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{I hope you all will give a warm welcome to my friend Beverly Meyer. She is a Paleo Nutritionist and Natural Health Practitioner, as well as the founder of the On Diet and Health website. She is a wealth of knowledge about a wide range of topics and her website is one of my go-to resources. Please stop by her site and say hello!}

Is snoring ruining your sleep and zapping your energy? Here are 6 tips to stop snoring naturally, without surgery or a CPAP machine.

Snoring is the result of restriction in the airway down your throat or in your nasal passages. If your breathing is reduced while sleeping, you’ll be oxygen deprived 24 hours a day. You may also be a restless sleeper, trying to position your head to open the airway.

NOTE: If you suspect you or your partner has sleep apnea, see your doctor and implement the steps below immediately. Check out some of my articles and Primal Diet – Modern Health podcasts on snoring here , here and here. There’s several on insomnia as well.

6 Tips to Stop Snoring Naturally

1. Buy a new pillow. If you sleep on your back, get a contour latex pillow that gently tilts your head back such as this one on Amazon. Sleeping on a non-contour pillow lets your chin tilt down towards your chest. This guarantees a restricted airway.

I prefer latex to Memory Foam as Foam is synthetic and out-gasses nasty chemicals. If however you find the perfect Memory Foam pillow, let it air out in a spare room for a few weeks before using.

Amazon will generally take pillows back if you submit the refund as “not as advertised” or “defective”. Latex is hypo-allergenic, won’t compress over time, and has a firm but comfortable feel. Try several!

2. Tape your mouth shut. This may sound weird, but no matter the position you sleep in, tape your mouth at night. I use 3M Micropore tape but any cloth tape from a drug store works.

Fold a little tab on the end of a 3 or 4 inch piece of tape as a handle for easy removal, press your lips gently together and apply an edible oil or moisturizer to your lips and beside your lips before placing the tape on. (The tape comes off easier this way in the morning). I also place and peel the tape 3 or 4 times on my arm to reduce stickiness before putting it on my mouth.

Taping the mouth stops mouth breathing and keeps your mouth and sinuses moist. It helps keep your jaw from dropping open and restricting your airway.

3. See a dentist or orthodontist who specializes in TMJ, snoring and bite correction without surgery. This is a new dental specialty so consult with the right person, not just your regular dentist. There are special mouth pieces to wear at night that pull your lower jaw forward a bit and stretch the airway. Works wonders for me!

4. Handle your allergies so your nose can breathe properly. Stop all dairy except ghee for a few weeks and see if your nasal congestion doesn’t clear up. If you can breathe through your nose, you won’t want to open your mouth to breathe.

Make your bedroom a pet-free zone 24 hours a day. Animal dander is a common cause of stuffy nose and allergy.

Use a Sleep-Right Nasal Breathe Aid to hold your nostrils open. It’s more comfortable than nasal strips and works great for me! NOTE: This is a different nasal strip than most are used to, so make sure you check it out so you know what this one looks like.

5. Reduce alcohol and other sedatives which let the tongue collapse backwards and the muscles of the throat be too soft.

6. Do an at-home sleep test. Borrow or buy a Wrist Pulse Oximeter with a Finger Pocket and wear it overnight. (The photo on this item doesn’t show the finger pocket but it’s how the unit reads your oxygen and heart rate). It’s also useful for recording heart rate during exercise, without the Finger Pocket.

The Oximeter reads the level of oxygen in your blood with a red light that “sees through” your fingernail into the red blood cells below. It also tells you how many “sleep arousals” you had. The lower the number of arousals and the higher the oxygen, the better you’re breathing!

You don’t have to completely flunk the test at the level of Sleep Apnea to have an airway problem. I was told my test results were “fine”. But comparing my test results and “normal” results, I could see I had an issue and I knew I had to go to a TMJ specialist.

Wearing an Oximeter on my wrist and finger for just one night changed my life – I now knew why I had Chronic Fatigue and anxiety… I have a receding jaw, restricted airway, TMJ (with no symptoms) and tiny nostrils. I was not breathing well at night and not getting good sleep, keeping my nervous system keyed up and anxious.

Read more on my dental journey with TMJ here.

Speak with your partner about snoring. Don’t ignore it or make it a joke. Many studies show links between snoring and heart disease, dementia, accidents, and poor memory.

Best wishes,

Beverly

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