Home snoring remedies- do they really help?
Posted in Sleep Disorders/Snoring on June 29, 2011
We found an article talking about some potential home remedies for snoring. Many of the suggestions listed are indeed useful in helping to deal with snoring and sleep apnea issues.
For example, many patients have worse snoring and/or apnea when lying on their back, and using a tennis ball sewn into the back of a pajama top to prevent sleeping in a supine position can help reinforce alternative sleep positions, such as lying on one’s side. However, the problem with many of these suggestions is they ultimately don’t address the underlying anatomical problems that may be causing sleep apnea/snoring/nasal congestion. In addition, the article states that theses remedies may be most appropriate for mild to moderate snoring, indicating that people with this type of snoring are less likely to have sleep apnea. This is not the case- the degree of snoring is not always correlated to the presence (or absence) of sleep apnea. Patients should always be evaluated by a physician first to ensure that there is no sleep apnea present prior to doing one of the methods listed in the article.
Thank You.
Nilesh Shah, MD.