Is there a reliable remedy for snoring? If you are a snorer, or if you share bedroom with one, you have probably asked yourself this question multiple times. But it’s not just about the noise, the life of a snorer is not easy as the condition contributes to overall tiredness and exhaustion during the day.
In the search for an effective cure for snoring, a team of Brazilian researchers conducted a study with the aim of establishing the effectiveness of mouth exercises in treating snoring.
Two research groups
The researchers recorded snoring characteristics (number of snores and the intensity of sound) of 39 people, including those with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) in its mild and moderate form.
After that, the patients were divided into two groups that underwent a 3-month snoring treatment.
- One group was treated with nasal strips, deep breathing exercises and nasal irrigation performed 3 times a day.
- The other group also had to clean their nasal airways 3 times a day but the basis of their treatment was daily tongue and palate exercises that lasted around 8 minutes.
The result of the research was published in the American College of Chest Physicians’ journal CHEST and it proposed that patients with a snoring condition or mild OSA could notably reduce the frequency and power of snoring by performing a set of mouth exercises.
The snoring exercise routine
Snoring occurs because the muscles at the back of your throat become relaxed when you fall asleep. When you breathe, the air moving through the air ducts causes the soft tissue of your palate to vibrate, which results in the snoring sound.
As is the case with all muscles, regular exercise can improve their condition. Tightening the muscles at the back of your throat can reduce their “floppiness” and proneness to relaxation. This means, at least in theory, that improving the condition of these muscles will improve your overall snoring problem, but targeting these muscles can be difficult.
The patients involved in the research were instructed to perform a set of 6 exercises three times a day. If you are interested in alternative methods of treating snoring, you can try these out:
- Push the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth and slide it backward – 20 times.
- Suck your tongue upward against the roof of your mouth – 20 times.
- Push the back of your tongue down while keeping the tip touching the inside of your front teeth – 20 times.
- Lift your soft palate and uvula – 20 times.
- Press your cheek muscle away from your teeth with your index finger – 10 times on each side.
- When you’re eating, bite down, then lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth as you swallow, without tightening your cheek muscles.
The effects of mouth exercises
As with every form of exercise, if you stop doing it, the effects are not going to last. This means that in order to have your snoring improved permanently, you would have to continue repeating this routine three times a day, everyday, without end in sight.
Does this sound difficult and tiring?
It is, especially in that it is not easy to maintain a high level of consistency over an extended period of time, possibly decades. For this reason mouth exercises are unlikely to be the solution to snoring that people seek, but rather a good complement to the type of snoring treatments that can actually bring proven, long-lasting effects.
One such treatment is a laser procedure performed at Specialist Clinics of Australia – SleepTight.
SleepTight is a simple, 15-20minute procedure that improves the tightness of the skin at the back of your throat. The technology behind SleepTight has been employed in various medical and cosmetical treatments and now it is bringing groundbreaking results in the treatment of snoring and sleep apnoea.
With over 2,000 procedures performed to date and a success rate of 85%* SleepTight has proven to be a life changing treatment for many of our patients without the need for daily exercise routines.
* as at November 2015
Everyone is different
Every patient is different and every snoring case should be approached individually.
At Specialist Clinics of Australia, we care about our patients first and we provide free snoring consultations. We are happy to schedule an appointment, so you can talk to an expert without any obligations. This is the only way to properly establish your individual requirements and work out an effective and lasting solution.