Looking for exercises to stop your snoring? Well, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, I am going to explain everything about how to stop snoring with exercises. I’ll show you some of the most effective exercises that are proven to stop snoring. I’ll also explain why exercises are effective against snoring and why you should consider including them in your everyday routine to stop snoring.
Without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff:
What Are Some Exercises you can do to Stop Snoring?
Are you looking for a natural way to stop snoring? Then these exercises can be the best method for you. Exercises for snoring don’t mean squats, lunges etc. These exercises are mainly focused on your mouth and throat.
First, let’s find out why actually snoring happens?
Snoring can happen for many reasons. But one of the most common ones is the relaxation of your throat and mouth muscles. When these muscles get relaxed, they partially block the air passage. As a result, the air gets blocked when we breathe. This causes vibration with the muscle and starts the “snoring” sound.
In extreme cases, it can interrupt your breathing for up to 40 seconds when you are sleeping. This interruption in breathing while you are sleeping is called “Sleep Apnea” in medical terms.
When our brain figures there is a shortage of oxygen supply due to sleep apnea, it triggers us to wake up. As a result, we wake up from sleep, the throat muscles get tight and we can breathe again. This process can repeat even a hundred times during a whole night. Sleep apnea causes your sleep quality to fall down alarmingly which affects your whole day.
So, to stop snoring, we need to figure out a way to prevent our throat and mouth muscles from getting relaxed when we sleep. That’s where these exercises come in and help us to stop snoring.
These exercises are designed to stop your throat muscles from getting relaxed when you are sleeping. Regularly performing these exercises will eventually help you to get rid of snoring completely.
13 Famous Stop Snoring Exercises
1. Harvey Flack’s Palate Workout
This workout was designed by Harvey Flack, a British doctor. It includes the exercise of the palatal muscles. This exercise is highly effective against sagging of the jaw and palatal musculature due to age. You need to follow the exercise every day before hitting the bed.
The best thing about this exercise is, you don’t need any other additional tools to follow it. You can do it anywhere anytime you prefer.
Here are the steps for the exercise:
- Take a toothbrush. A pen will do too. Stick it between your teeth and bite firmly for up to 10 minutes.
- Now, you need to press your tongue firmly against the lower jaw teeth. Continue this on for a few minutes while keeping your mouth closed.
- For a couple of minutes, push the lower jaw slightly backward. With the aid of your jaw muscles, withstand the pressure. Repeat the process.
2. Curling Your Tongue
All you need to do is, slip the tip of your tongue and roll it back while keeping your mouth open. Roll the tongue along the hard palate and make sure you roll it as far as you can. Repeat this process about 20 times.
3. Suck Your Tongue Upwards
For this exercise, you need to push your tongue against the roof of the mouth flatly and try to suck your tongue upwards. Keep your mouth open during the whole process. Do this about 20 times for 2 seconds each session.
4. Force The Rear Part Of Your Tongue
Keep the tip of your tongue in contact with the front lower teeth and at the same time, force the rear part of your tongue against the mouth roof.
5. Pulling Your Cheeks
With your fingers, pull your cheeks out. Now with the help of your mouth and cheek muscles, try to retract your fingers back in.
6. Elevating The Back Throat
By making the sound “AAhh”, try to elevate your back throat as much as you can. With repeated practices, you’ll also be able to elevate the uvula without even making the “aahh” sound.
7. Extending Your Tongue
Extend your tongue straight as far as you can. First, try to reach the tip of your nose with your tongue. Then try to reach the chin. After that, move your tongue to reach the left and right cheek. Repeat the process at least 10 times.
8. Making A Humming Sound
Place your tongue firmly yet gently between your teeth and make a humming sound. First, start humming from deep within and then eventually increase the frequency and make the humming as much high-pitched as you can. Repeat the process about 10 times.
9. Being a Hippo
This is a fun exercise. Open your mouth as much wide as you can and sound ‘aaahhhhhh’ for 20 seconds. Doing this only once is enough, but multiple times a day.
10. Sharp Breathing Through Nose
Keep your mouth closed and breath sharply through your nose. Don’t be surprised if you snort a little bit. You need to do this exercise in four sets, each set comprising of 5 reps. Take a 5-second break between each set.
11. Deep Nasal Breathe
Stick your tongue forward as far as you can and take deep long breaths through your nose. Repeat the process about 20 times.
12. Gulping
Keep your mouth closed and swallow about 10 times repeatedly. Make the swallows as forceful as you can.
13. Swallow Slowly
Swallow slowly, in a very controlled way. Make the swallow last for about 5 seconds. Try to keep as much pressure as you can in the throat when swallowing. Repeat the exercise about five times.
Proof That These Exercises Work Against Snoring
Most Singers Aren’t Snorers
A recent study carried out by British scientists from the famous Royal Exeter Hospital has found that singing can be an effective solution to snoring. Also, it has been found that most singers never suffered from snoring.
This is solely because singing is a type of mouth and throat exercise. Performing this exercise regularly can help to a great extent to resolve your snoring problem, reduce the volume as well as the frequency of snoring and overall improve your sleep quality.
The author of “The Natural Way To Stop Snoring”, Elizabeth Scott, has revealed in her book that singing has a huge impact on our palatal muscles. Her recommendation was to sing sharp notes of ‘Ye’ or ‘Ya’ at consistent intervals.
Alisa Ojay recommended in her program ‘Singing for Snorers’ to regularly make ‘ung’ and ‘ga’ sounds. By making the ‘ung’ sound, the palate will drop off on your tongue. On the other hand, the ‘ga’ sound will lift your palate up.
Dr. Geraldo Lorenzi Filho, a Brazilian physician followed a different approach. He ran a study on exercises for stopping snoring in 2015. The study showed an amazing result. 36% of participants reduced the frequency of their snoring after the study. Also, the volume of snoring reduced by 60%! The participants simply had to follow a particular exercise 3 times a day for about 8 minute long sessions each time. Here is this simple exercise:
Dr. Geraldo asked them to push back their tongue along with the palate or lift up the uvula along with the soft palate while making an ‘Ahh’ sound. The study involved only 39 participants and it produced a satisfactory result that showed exercises are definitely effective against snoring.
Some of my favorite anti-snoring products for mild snorers are listed below:
- Out of all the mouthpieces available in the market that actually help, I love this one and surprisingly had a great result from it.
- If you are not a very heavy snorer, you can go for a nasal strip
- Switching your bedding system to an adjustable bedding has helped lots of snorers.
- Change your pillow with a wedge pillow
- Try nasal drops before sleeping.
- Last but not least try sleeping elevated and do change your sleeping position if you have an odd sleeping position. You can even raise your pillow with a gadget such as the SMART NORA PILLOW (Find the Smart Nora pillow here)
You check out their reviews on Amazon here
Final Words
Lastly, I would like to finish by saying that, though all of the exercises mentioned in this article are proven to work, they won’t work immediately. They need time and persistence. Don’t expect to get an immediate result. Just keep on doing the exercises as consistently as you can.
Check out some of these other articles that you can use along with these exercises to help your snoring :
17 Essential Oils For Snoring And Sleep Apnea (Including my Fav one for Better sleep and Snoring)
Stop Snoring Naturally Throat Exercise | Effective & Easy
