Lifestyle
How To Sleep With Someone Who Snores
Sleeping with a snorer can be exhausting. In this post, we will give you some tips on how to sleep with a snorer, talk you through some tips and tricks to show you how to block out snoring, and give you some great ideas
The topics we will be covering will be:
- How to block out snoring.
- How to ignore snoring.
- How to drown out snoring.
- How to fall asleep when someone is snoring.
- How to stop someone from snoring naturally.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 90 million American adults snore. This must lead to a lot of sleepless nights!
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Everything you need to know about sleeping with a snorer is in this article, but it is quite a long read. If it’s more convenient, you can download the PDF file for only £1.99 It has the full ad-free article. This way, you can print it off at home, and it will be available for you to refer to any time you want.
Why do people snore?
There can be many causes of snoring, the main reasons are:
- Being in the wrong sleeping position
- Weight gain
- Alcohol
- Allergies
- Sleep disorders such as Sleep Apnea
- Smoking
- Broken nose
- Being a mouth breather
What is snoring?
Snoring is the noise caused by parts of the respiratory structures rattling due to obstructed air flow. S
- Heavier breathing than usual
- Loud continuous rattling
- Grunting
- Sharp high pitched which stops and starts.
- Low rumbling
- Loud gaspy snoring followed by silence and lack of breath, then a loud gasp, usually caused by sleep apnea.
Symptoms of living with loud snoring
Sleeping with someone who is continually snoring can be exhausting and incredibly frustrating, you spend your nights wondering how to get to sleep when someone is snoring, it can be difficult to know how to ignore snoring sounds and it can affect you in many ways due to lack of sleep, including,
- Excessive fatigue
- Anger and rage
- Despair
- Exhaustion
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Impaired decision-making and impaired judgement.
- Stress
The symptoms of sleeping with a snoring partner are often made more difficult by
- Denial from the snoring partner that they snore, even when presented with the evidence.
- Anger from the snoring partner when their spouse tries to move them to stop them snoring.
- Unwillingness from the snoring partner to try anything to reduce their snoring noises.
- Unwillingness from the snorer to accept they are suffering from a sleep disorder.
- An eventual breakdown in relationships.
How to sleep with someone who snores
There are many different anti-snoring aids on the market which promise to prevent snoring and to help you to figure out how to sleep when someone is snoring!
- Anti-snore nasal dilators
Designed to dilate the nostrils and allow the air to flow more freely through the nose. Good for people who suffer from hayfever.
- Snore stopper wristband
Uses neuro-stimulation to reduce the frequency and loudness of snoring. This wristband emits a small signal to the snorer which wakes them up just enough to move position or stop snoring.
- Anti-snoring throat spray
Reduces the vibrations that cause snoring by lubricating the back of the throat and tongue. Good for mouth breathers.
- Nasal vent
Designed to open up the nostrils to allow more air to enter the airwaves. Great for hayfever sufferers.
- Earplugs
Designed to block out any outside noise by sealing up the ear opening. The wax and cotton earplugs for a better seal than the foam ones.
- Anti-snore chin strap
Designed to stop the jaw from falling open to reduce the likelihood of snoring. Not ideal for mouth breathers like my husband!
- White noise machine
Designed to draw the attention away from the snoring by fixing the mind on a more pleasant sound. This fan is my favorite for drowning out my other half’s snoring.
- Nose clips
Designed to increase airflow through the nostrils and keep passageways free.
- Surgery
Changes the bone structure in the nose to open the airwaves. usually for people who have suffered a broken nose in the past. However, sometimes surgery may not be effective.
My stepfather had surgery to help reduce his terrible snoring and it made absolutely no difference, so advance with caution when considering surgery! - Anti-snore pillows
Designed to correct your sleeping position to prevent snoring caused by being in the wrong sleep position.
- Anti snore fast tabs
Designed to relieve congestion and clear the airwaves. Great for people who suffer from allergies or hay fever.
- Tennis ball sewed into the pajama top
This method is supposed to stop the snorer rolling onto their back! It is an old wives tale , I’ve not tried it myself because I hate sewing but I suppose anythings worth trying when you sleep with a snorer!
If your girlfriend or boyfriend snores, you have my sympathy, my husband snores and I can’t get a good night’s sleep, so I know how hard it can be to get someone to stop snoring!
I have lived with my husband for 22 years, and when I first realized my husband snored heavily it was a shock and I had to figure out quickly how to sleep with someone who snores.
His snoring is unbearably loud, I’ve tried many snoring solutions, but he is so loud that nothing can block out his snoring
If he’s upstairs, we can’t hear the TV downstairs, and on the rare occasions he has a drink, his snoring
My spouse is in complete denial that he is a snorer and refuses to try any snoring aids like nose clips or wristbands, which may reduce the noise of heavy snoring, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands and figure out how to sleep with someone who snores!
