Snoring

Factual Questions
1

My boyfriend, with whom I hope to spend my life, has one teeny-tiny flaw: he snores. I don’t mean cute little purring noises, nope I’m talking chainsaw-style cuttin’ wood all night long. Punching him regularly through the night does no good, at best I get an extra loud snort. To add insult to injury he’s one of people who can fall asleep in about 30 seconds. I can sleep through the snoring, but I can’t fall asleep to the sound of it. So far the only solution that we’ve come up with is if I’m awake in the middle of the night, I get to wake him up too, and make him stay awake until I manage to get to sleep first.

My question is this: does anyone please have anything, short of seperate beds or surgery, that will get him to quit snoring and me a good night’s sleep? I’m desperate.

Sleepily yours,
Rebecca

P.S. I don’t love earplugs either - they seem incompatible with alarm clocks.

2

Ear plugs. For you, not him.

Elmer J. Fudd,
Millionaire.
I own a mansion and a yacht.

3

A couple of recent threads on the same subject:
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003202.html
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/004163.html

4

As mentioned in other threads linked above, the best way to prevent snoring is to sleep sideways. Since the perpetrator is your boyfriend, and not a nasty roommate, I’d say you have a good chance changing his sleeping habits. You can start by asking him to sleep sideways then switch to physical conditioning if all fails. This could include anything from sewing a tennis ball on the back of his pajamas (mentioned in linked thread from post above), to all out electroshock therapy. Okay, maybe not the later, but the goal of physical conditioning is to make him feel uncomfortable sleeping on his back. Be creative. Heck, I’d think filling his bed up with cardboard boxes (or you) can do the trick if you can make him fall off the bed when he tries to turn around and sleep on his back :slight_smile:

5

My snoring is related to the position of my lower jaw. Too far forward and I snore, more forward and I don’t. One of those foam pillows with the dip lengthwise down the middle holds my jaw in a more forward position and I don’t snore when using it.
I have tested it by going back to the old style pillow and the snoring comes back. the pillows seem to be available in most department stores nowadays.

6

Let me revise that a little bit. Too far BACK and I snore.
Sorry about that.

7

I have an 11 year old Bichon Frise with us since he was 6 weeks old. This guy’s nose is always running and he SNORES WORSE than a drunken sailor even when he’s awake. And worse yet he loves to come into my home office and lie down and if the door is closed, he scratches to come in.

I have a love-hate relationship with him. Antihistamines don’t work with dogs, nor do cortisone tablets. At night there is peace since he sleeps in the room furthest away from our bedroom. Any suggestions?

8

A body pillow might help your BF to sleep sideways. Sleeping on your back isn’t supposed to be good for your back anyway.

One of my uncles stopped snoring after getting a old broken nose injure repaired. He said it was like “…a…breath of fresh air” and never knew that only one side of his nose was working. His family doctor never mentioned it, a visit to an ENT for another problem was what brought matter came up.

Does he have allergies? Runny nose type? Need to get him medication for this, too. A good family doctor should be able to tell this by just looking at the tissue inside his nose.

Good Luck!

Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.

9

You may want him to try those nose strips, yes, the same ones you see all the football players wear.
You can get them at any drug store, Breathe Right is one of the brand names.
The strips will gently widen the nasal passages allowing the wearer to, well, breathe right, or better if nothing else.
It’s worth a try.

10

Absynthetic: I’ve posted in a couple of threads about snoring, but I’ll post again.

Get your boyfriend to a doctor. There may be nothing wrong, but the chainsaw-style snoring you speak of could be a sign of something serious, like sleep apnea. My husband suffers from this. he currently sleeps with a CPAP machine that forces air up his nose and down his windpipe. This keeps his airway open. Although it isn’t always, apnea can be deadly.

A sleep clinic should be able to diagnose what the problem is, and how to take care of it. Surgery might be needed, but with most folks, the CPAP machine works pretty darn well, and IIRC, if a diagnosis of apnea is made, most health plans cover the cost of the machine.

“The quickest way to a man’s heart is through his ribcage.” --anonymous redhead

11

OK, I snore. The accounts of those few lucky women who have had the distinct pleasure of sharing my bed can’t all be wrong. I snore.

But I don’t snore constantly. I’m told that I snore off and on, but more “on” when I’m on my back. (Personally, I’m not so convinced, having stayed up one night to listen – no snores.) …waiting for laffs…

BUT I have a problem with the conventional, non-medical solution – “get the asshole off his back and onto his side.” The tennis ball thing is one example, although an elbow in the ribs is a lot more common here…

I have back problems. Specifically, sciatica, brought on by a badly-healed fracture of L5. Doctors and chiropractors have united in advising me to sleep flat on my back. In particular, I have been advised to NEVER sleep on my right side.

I’ve tried those nose-pinchers, to no avail. One gal who bitched about my snoring blamed it on “sleep apnea,” but I’m having a tough time figuring how I did all that snoring while I wasn’t breathing… (She was studying to be an RN, and you know how those nurses are…)

Maybe I should have my lungs removed?

I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…

T

12

Yes, mea culpa, I am a snorer too. :frowning:

I have had consults with a specialist, who wanted to do surgery on my soft palate and uvula (the little dangly thingy in the back of the throat), but… no guarantees, so the wife and I agreed that the pain would not be worth it.

“Sleep on your side” is good advice, but for me, it has to be combined with “keep your face pointing down”. If I sleep (as I often do) on my side but with my face pointing up, or even straight sideways, I snore. Tennis balls won’t change that.

The problem is too much breathing through the mouth. If your mouth is kept closed, you won’t snore. But when you’re asleep, your muscles relax and the jaw opens, allowing mouth breathing to occur.

The nose-opening strips help, in that they maintain a good, open airway nasally, but they’re not enough in themselves to prevent snoring. I’ve had pretty good success with something called the “chin-up strip” that helps to hold the mouth closed during sleep, but is elastic enough to allow coughing, sneezing, or whatever might require using the mouth. They have a website: http://www.impg.medmarket.com/d/dalemiller/dalemiller.htm

As for pinching the nose shut, that’s probably the best way to guarantee that I will snore!

On a parting note, there are multiple tools and appliances that are intended to help curb snoring. I myself have seen dental mouthpieces (like the football mouthguards, but upside-down to restrain the soft palate from movement), :stuck_out_tongue: gadgets that are supposed to harness the uvula to keep it from vibrating (gag me with a harness!) :mad: and mouthpieces that jut the lower jaw forward (see Diver’s post above). :slight_smile: Some work better than others, at least for me. I recommend that you try out a couple of these non-surgical alternatives before going under the knife (or putting the Significant Other in that position).

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 15 tons.
-Popular Mechanics, 1949

13

One I saw at the Dentist’s office the other day was called Silent Nite (I believe). It pushes the lower jaw forward as mentioned above.

I do not know anything about it other than the brochure. I thought about trying it though. Anyone know the costs of such a thing?

Jeffery

14

I reportedly snore like a Caterpillar tractor. I always sleep on my side. However, I use two things that cut down the noise somewhat. I use BreatheRight strips, and I sleep with a custom made tooth guard thingie my dentist made to keep me from breaking my fillings when I clench my teeth at night.
Another little detail…the more overweight a person is, the worse he’ll snore. The throat, like everything else, gets a layer of jiggly fat.
–Nott, the tractor