Can Side Sleeping Help Prevent Snoring?

Snoring can root from a number of causes, but sleeping on your side can usually help prevent it. Learn the science of snores in this episode of BrainStuff. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, pay Brain
Stuff Lauren vogal bomb here. Almost half of all adults snore.
Loud and persistent storing may be a symptom of sleep apnea,
a serious sleep condition that requires medical attention. But is
it true that most snoring problems can be fixed just
by sleeping on your side first? A quick snoring primer.

(00:25):
Snoring is the result of an obstruction of the breathing
pathways during sleep. As you drift off to sleep, your mouth, tongue,
and throat relax. The soft tissue in your throat can
relax to the point that it partially blocks your airway.
As air passes through this restricted space, it causes the
tissue to vibrate, producing detail tale rumble. The narrower that
your airway is, the more forceful the flow of air

(00:47):
will be, which increases the vibration of the tissue and
makes your snoring sound even louder. The root causes of
snoring vary from person to person. Obesity is a common
underlying reason for storing because at sus weight on the
neck and chest compresses breathing pathways. Other causes can include allergies,
they cause congestion, and inflammation that tighten airways in the

(01:08):
nose and throat, and drinking alcohol before sleep, which relaxes
the throat muscles. And some people are just born with
an extra thick soft palate or a low hanging nuvula
that obstructs airflow to the throat. So where does sleep
position come into all of this? Sleep experts agree that
sleeping on your back exacerbates snoring. That's because when you're asleep,

(01:28):
your tongue, soft palate, and throat muscles automatically relax, and
if you're sleeping on your back, those relaxed muscles will
sag downward and backward, increasing the odds of an obstructed airway.
Sleeping on your side is most effective on true tongue snorers,
where the chief cause of the obstruction is a relaxed
tongue blocking your airway, But turning on your side won't

(01:48):
necessarily solve the snoring problem if it's an allergy or
obesity issue. The trouble beside sleeping is a cure is
that unconscious people are terrible at following directions. If you
are partner has a hard time maintaining a side sleeping position,
you might try using pillows to prop them up, or
place a tennis ball under their shirt in the middle
of their back to remind them to turn over with

(02:10):
their permission, of course. Today's episode was written by Dave
Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. To find brain stuff,
laptop cases and other brain stuff, check out our shop
at t public dot com slash brain stuff, and to
find more on this and lots of other RESTful topics,
visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.