you even from simple common colds. Poor sleep quality can also make you prone to more serious medical conditions.