“How can I treat my husband's snoring habit?”
My husband snores a lot which disturbs my sleep through the night. How can we treat it?
2 Answers
Snoring is not benign always. The person needs to be investigated for external pressures and internal reasons in the upper airway (ENT exam and CT scan/MRI scan or neck to rule out surgically treatable conditions). If there is a suggestion of daytime sleepiness, fatigue, stop breathing episodes in sleep, the person should consult a sleep specialist to look into obstructive sleep apnea. Just stopping the snoring (noise) is similar to cutting the trees to kill the "hurricane" induced noise. Try to treat the cause of snoring, then there can be meaningful health benefit
This is actually a quite complex problem. If you hear pauses in snoring on a regular basis or alternatively if your husband is sleepy in the day he ought to be seen by a physician to look for sleep apnea. If this is just snoring with no other warning symptoms he could try an over-the-counter boil and bite orthotic that pulls the tongue forward or a nasal valve called Therevent. Neither of those require a prescription. If there is no response, formal medical evaluation would be appropriate. Finally general measures for snoring include avoiding alcohol, treating nasal stuffiness and avoiding sleeping supine (sleeping on back).
