Snoring is pretty common and can get worse over the time. What happens is you can’t move air freely through your nose and throat. Occasional snoring is not very serious but if it becomes a constant pattern, it might affect the quality of your sleep. Severe snoring can disturb sleep which may lead to daytime sleepiness, fatigue and early morning headaches.

Snoring can affect anyone and is caused by a number of factors, such as the anatomy of your mouth and throat, alcohol consumption before sleep, allergies, cold or weight issues. You can try some natural solutions and lifestyle changes that can help you stop snoring.

• Change your sleep position. Try sleeping on your side. If you find that you always end up on your back, try placing a body pillow behind you or sewing a tennis ball in the back of your pajama top.
• Clear nasal passages before going to bed to let air move freely.
• Change your pillows. Snoring might be caused by dust mites that accumulate in pillows.
• Keep bedroom air moist. If you have a humidifier in your bedroom, aim for 50% humidity.
• Consider changing your lifestyle: quit smoking, focus on weight loss, avoid sleeping pills, sedatives and alcohol before bed, don’t eat large meals before bedtime.

It is important to get to the bottom of the problem. In some cases loud and chronic snoring might be related to an underlying medical condition known as sleep apnea. It is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when the soft tissue in the throat close down for about 20-30 seconds at a time during sleep.

The problem is that a person may not even be aware that he or she has sleep apnea. Some major warning signs of sleep apnea are choking and gasping during sleep, waking up at night feeling short of breath, dry mouth or sore throat in the morning. If you have experienced any of these symptoms it may be time to get an appointment with your doctor. Take care of your body wisely and get a professional examination with a sleep specialist.