How to block out snoring.
The best earplugs for sleeping with a snorer
When you sleep with someone who snores you need something to block out snoring so you can sleep through the noise.
I am somewhat of an expert on the best earplugs for sleeping with a snorer because over the past 20 years. I’ve spent a fortune trying to find earplugs to wear to block out snoring completely. I’ve tried them all!
- Foam earplugs: I found these earplugs to be totally ineffective at stopping any noise penetration at all, and they fell out of my ears all night long which completely defeated the object!
- Silicone earplugs: These helped block out snoring noises, but they constantly fell out and got sticky, mashed, and tangled in my hair! So I kept waking up all night uncomfortable. These are definitely not the best earplugs to block out snoring.
- Wax cotton earplugs: these are by far my favorite, and when inserted correctly, they stay in the ear and effectively reduce approximately 99% of noise. Just warm the earplug in your hand and mould it to the shape of your ear to cause a seal. I also prefer to cut each earplug in half, as I find they stay in better than the full size. These are by far the best earplugs to block out snoring, in my opinion!
How to reduce heavy snoring with an anti-snore pillow!
I noticed that when I got rid of my partner’s feather pillow, his snoring reduced dramatically! Try swapping your partner’s pillow for an anti-snore pillow like this one!
How to drown out snoring
Here are a few simple ways to drown out snoring and great ideas about how to sleep through snoring. These snoring aids will allow you to concentrate on something other than the loud snoring noise and allow you to fall asleep peacefully.
- Noise-reducing ear muffs: Noise-reducing ear muffs do not block out snoring completely but simply muffle the sound to a level that will enable you to get to and stay asleep. They will allow you to sleep through snoring and make it easier to sleep when someone snores.
- White noise machine: A white noise machine will help you to ignore snoring by listening to other noises instead such as Rainforest, Thunder, Windchime, Fan, Wind, Campfire, Ocean, Seagull, Brook, Birds, Bubble, Typhoon, Rain, Brown noise and more you also have the option of having a sleep timer on for when you nod off!
- Noise-reducing music pillow lets you stream music into your pillow to drown out your partners din!
- Sleep headphones a personal favorite of mine which I use to listen to audiobooks, music, meditation, and podcasts to help me drift off.
- Dyson Fan. I personally use a Dyson fan like this one, on the 2nd setting as it creates just enough white noise to drown out my husbands snoring
How to reduce snoring naturally
Because my husband snores so loud that I can’t sleep, I thought I would find out how to deal with snoring naturally. I thought I’d try to find out how to make someone stop snoring rather than try to drown them out. I did some research on most of the best-selling snoring aids and I realized that most of the stop snoring solutions had lavender as their active ingredient.
So I went ahead and dropped some lavender essential oil on my husband’s pillow. The result was quite amazing, his snoring was reduced to a heavy breathing sound and all the jerky rattling loud animal noises went away!
The next night I added two drops of eucalyptus oil, as well as the lavender oil and that, seemed to mellow the sound even more! Here are some essential oils to try if you want to stop someone from snoring.
FAQ
Sleeping with someone who snores is one of the hardest things to do, you will first need to try to see if the person who snores can be moved into a position that stops them from snoring. If this doesn’t work you could try some of the suggestions above to see if you could reduce the snoring noise or block out snoring completely ( wear earplugs ).
It is difficult to convince someone that their snoring is affecting you. it is very hard for a snorer to accept that they snore let alone have any idea of the extent to which their snoring keeps other people awake. even after I recorded my spouse snoring and played it back to him he was completely non-plussed and thought it was just a one-off he still says he doesn’t snore! I’ve come to the conclusion that most snorers don’t care about what it’s like to live with someone who snores, so it’s up to us to figure out for ourselves how to sleep when someone snores. I’ve included the best snoring solutions in this post to help you if you want to know how to muffle the sound of snoring or how to block out snoring.
It’s ok to move to another room if you feel you need to get a good nights sleep. I move rooms when my husband snores so loudly that I can’t sleep, it is a solution but I can normally still hear him through the walls so I always wear earplugs too!
My spouse gets very grumpy if I wake him up, so I have to be quite clever if I want him to stop snoring. My favorite method to wake him up is to slightly tug at his pillow, this way he wakes up naturally (or so he thinks ) and turns over onto his side. I also love using essential oils to reduce the sound of loud snoring.
There are hypnosis aids that claim that they can help you ignore snoring. They claim to be able to help you “switch off” even if there is loud snoring and to help your brain process the snoring sound so you can ignore snoring and drift off into a deep sleep.
Do you find it impossible to sleep with someone who snores? Let us know in the comments!
