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Sleep
By Jillian Tracy and Maxwell Shukuya, CNN Underscored
Updated 11:49 AM EDT, Wed May 7, 2025
What's in this guide
- Causes of snoring
- Health impacts of snoring
- Treatments for snoring
- At-home snoring aids
- Causes of snoring
- Health impacts of snoring
- Treatments for snoring
- FAQs
- Meet our experts
- Why trust CNN Underscored
Anti-snoring products quick picks
A sleep apnea-detecting smartwatch: Apple Watch Series 10
For side sleepers: Coop Sleep Goods Original Adjustable Body Pillow
A pillow that forces you upright: The Snorinator Anti-Snoring Pillow
If white noise isn't cutting it: Ozlo Sleepbuds
If your partner’s snoring keeps you up at night, searching for the right anti-snoring products may be your first priority. But loud, honk-shoo snoring is often a warning sign that bigger health issues are waiting to be addressed, despite what Saturday morning cartoons might want you to think.
That’s why we asked sleep experts to help break down what causes snoring, how it affects your health and what you can do to try to fix it.
At-home snoring aids
Editor Favorite
Dr. Kevin Postol, a certified sleep dentist and the president of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, said more and more people have begun asking about mouth taping as a solution to snoring. He advises that before you jump to grab any tape, you should make sure you have good nasal airflow. “I always remind people, but about 80% of our air should be coming through our nose and about 20% through our mouth,” Postol said.
You don't have to shell out for trendy mouth tape. Multipurpose medical tape, like this hypoallergenic roll from 3M, can also help with snoring.
Unlike most smartwatches, the Apple Watch Series 10 comes with sleep apnea detection. Not only has the US Food and Drug Administration approved marketing of the feature, but Apple's data suggests it detects severe cases 89% of the time. That's not a substitute for a real sleep study, but it could tip off your doctor to investigate.
Read our review
Best Tested
A new pillow or pillow setup might be the easiest way to try to alleviate snoring. Especially for back sleepers, trying a new sleeping position that keeps your head elevated and airways more open — or sleeping on your side — may reduce the severity of your snoring. If you need to upgrade your current rotation of pillows, we recommend Eli & Elm's adjustable pillow, which is our top pick for side sleepers.
Read our review
Best Tested
In our review of body pillows, Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist and sleep consultant at Wesper, said that body pillows may help people sleep on their side, mitigating the effects of sleep apnea. Contributing writer Isla Harvey recommends this model from Coop, which beat nine other pillows in her testing pool.
Read our review
If standard bed pillows aren’t helping, Postol also recommends trying a wedge pillow to help keep the head and neck elevated while you sleep. This wedge pillow won’t move around during the night to help ensure you always stay more upright.
Copy chief Daniel Toy suffers from a long list of sleep issues, but he's found relief with this unusual pillow, which forces you to sleep upright. Though he said sleeping vertically isn't always pleasant, it has decreased his snoring's frequency, intensity and volume.
Read our review
Similarly, nasal strips can help open the nasal passages for better airflow. They’re not a permanent fix, especially for those with OSA, but for mild cases of snoring, they may bring you and your bed partner more peace at night.
Best Tested
Before you consider a sleep divorce, it's worth trying other solutions. “If using earplugs or a white noise generator solves [or] reduces distress from the affected bed partner, that's a great place to start," said Dr. Emerson Wickwire, a board member for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and section head of sleep medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. For instance, you might try this best-tested white noise machine, which also includes soothing guided meditations and sleep stories.
Read our review
If white noise isn't cutting it, try a different tack: a pair of sleep headphones. Health, fitness and food editor Tobey Grumet Segal said that this pair from Ozlo blocks nighttime disturbances, including her husband's snoring.
Read our review
Looking for a lower-tech option? Tried and true, earplugs are a budget-friendly option that can help dampen and block irritating snoring sounds.
You can also upgrade to Loop's Dream Earplugs, which senior lifestyle editor Tamara Kraus said are so comfortable she forgets they're in her ears.
Read our review
If you live or sleep alone, you may not even know whether you snore. While you may be waking up feeling well rested and symptom-free, maybe another part of you is just curious about what your body gets up to during the night. You can download the SnoreLab app for free, which will monitor and record your snoring throughout the night. Wickwire cautions that most sleep apps are not medical grade, so this app won’t be able to diagnose your condition, but you’ll at least be able to collect information on what your sleep sounds like.
Causes of snoring
To understand snoring, you first have to understand breathing. Wickwire walked us through our body’s four-step breathing cycle.
“First, the brain sends a signal to the diaphragm. Second, the diaphragm contracts. Third, air is brought into the lungs. And fourth, the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood to the brain and other vital organs,” he said.
Throughout the day, the body repeats this cycle as we work, chat, exercise and complete our tasks, he added. When we sleep, the muscles and the tissues in the upper airway (i.e., the nose, sinuses, mouth and upper throat) relax and make the airway smaller. This means that during sleep, the same amount of air our body uses during the day now has a much smaller space to move through. As the air moves through, it causes the relaxed tissues to vibrate.
“It’s almost like if you put your hand in front of a really powerful fan, you hear and feel the noise,” he said. “The tissues in your upper airway are vibrating, and that vibration is what we call snoring.”
Health impacts of snoring
Like a lot of other health issues, snoring exists on a spectrum. This can range anywhere from mild snoring that is so soft and light that your bed partner might not even notice any noise to severe, sleep-disrupting snoring often associated with sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Postol said that if you’re getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night, without tossing and turning or noticing other health issues, then your mild snoring is likely not a cause for major concern. Keep in mind that a louder-sounding snore also doesn’t automatically mean your health is in worse shape, though it might mean your sleep partner will be more direct about telling you to find a fix.
