How do you stop a Snore Monster?

In My Humble Opinion
1

AAAARRRRGH! I can’t stand it, damn it, and I need some help. My boyfriend is a sweet, funny guy with generally excellent taste in TV shows, but he snores like a damned freight train. He’s been staying over at my place for, like, a year and a half now and sometimes it really affects my sleep! (Thing is, it’s not something I really think about during the day, until I’m in bed and it starts up.) I’m going to try earplugs, but I’m not sure I can sleep in them.

I almost never get to sleep before he does - he sleeps fast and hard, snoring like a demon all the way. Now that he uses a neti pot he thinks he’s discovered a thing in his nostril that makes him snore - he made me take a look at it (I know, we might as well just be married) and I don’t know if it’s a piece of his nose bones or what. No idea if it really makes him snore, but we won’t know for years at any rate, as he’s uninsured. I’m also concerned about some apnea-ish sounds I hear sometimes, but again - unwilling to check it out because he can’t afford it. It reminds me of my grandpa sometimes, the way he used to wake himself up, but nowhere near as severe, and there’s no point talking about it because he won’t get it checked out. (So, in other words, please don’t try to turn this into a sleep apnea thread because that does me no good. I know it’s serious, I know it kills, I wish my mom would get tested, but what are you gonna do?)

I pestered him into trying the nose strips - they didn’t really help. I try to get him to turn over, which pisses him off when it wakes him up (can’t blame him really - I’d punch him in the nose if he woke me up like that) but even turning over only helps some. His natural going-to-sleep position seems to be on his back, and while when he’s a bit awake in the morning he’s always on his side I think his serious sleeping position is generally on his back. He is not obese, although he could stand to lose a pound or two. A humidifier doesn’t change anything.

I’ve become a master at the art of pokejitsu, wherein I elbow him just enough to make him shift and come out of his sleep a bit and stop snoring long enough for me to maybe get a head start on him. It’s a dangerous game, though, because if you poke too hard you have a pissed off grizzly bear on your hands. Also, the man is a serious sleeper, you wouldn’t believe how hard I have to elbow him sometimes to hear that comical lip smacking no-snoring-for-a-moment sound!

So, any ideas (besides earplugs, which I’ll try in good faith)? I mean, I know he doesn’t mean to do it and he’d stop if he could (if it wasn’t too uncomfortable or inconvenient). I’d go to the guest bedroom when it gets really bad, but it’s cold in there and he has his crap all over the bed. Also, why should I have to move? (Yeah, sometimes I feel a little resentful about it, and then I feel ashamed because it’s not like he tries to keep me up.) Is there anything that’s worked for you or your SO? Anything we can try?

2

Tape a marble to his back?

3

I’ve seen t-shirts with a pocket on the back for a tennis ball so they stay on their sides. I don’t think he’d sleep in a shirt, though.

4

I always sleep with earplugs now-- test some different kinds out–some are more comfortable than others.

5

Another vote for ear-plugs here, and tell him to clear his crap out of the guest room because you need your sleep more than you need his rubbish all over the place.

'im indoors snores like an asthmatic rhino, even when he’s not sleeping on his back. Alcohol makes the situation worse, and some nights it’s been loud enough to almost vibrate the bed! I use earplugs every night and also make sure I get to bed before him so that I have a chance of getting to sleep before the snoring starts.

Unfortunately I’m a very light sleeper and I get an average of 4-5hrs a night at the moment, but that’s a total of all my broken bits of sleep so it’s not even a continuous 4hrs. I try to poke him enough to move off his back onto one side and that helps for a while, but eventually the snoring will start again.

See how you get on with earplugs, I use foam ones which I find most comfortable but I know some people swear by the tougher plastic ones you get for swimming.

Good luck!

6

Soft-plugs. Buy them by the dozen at the hardware store. You’ll get used to them. Both my wife and I snore like jets taking off, so the plugs have been life-savers.

7

An often used trick to keep him off his back is to sew a tennis ball in the back of his sleep shirt.
Another possible solution is to get a white noise machine and turn it on loud.

8

I got a little device that zaps you (just a bit) in the wrist if the noise level goes up. It is supposed to make you move. I was sleeping alone at the time, so I don’t actually know if it worked. I really wanted to find a PC based snoring monitor so I could figure out how much I did actually snore.

Si

9

The only thing that really works is not sleeping on his back. The people who snore are the ones getting the sleep, so they are prone to treating the issue as if it isn’t important. It is important, and you need to convince him that you are not being “mean” to him by asking him to turn over. If he won’t cooperate, you need to make him fix up the guest bedroom for you and refuse to sleep in the same bed until he cooperates.

10

Is he overweight? My husband and I both started snoring when we gained weight and stopped when we lost it. Maybe if he loses weight, if that’s the problem, it’ll disappear or be reduced.

11

Do you know what it’s called? That sounds AWESOME. Especially if I don’t tell him what it does. :wink:

He’s not overweight enough for it to be an issue, he’s more just sturdily built. Not fat. And it’s not like he’s flip about it or anything, he’s just like anybody who can be bitchy when you wake them up in the middle of the night. He doesn’t even remember it in the morning. (And he thinks I have an alternate personality who only comes out at night. He calls her Rabbit. He, are you ready for this? He thinks she’s some sort of African or South American child soldier and that she has a distinct personality. He’s afraid she will kill him in her sleep. Rabbit doesn’t like him very much. It’s just that I get disoriented when I’m woken up suddenly and I don’t remember at all anything I say, and then I get testy when questioned in that state. I promise!)

12

My dad and my brother-in-law both have apnea and sleep with what is called a C-PAP machine. When they use it they don’t snore at all and they and everyone who is trying to sleep near them sleeps much better. I’d recommend having him ask his doctor about it.

13

Rental on a CPAP is pricey, if your insurance doesn’t cover it. So that’s probably going to be out.

14

He’s self employed and if he got insurance now he wouldn’t be able to also afford food and rent and taxes and such. My mother, on the other hand, has excellent insurance and plenty of cash and I don’t know why she won’t believe me when I tell her that she sleeps like Grandpa used to and she ought to get it looked at.

15

Not to hijack but does anybody actually think those things help? I’ve tried a couple and all it means is that on top of the original sound I’ve got loud static or rain or a train or whatever so the noise is even worse.

16

Over the years my husband’s snoring has worsened. So has my ability to sleep through it.

These days, the minute it starts I head for the guest bedroom. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’ll do.

17

Me too. I’ve tried to get my DH to see a doctor to get himself evaluated. I don’t think he’s got apnea, but from what I’ve read he could possibly be a candidate for laser surgery. He’s not one bit interested though, so I’m just glad there’s a bedroom on the other side of the house I can go to when the train pulls out of the station. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

White Noise machine, Ear Plugs, Unisom…or

Surgery for him.

19

Rabbit wants to know, is this a DIY sort of thing? Do they sell plans over the internet? :wink:

20

I feel your pain because I also live with a snore monster. Mr. SCL snores like a werewolf with a head cold. He’s also not the slightest bit overweight. I have been know to retreat to the couch in the den when it gets unbearable. If he doesn’t have to work the next day, I will elbow or kick. Since he works 12 hour shifts and I’m unemployed, his sleep is a bit more important than mine right now.

I thought about trying snore strips, but I don’t know of anyone who has had any success with them.

I’ll be watching this thread to see if anyone has any ideas…