How to Stop Snoring

In addition to products for the nose and mouth, there are other products designed to help you stop snoring.   Some of them are pretty unique, and they are certainly worth looking at.   Keep an open mind.   Some of these have been very successful!

SLEEP ASSISTANTS (range $50 to $95)

Sleep Assistants.  These items vary somewhat in design, depending upon the brand.  SAs  are specifically  designed for individuals with insomnia, but have helped many  snorers.    Particularly  if your  snoring comes from exhaustion or fitful sleep due to stress.

Most sleeping assistant models sit on the bedstand and guide you in a pre-sleep relaxation session.  They do this by  helping you  adjust your breathing rhythm to a natural pattern.

The sleep assistant we like (the Nightwave brand)  projects a soft blue light.   The soft luminance of the light in a dark room slowly rises and falls.   You lie with eyes open and synchronize your breathing with the blue wave.  The wave becomes slower and slower, and after a short time, you roll over and fall asleep.   Pretty neat, huh?

This process may sound silly to the inexperienced, but if you have ever taken any relaxation classes, you know how truly beneficial it is to practice relaxing exercises prior to sleep.   Sleeping assistants won’t cure a deviated septum, but if your snoring is caused by fitful sleep due to stress and worry, and we all tend to be a jagged bundle of nerves,  this might be just the ticket.   We love these things.

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SNORE STOPPERS (about $40 to $100)    Very Good

These devices look like wrist watches, but are designed to train you to stop snoring!   Most are similar in design, and work off a formula similar to this:   A tiny microphone detects the sound of snoring and emits a short pulsing sensation that causes you to change position without waking up.   This  stops the snore.

Snore Stopper generally have varying  intensity levels (some people need a bigger “nudge” than others).   The theory is that, eventually, your body will train itself to sleep in the positions that do not trigger an impulse.      Additional electrode pads (gosh, that sounds terrible), may be purchased.   But don’t worry, folks, this is not like the shock Rover  gets with his doggie collar.  It is painless.

If you only snore while sleeping on your back, then this can be a very effective cure.   It is the same principle as sewing a golf ball in the back of your pajama tops (but much more convenient).  The idea is to make it uncomfortable to sleep on your back.

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BIO FEEDBACK MACHINES (range:  75 to  $175)   Very Good

We are getting into a whole different subject here, but it is worth bring up.  The biofeedback system works for the same reasons the sleep assistants work, but in a different way.  Stress can cause fitful sleep.  The problem is many people don’t know they are stressed.  One way stress can be detected is in breathing.  The biofeedback machine detects stressful breathing patterns (among its many functions) and ” feeds back” this information back to you.    In essence, you teach yourself  to relax by  being reminded when you are not relaxed.

This is way over simplified, and we don’t really classify biofeedback machines as anti-snoring.   HOWEVER (and there is always a however in life!) if stress is your problem, the biofeedback machine may very well help you.

Here’s a recommendation:  Try learning to relax with a sleep assistant.   If it works for you, you may very well want to check into a bio feedback system to help eliminate stress in other areas of your daily living.