Sleeping With a Snorer: How to be Supportive

Sleeping With a Snorer: How to be Supportive : Sleeping with a snorer can be extremely frustrating. Lack of proper sleep can lead to a wide variety of health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, impaired judgement, anxiety, and depression. There are many products and tips that claim to help reduce snoring, such as a snoring mouthpiece, a pillow to encourage side sleeping, or sewing a tennis ball to the back of a sleep shirt to encourage side sleeping.

As the partner of a snorer, how can you be supportive of the snorer in a way that encourages them to take control of their snoring and health without alienating or upsetting them? It’s a tall order, but not impossible. Here are some tips.

Use earplugs to make sleeping with a snorer easier

The simplest way to support your snoring partner is to tune out their snoring so you can get some sleep. Ear plugs can muffle snoring to a level that allows you to sleep. If you have a loud alarm and don’t need to listen for the sounds of children, beeswax earplugs do a great job of reducing background noise to help you sleep.
Use a white noise machine

Often, a white noise machine can drown out the sounds of a snoring partner. Snoring has a wave-like pattern, so listening to waves on a white noise machine can turn obnoxious snoring into background noise that your brain can ignore. This works especially well for light snorers, although it may not be enough to drown out loud snoring.
Encourage your partner to sleep on their side

Snoring is often worse when a person sleeps on their back since their airway is more restricted. There are lots of ways to encourage your partner to sleep on their side. Some examples are shoving a pillow under their back, using side-sleeping pillows, and sewing a tennis ball to the back of their shirt to discourage them from rolling over in their sleep.
Ask your partner to seek help

Snoring is often a symptom of sleep apnea, a condition where a person stops breathing for seconds or minutes at a time while they sleep. It may seem like your snoring partner is sleeping better than you, but those with sleep apnea aren’t getting restful sleep and are prone to a variety of health problems as a result. Being diagnosed with sleep apnea and using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine could save their life (as well as your sanity).

Losing weight can also reduce or eliminate snoring. Extra weight can put pressure on a person’s airways, and the restricted airflow leads to snoring. Losing weight could improve your partner’s snoring as well as their quality of life.
Record the sound of their snoring

When asking a partner to take steps to reduce their snoring, they may be inclined to downplay how bad their snoring is. Recording the sound of their snoring can be a huge wake up call about how serious the problem is and may encourage them to seek help. This is especially important if your partner seems to stop breathing when they sleep, yet is reluctant to go to a sleep specialist for a possible diagnosis of sleep apnea.
Thank your partner for taking steps to reduce their snoring

The trickiest part about dealing with a snoring partner is encouraging them to take steps to help reduce their snoring without sounding like you’re attacking them. They may be defensive about their snoring and feel like you’re attacking them for something they can’t control.

Assure your partner that you are worried about their health as well as your quality of sleep, and always thank them for taking steps to reduce their snoring. Don’t make them feel guilty for waiting so long to go to a sleep clinic or figure out a way to sleep on their side. Instead, show gratitude for the fact that they are taking steps now to resolve the issue.

Sleeping with a snorer can be extremely frustrating, but it doesn’t need to wreck your relationship. There are ways to deal with and even reduce snoring so both you and your partner sleep better and live healthier as a result. Overcoming the frustration of sleeping with a snorer can strengthen your relationship in the long run.

Author:

Cindy is a Professional health writer, experienced blogger, and a coach. She is a writer by day and a reader by night. Currently, she is working for healthycounter.com which provide the information related to health, fitness and fashion.