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Ask the Expert:
 | | Jigme Sethi, MD Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine (View full bio) |
Are there treatments
for snoring?
While asleep, snoring results
from vibrations of the soft palate
and upper airway tissues. This is most often in patients who are overweight, smoke, or have
increased tissue in the nasal
passages and upper airway. To
reduce snoring, a person must
stop smoking, lose weight, treat
allergies that cause nasal
congestion and strictly avoid
items that relax the upper airway
tissues.
Avoid sleeping pills, muscle relaxants, pain medications like Vicodin or Percocet, and above all, alcohol. Since snoring is often worst when sleeping on the back, a simple solution could be to sew a tennis ball into the back of your nightshirt to keep from sleeping on your back. If you snore and wake up without feeling refreshed, are excessively sleepy
during the day despite getting adequate (>7.5 hours) of sleep each night or periodically stop breathing as witnessed by a bed-partner, then you must see your physician.
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