Snoring Remedies

How to stop snoring … maybe

In all the articles we found, only two types of anti-snoring products receive even a lukewarm recommendation (in a "they might work, but they probably won't" kind of way): internal nasal dilators and external nasal dilator strips. As for internal nasal dilators -- which you insert into your nostrils at night to keep nasal passages open -- the American Academy of Sleep Medicine says there are some studies showing their effectiveness to stop snoring, but each of these studies enrolled a limited number of patients, and a whopping 40 percent of these users couldn't sleep with the dilators in place.

External nasal dilators -- the most popular example of which are Breathe Right Nasal Strips (*est. $6 for a box of 12) -- are a slightly different story. According to AASM, studies of these strips have shown contradictory results -- patients themselves say they sleep more comfortably with less snoring, but noise monitors show no reduction in the volume of snoring.

Still, perhaps because they're so cheap and easy to use, Breathe Right Nasal Strips are far and away the most-mentioned product in the stop-snoring literature. The Australian consumer magazine Choice, Britain's Which? magazine and others all give Breathe Right tepid recommendations. Which?, for example, points out that Breathe Right only works with snoring of nasal origin, which it says accounts for only ten percent of all snoring cases. In other words, if the reason you snore is a floppy flap of skin situated at the back of your throat, Breathe Right strips won't have any effect whatsoever.

Not everyone has good things to say about Breathe Right strips. One study cited by WebMD was conducted a few years ago by an Air Force doctor in San Antonio, Texas, who compared the effectiveness of the lubricating mouth spray Snorenz, the ergonomic pillow Snore-No-More, and Breathe Right strips by having 37 snorers try each of the products for one night apiece. All failed miserably, though the company that makes Breathe Right insists that its strips need to be used for six consecutive nights to stop snoring (or even to just show improvement). Writing for Slate, Chip Brantley echoes the opinions of other reviewers on Breathe Right strips: "I like that raw rush of cold, dry air I seem to take in when wearing one. I feel as if I'm breathing better, even if I'm not." He's not, apparently; his wife complains that he's snoring as loudly as ever.

Besides internal and external nasal dilators, sprays and lubricants are the only over-the-counter snoring cessation products to receive even the tiniest smidgen of approval from the medical establishment. Since hard data is difficult to come by, the most that an authority like AASM can do is consult existing studies and conclude that sprays and lubricants "probably" reduce snoring; in this case, the Committee is more generous than product testing organizations, which say that there's no evidence to back up manufacturers' claims that their products stop snoring. For this reason, we did not include any stop-snoring sprays or lubricants in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers.

In the hands-on review at Slate magazine, Chip Brantley says he stopped his snoring by taping a tennis ball to the back of his t-shirt (most snoring occurs when the sleeper is in that position). This may not be the right solution for everybody, but it's certainly much cheaper -- and potentially much less aggravating -- than exploring various OTC stop snoring products.

What doesn't work to stop snoring

In the world of snoring remedies, it seems that the effectiveness of a product is inversely proportional to the number of times it's indexed on search engines like Google. The Internet teems with URLs consisting of some variant of "stopsnoringforever.com" or "theonlysnoringcurethatreallyworks.com," which pop up prominently when you search on the word "snoring." The copy on these sites often seems reasonable and scientific, until the writer leads you to the conclusion that the only way you'll ever stop snoring is by ordering an expensive magnet from Peru.

Needless to say, doctors and consumer organizations don't have kind things to say about these stop snoring products, which seem designed to snag the credit card numbers of snorers (or partners of snorers) whose judgment has been clouded by lack of sleep. A good example is the Anti-Snor Therapeutic Ring (*est. $45), which Slate's Chip Brantley describes as "a thin sterling silver ring with two acupressure balls on the underside … the ring goes on the left-hand pinky and is supposed to stimulate the heart meridian and give energy to something called the ‘upper jiao.'" Brantley gives this new-age cure a good score, based largely on the fact that his long-suffering wife hated it a bit less than the other remedies (though she did say it was ineffective).

The Australian magazine Choice is especially good at evaluating off-the-wall snoring remedies. Neither Dentons' Anti-Snore Silent Knight Therapeutic Pillow nor Dick Wicks' Magnetic Anti-Snore Pillow offer any evidence to back up their claims of effectiveness (Dentons', for example, says its pillow stops or reduces snoring in 70 percent of users, but refused to supply any supporting data to Choice after repeated requests). As for magnetic and homeopathic snoring remedies, experts note, there's simply nothing in the laws of physics as they're known today that can explain their supposed effectiveness (other than the placebo effect, of course).

Snoring and sleep apnea

One of the issues that complicates doctors' perspectives on chronic snoring is that this condition is often associated with (or caused by) obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, loud snoring and OSA are both caused by narrowing of the airways during sleep. A sleeper with OSA stops breathing for seconds at a time at least five times per hour, which places stress on the heart and increases the risk of stroke and other illnesses.

This is one of the main reasons doctors disapprove of over-the-counter snoring remedies: If your snoring problem is disruptive enough to make you search for a cure, you may actually have a mild, moderate or even severe case of OSA, which requires diagnosis and treatment. This is especially important if you live alone; a spouse or partner is likely to demand that you visit a doctor if she sees you in distress during the night, but if you sleep on your own, you may be unaware that a larger problem exists (except for one prominent OSA symptom, daytime drowsiness).

As you might expect, remedies for OSA are significantly more expensive and involved than those for chronic snoring. One of the leading therapies is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP); basically, you wear a ventilator during the night that forces air down your trachea. Also currently under investigation are new types of surgery that either reduce the amount of floppy tissue in the uvula, or involve the insertion of implants that shore up the loose folds (based on our investigation, these surgeries cost in the neighborhood of a few thousand dollars apiece, and may or may not be covered by insurance). However, if your snoring isn't just occasional, it's worth checking with your doctor.

Important Features: Snoring remedies

Reviewers say the following about seaching for help to stop snoring:

• Investigate claims carefully. Consumer magazines have asked various manufacturers of snoring "cures" for evidence to back up their claims; usually, none is forthcoming. Just because a website says its snoring remedy is "95 percent effective" is no reason to believe it's true.

• Know when you need to see a doctor. If your snoring is so severe that you wake up numerous times during the night, you may have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a potentially serious condition. If you think you have OSA, make an appointment with a doctor immediately.

• Decide if the cure is worse than the disease. It's up to you (or your spouse/partner) to judge if the discomfort of an internal or external nasal dilator is worth a slight reduction in snoring. If a snoring remedy is so uncomfortable that you can't sleep, you've just replaced one problem with another.

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