10 Things to Try Before Seeing a Doctor About Snoring

Snoring is common, and most of the time it responds well to simple changes you can make yourself. Here are ten sensible things worth trying first, along with a clear sense of when it's time to stop tinkering and book a GP appointment instead.

1. Work out what position you sleep in

Sleeping on your back allows your tongue and soft palate to fall backwards into your throat, which narrows the airway and makes snoring more likely. If you or your partner notice the snoring is worse when you're on your back, side-sleeping is worth a genuine trial for a week or two.

How to encourage side-sleeping

• Sew a tennis ball into the back of a pyjama top, an old trick that makes lying on your back uncomfortable enough to roll over.
• Try a wedge-shaped pillow or a body pillow to keep you propped on your side.
• Give it more than one night. Most people need a few nights to adjust to a new sleeping position.

2. Look honestly at your evening habits

Alcohol relaxes the muscles in your throat, including the ones that keep your airway open, so an evening drink can make snoring noticeably worse. The same goes for sedative medications and sleeping tablets, which relax those muscles in a similar way. Try leaving a gap of three to four hours between your last drink and bedtime, and see whether it makes a difference.

Smoking irritates and inflames the airway, which can also contribute to snoring. Cutting down, or getting support to stop altogether, tends to help sleep quality more broadly, not just the noise.

3. Take a fair look at your weight

Extra weight around the neck and throat can narrow the airway, and this is one of the more well-established contributors to snoring. You don't need a dramatic change to notice a difference. Even a modest, sustained reduction in weight can ease pressure on the airway for some people. This isn't about quick fixes, it's a slower, steadier thing to work on alongside the other changes here.

4. Sort out a stuffy or blocked nose

If you're breathing through your mouth because your nose is blocked, snoring becomes far more likely. A few things worth trying:

• A saline nasal spray or rinse before bed, to clear congestion without medication.
• Treating hay fever or allergies properly, rather than putting up with them, since a persistently blocked nose overnight is a common and overlooked cause of snoring.
• Nasal strips, which gently hold the nostrils open and can help some people, though they won't do much if the blockage is further back in the throat.

If your nose is blocked most nights regardless of season or colds, it's worth mentioning to a pharmacist, who can help you work out whether it's allergy-related, structural, or something else.

5. Build a proper wind-down routine

Being overtired changes how deeply and heavily you sleep, and very deep sleep tends to relax the throat muscles further, which can worsen snoring. Going to bed at a consistent time, avoiding screens for the last half hour, and keeping your bedroom cool and dark all support better quality sleep, which in turn can take some of the edge off snoring.

6. Check your pillows and sleep setup

A pillow that's too flat, or one that lets your head drop backwards, can narrow your airway. Aim for a supportive pillow that keeps your head roughly aligned with your spine, neither craning forward nor tipping back. If you sleep on your back out of habit, a slightly higher pillow can sometimes help, though for many people the position change in point one makes more difference than pillow height alone.

7. Try simple throat and mouth exercises

There's reasonable interest in the idea that toning the muscles of the tongue, throat and soft palate can reduce snoring, on the basis that a floppier airway is a noisier one. Exercises might include pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth and sliding it backwards, or repeating vowel sounds firmly for a few minutes a day. These aren't a quick fix and need consistency over several weeks, but they're low-risk and free to try.

8. Consider an anti-snoring device, cautiously

Mandibular advancement devices, which gently hold the lower jaw forward, and some over-the-counter aids can help certain types of snoring, particularly where the tongue falling backwards is the main issue. They're not right for everyone, and pharmacy versions are a much blunter tool than one properly fitted by a dentist. If you want to understand which remedies have genuine evidence behind them, our guide to how to stop snoring naturally goes through this in more detail, and the remedies hub covers the full range of options.

9. Ask your partner what they actually notice

Snoring is one of those things you often can't judge yourself. Ask whether they've ever noticed pauses in your breathing, gasping, or choking sounds during the night. This is genuinely useful information, and not something to be embarrassed about asking. It's also one of the clearest signs of when self-help isn't enough.

10. Take stock with a quick, honest check

Before deciding whether to persevere with self-help or see a GP, it helps to look at the whole picture rather than just the snoring itself. Our 60-second sleep quiz is a straightforward way to think through your symptoms and get a clearer sense of what might be going on.

When to stop trying things yourself and see a GP

Most snoring is harmless, if annoying. But some patterns are worth taking seriously. See a GP if you have loud snoring with gasping or choking, if anyone has noticed pauses in your breathing while asleep, or if you feel exhausted during the day despite seemingly enough hours in bed. These can be signs of sleep apnoea, which is well worth investigating properly rather than managing alone. Our page on when to see a GP about snoring sets out the red-flag symptoms clearly, so you know exactly what to look out for.

Give a few of these changes a fair go, be patient with them, and pay attention to how you feel during the day as much as how you sound at night. That combination will tell you most of what you need to know.