How to test a snoring remedy, one change at a time

Side sleeping, skipping the nightcap, a nasal strip, another pillow. The usual move is to try three of them on the same Monday. By Thursday the nights sound quieter and there’s no way to tell which change did it, or whether the cold you had last week simply cleared up. The method below takes a couple of weeks per change and ends with a straight answer about that one change.

What’s worth testing

These are the changes that come up again and again in the sources below. They suit a test because each one can be switched on or off from one night to the next.

• Sleeping on your side. Sleep Education says sleeping on your back may make snoring more likely. The NHS and MedlinePlus both describe the old trick of stitching a tennis ball into the back of your sleepwear so rolling onto your back is uncomfortable; the NHS also mentions a special pillow or a bed wedge.
• No alcohol in the evening. Alcohol relaxes the throat muscles (Sleep Education), and MedlinePlus suggests avoiding alcohol and medicines that make you sleepy at bedtime. For a test, compare evenings with no drink at all against your usual.
• A nasal strip. MedlinePlus mentions over-the-counter, drug-free strips that help widen the nostrils, and the NHS lists strips and nasal dilators for a blocked or narrow nose. MedlinePlus adds that they are not a treatment for the more serious sleep disorder snoring can sometimes point to, which is one more reason the warning signs below come first.
• An extra pillow. People try it all the time. None of the sources here make a claim either way, which makes it a fair question to put to your own nights.

Losing weight if you’re overweight and stopping smoking are on the NHS and Sleep Education lists too. They work over months rather than from one night to the next, so they don’t fit this kind of test.

One change not to test on your own: medication. The NHS notes that sleeping pills can sometimes cause snoring, but don’t stop or change anything you’ve been prescribed to run an experiment. Ask whoever prescribed it.

The method

1. Write the change down in one line. “Nasal strip, every test night, starting Monday.” Vague plans turn into three changes by Wednesday.
2. Record a baseline first. Several ordinary nights, doing nothing different. Without them you’re comparing the new nights with your memory of the old ones, and memory is generous.
3. Freeze everything else. The phone goes in the same spot, screen down and plugged in. Fan on or off the same way. Same pillow, unless the pillow is the test. How to record your snoring covers the set-up.
4. Alternate if you can. Strip one night, no strip the next, for two weeks. If a cold clears up halfway through, or the weather turns, it lands on both sides of the test equally instead of flattering the second week.
5. Log it the night it happens. Tap it in before bed or first thing in the morning, not on Sunday from memory.
6. Set aside the spoiled nights. A blocked nose (Sleep Education lists congestion from a cold or allergies as a cause of snoring), a night out, a different bed, a night your partner was away and the room sounded different. Note them and leave them out of both sides.
7. Give it several nights each way. A week of each is a good target. With only two or three on either side, one bad night can decide the whole thing.

Reading the result honestly

Listen to the loudest few moments from several nights on each side, the same way each time. Then ask plainly: are the “with” nights quieter, or about the same?

• A small difference may just be night-to-night noise. Run it for another week before you buy a year’s supply of anything.
• A pattern in your own nights shows what lined up with quieter nights. It isn’t proof the change caused it.
• If something cheap and harmless seems to help, keep doing it. If nothing changes after a fair go, that’s an answer too, and it’s one of the reasons to see a doctor (below).

Stop testing and talk to a doctor if…

• you choke or gasp in your sleep, or someone has noticed your breathing stop and start;
• you’re sleepy during the day, or wake up unrefreshed or with morning headaches, despite a full night in bed;
• your attention, concentration or memory is slipping;
• you’ve given these changes a fair try and the snoring hasn’t improved;
• snoring is having a big effect on your life or your partner’s.

This list is drawn from the NHS and MedlinePlus pages below, which give these as reasons to see a GP or your health care provider.

Doing this with Snora

Snora is an iPhone app we make, and this experiment is what its factor log is for. On each morning’s Replay you can log what was different with a tap: Side sleeping, No alcohol, Nasal strip, Extra pillow and a few others. Logging is free. With Snora Premium, a one-time purchase with no subscription, Snora compares your own nights with and without a factor once there are enough of them, and labels the result as an observed pattern, never advice or proof of cause. The night is recorded and analyzed on your iPhone and the audio is never uploaded. Some snoring gets missed and some room sounds get counted, so play the top moments from a few nights on each side before you trust the comparison.

Snora on the App Store

Sources

• NHS: Snoring
• American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Education: Snoring
• MedlinePlus (US National Library of Medicine): Snoring, adults