According to Postol, you should be concerned if your snoring sounds like gasping for air; you feel chest pains; you experience increased bouts of anxiety and depression; or you have unresolved high blood pressure, memory issues or excessive daytime sleepiness. Experiencing any of these symptoms, which could be signs of sleep apnea, is a good enough reason to talk to your physician about conducting a sleep study.
“There’s a lot of people who won’t go and be evaluated because they think all sleep studies are done in a lab,” Postol said. “Most sleep studies nowadays are done at home, in the privacy of your bedrooms [and] are very simple, easy to do.”
The results of the sleep study can help determine if your snoring could be connected to other conditions like mild sleep apnea or a more severe sleep disorder like OSA, where the airway is even more narrow, causing snorting, choking or gasping during the night.
Postol said many patients don’t recognize how other factors of their health are related to their sleep apnea. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute reports that “sleep apnea may raise the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.” Other studies have also highlighted links between OSA and the development of conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
“There’s too many patients who end up not going to see a health care professional until it’s too late,” Postol said, “which ends up being a big factor in their longevity, in their life, because just like eating and drinking are important, sleep is just as important.”
Treatments for snoring
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to snoring.
Some snoring can be improved by making lifestyle changes like losing weight, sticking to an exercise routine, quitting smoking or avoiding alcohol before bed, Postol said. You could also try sleeping on your side or with your head more elevated to help keep your airways open. But if at-home remedies still aren’t helping, then it’s time to seek professional help.
According to Yale Medicine, 37 million Americans said they snore regularly, and in general, many people find talking about and admitting to snoring embarrassing. Women often underreport their snoring habits, making it more likely that their sleep disorders are overlooked, even though instances of sleep apnea can occur during pregnancy or menopause.
Postol said some patients hesitate to bring up snoring issues to their doctors, fearing that they may be told to wear a continuous positive airway passage (CPAP) machine, which many people find loud and uncomfortable to sleep with.
Luckily, qualified sleep dentists such as Postol can often help patients alleviate snoring and sleep apnea by fitting them for an oral appliance, a device similar in shape to a mouthguard that helps keep the jaw forward and the airways open while you sleep. While similar oral products are available at drugstores, Postol warns that it’s better to get a professionally fitted piece that won’t risk grinding or moving your teeth around.
The bottom line is if you’re thinking about your snoring — how it’s affecting your life and overall health — that’s enough of a sign to talk to your doctor. Advocating for your health is the first step in finding a snoring solution that will get you (and your partner) better sleep.
“When people are sleeping better, particularly if they have sleep disorders, when these are treated, everything about life gets better,” Wickwire said.
FAQs
For more information about snoring and how to prevent it, we spoke to sleep specialists Dr. Kevin Postol and Dr. Abhinav Singh.
Over-the-counter snoring products may work, Postol said, but improper use or setup could lead to unwanted side effects like jaw pain and dental changes. “Using an anti-snore device without any supervision by a dentist may leave you at risk for harm, so please be sure to let your dentist know if you are using one,” he said.
Singh takes a more conservative stance. “You see, OTC snoring products can delay a proper diagnosis of sleep apnea or only partially treat it, which can have serious health consequences,” he said. Instead, he encourages readers to opt for custom-made anti-snoring devices provided by a qualified dentist.
“Custom-fitted dental anti-snoring products, specifically oral appliances, have proven to be highly effective in treating snoring,” Postol said. Oral appliances reduce the vibrations that cause snoring by keeping the lower jaw stabilized and airways open.
That said, dental anti-snoring products aren’t as effective as CPAP machines, according to Singh. “CPAP is a more reliable and effective treatment for reducing snoring, especially when coupled with breathing pauses and improving blood oxygen levels during sleep,” he said.
The best treatment starts with a proper diagnosis, Postol said. “Following this, I recommend a custom-made oral appliance, which should be designed and fabricated by an AADSM Qualified Dentist.”
You can also try lifestyle changes first, Singh said, such as avoiding alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight, quitting smoking, adjusting sleep positions, elevating your head and using snoring trackers. “If simple measures don’t work, discuss options with a sleep specialist or dentist trained in sleep medicine,” he said.
Meet our experts
The following three sleep specialists at the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine provided insights for this piece.
- Dr. Kevin Postol, a certified sleep dentist and president of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine
- Dr. Emerson Wickwire, board member for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and section head of sleep medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine
- Dr. Abhinav Singh, a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, medical director at the Indiana Sleep Center and author of “Sleep to Heal: 7 Simple Steps to Better Sleep”
Why trust CNN Underscored
CNN Underscored has a team of skilled writers and editors who have many years of experience testing, researching and recommending products, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when applicable to make certain we are testing each product accurately, recommending only the best products and considering the pros and cons of each item. For this guide, associate editor Jillian Tracy and associate writer Maxwell Shukuya spoke to three leading clinicians at the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.
Jillian Tracy Associate Editor
Jillian Tracy is an associate editor at CNN Underscored who covers topics that span the lifestyle vertical such as fashion, health, sustainability, beauty and outdoors. You can find her trying to catch up on her Goodreads goal, planning her next travel adventure or rewatching "RuPaul’s Drag Race."
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Maxwell Shukuya Associate Writer, Updates
Maxwell Shukuya is an associate writer for CNN Underscored who covers updates across a variety of verticals. He has a particular passion for gear, especially when it comes to coffee, hiking and climbing.
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