Dr. Oz: How Sleep Positions Affect Snoring
Dr. Oz has been talking to a couple with a serious problem: the wife, Daija, snores, and the husband, Paul, can’t sleep because of it. So Dr. Oz talked to sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus to give them some good tips. Dr. Breus said that data shows the partner lying next to the one snoring loses an hour’s worth of sleep a night. He also said sleep position has a lot to do with snoring.
Dr. Oz talked to Dr. Michael Breus about ways to combat snoring, including varying your sleeping position, going on a “snore diet”, staying hydrated, and using lavender to get to sleep. (Joakim Lloyd Raboff / Shutterstock.com)
If you lie on your back, you’re more likely to snore. But Dr. Breus has some tips to get snorers to stop snoring. If you lie on your back, for example, use a wedge-shaped pillow. If you’re a bigger person, you want a higher-density wedge shaped pillow. If you’re smaller, you want a lower-density one. Sleep with the bottom of the wedge at the base of your back so your entire torso is lifted up. Your head should almost be off the edge. This will help prevent you from snoring.
Partners could also sleep facing away from each other. This helps the snoring not disturb the partner. However, if you sleep this way, don’t use a wedge-shaped pillow. It’ll hurt your back. If you turn toward each other, put a pillow barrier between the two of you so that it soaks up the snoring noise.
If none of that works, Dr. Breus recommended Paul try earplugs. You want the noise level for the earplugs to be around 32 or below, so you can still hear the smoke alarm.
Dr. Oz: Snore Diet
Dr. Breus also recommended a Snore Diet. It turns out that a 5 percent drop in weight can reduce the noise level of the snoring. Dr. Breus recommended a nice halibut with broccoli for both of them. Broccoli helps metabolize caffeine as well, so if Paul keeps drinking the caffeine at the rate he has been, broccoli is helpful for that. Paul said his ideal is to stop drinking energy drinks and coffee.
He also said staying hydrated is important because the more hydrated you are, the less likely you are to snore. To monitor that, look at your urine color. It should be clear. If it’s more of a yellow tint, drink more water.
Dr. Oz: Neti Pots for Congestion
Congestion causes snoring, so Dr. Breus recommends using a neti pot to eliminate congestion. It helps irrigate the nasal passages. When you buy one, it should come with some sort of saline solution or salt you can add to filtered water. All you do is tip the water into one nostril with your head bent slightly sideways over a bowl or the sink and let the water filter through your sinuses to come out the other nostril. This is a very gross process. I recommend doing it with your bathroom door closed and not on national television, like poor Daija had to do.
Dr. Oz: Aromatherapy for Snoring
Aromatherapy has been proven to help people get into deeper sleep. Dr. Breus recommended a lavender spray on the pillow to lull you into a deeper sleep. Some women don’t like it because the lavender smell can get into their hair, but most guys don’t seem to care.
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