What to Do If Your Partner’s Snoring is Driving You Crazy

Having a hard time sleeping at night because your husband or wife’s snoring is through the roof?

A good night’s sleep is important to properly function the morning after. But that can be difficult to achieve if you’re sharing your bed with someone who snores loudly.

No need to suffer from sleepless nights. You need to determine what the root cause of the snoring is, and start from there. Here are the four most common reasons why people snore:

Excess Weight

Being overweight is a factor. It causes a fatty buildup around the neck that narrows the airways and leads to snoring. You can persuade your partner to lose a couple of pounds to help them quiet down come night time.

Sleeping Posture

Sleeping flat on the back causes the muscles in the throat to block the airway passages, causing your partner to snore. Once they start snoring, you can roll them over, or ask them to sleep on the side. You can also ask them to sleep with more pillows on. The slight elevation will take the pressure off the airways, making it easier to breathe when sleeping.

Consumption Before Bedtime

Does your partner like to indulge in happy hour? That’s probably the main reason for all the snoring. Drinking alcohol causes the tissues and muscles around the throat to relax, and for the airway passages to collapse. Having a cigarette or two before bedtime also irritates the lining of the nasal cavities, which leads to snoring. If your partner can’t quit the habit, you can ask him or her to drink or smoke at least four hours before you go to bed.

Sleeping pills, cold medication, and antihistamines may help your partner to sleep better, but they also relax the throat and neck muscles, which also lead to snoring.

Congested Nasal Passages

Nasal congestion is another reason. When the airways are blocked with too much mucus, breathing becomes labored and difficult. Nasal congestion and snoring are both symptoms of a person who has a deviated septum.

The septum is the thin wall that separates the nasal cavities. Ideally, this wall should be in a straight line; once it deviates, one nasal cavity becomes larger than the other, causing breathing difficulties and sleeping disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea.

Is Snoring Harming Your Relationship?

In order to save your sleep—and your relationship—you need to have a heart-to-heart talk with your partner, and tell the other person that their snoring is keeping you awake at night. Then, come up with scientific ways to remedy the snoring situation.

Over-the-counter sleeping aids such as oral sprays, nasal strips, and head-positioning pillows can only do so much, while noise-canceling earplugs will only solve the problem temporarily. For longer-lasting results, seek the help of a professional. You can accompany your partner here at the Los Angeles Sinus Institute. If a deviated septum is indeed the reason behind the loud snoring, we highly recommend that your partner undergoes a septoplasty.

During a septoplasty procedure, a Los Angeles sinus doctor will put an incision in the nose in order to straighten out the septum wall. Since this is a minimally invasive procedure, you and your partner can resume your normal lives as soon as possible.