How to Stop Snoring When Allergies Cause Snoring

Do your allergies cause snoring? Don’t let that prevent you from enjoying a good night’s sleep! Try these self-care strategies and sleeping tips so you (& your partner) can rest!

If you’re one of the 19 million people in the United States diagnosed annually with respiratory allergies, your allergic reactions (symptoms) may be a possible cause for your snoring. Not only does snoring interfere with your sleep, but it can also cause other health problems, such as obstructive sleep apnea. 

The good news is that taking the right steps can help you manage both conditions and get a good night’s rest. Allergies and their relationship with snoring can be frustrating, but there are ways to reduce symptoms. 

This article provides self-care tips to help you sleep better when your allergies cause snoring.

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What Causes Snoring?

Snoring is the vibration sound when air flows past relaxed tissues in your throat while you breathe. It occurs most often when you progress from light to deeper sleep because the muscles in your soft palate (the roof of your mouth), tongue, and throat become very relaxed, block your airway, and vibrate as you breathe.

The sound of a snore can be whispery or loud and rumbling, depending on how narrow your airway is and how forcefully you breathe. The narrower your airway becomes, the more forceful the required airflow. This increases tissue vibrations, which creates louder snoring.

While we all experience mild snoring now and then, some people experience chronic snoring. Many conditions can cause snoring, and sometimes more than one condition can co-occur. The situations may include:

• Anatomy of Your Mouth: While everyone has the same body parts in their mouth, each part can be a different size and shape. People with large mouth anatomy can experience a nasal obstruction simply because of how they were born. Additionally, people who are overweight may have extra or thicker tissues in the back of the throat, narrowing their airways.
• Alcohol Consumption: Drinking alcohol relaxes throat muscles.
• Nasal Conditions: Having allergies, a deviated septum, poor muscle tone, chronic nasal congestion, nasal polyps, or chronic sinusitis (a chronic sinus infection).
• Sleep Deprivation: Poor sleep or a lack of sleep is a common cause of snoring.
• Sleeping Position: Sleeping on your back is the most common position that causes snoring because gravity naturally pulls relaxed tissues downward, causing at least a partially blocked airway.

Lifestyle changes or basic self-care strategies can address some of these circumstances, so knowing the cause(s) of your snoring is helpful.

Tips for Better Sleep with Allergies

You can do a few things before bed at night to prevent snoring and improve poor sleep quality when your allergies cause snoring.

1. Take a shower before bed. Showering will reduce the pollen and allergens you inhale while you sleep.
2. Keep your bedroom as dust-free as possible to minimize exposure. Moving bookshelves, figurines, and other items that collect dust from your room can be beneficial.
3. Keep your pets off your bed linens and out of your bedroom if possible.
4. Consider using a high-quality air purifier.
5. Take your allergy medication at night to ensure the dose remains high during sleep.
6. If you spend time outdoors, remove your clothes somewhere other than your bedroom. Place them in a hamper in a bathroom or laundry room. Avoid drying clothes on clotheslines, and use the dryer as much as possible.
7. Close your windows when neighbors are mowing the lawn.
8. Sleep with your windows closed when possible to keep pollen and allergens outside.

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Self-care Strategies and Lifestyle Changes to Reduce Snoring Problems

Avoiding allergy triggers is the most effective preventive measure allergy sufferers can implement. Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible, but other strategies can help. Simple self-care can help you reduce your snoring. 

There are different types of self-care, but focusing on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual self-care can be beneficial.

1. Eat a healthy diet with plenty of fruits, learn to love eating vegetables, and implement self-care to stop eating junk food. Get more activity, and if you hate to exercise, take a daily walk or try tips from this article. 
2. Find and measure a proper serving size. Weight loss can reduce snoring due to fatty tissue reduction throughout your body, including in the nasal airway.
3. Refrain from drinking alcohol or caffeinated beverages at least 3-4 hours before bed.
4. Stop eating at least 3-4 hours before bed.
5. Work on easy self-care tips to reduce your stress.
6. Effectively manage your stress and implement self-care tips to lower your blood pressure.
7. Take breaks and get plenty of rest.
8. Take more frequent showers if you spend more time outside during warmer weather. You might also consider spending more time outside after rain showers when less pollen is in the air.
9. If you have a smartphone, there are multiple apps for snoring and sleep apnea. Many are free to trial and, for a nominal fee, offer monitoring of your snoring during light and deep sleep. These apps also provide advice based on the monitoring results. In-app training includes how-to videos for mouth exercises scientifically proven to reduce snoring. Check out the apps for Snoring Lab and Snoring Gym.

Effective Treatment When Allergies Cause Snoring

As a first step, you can try treating your nasal allergies with over-the-counter medications. However, combining self-care strategies and medications will likely be most effective in treating your nasal symptoms. 

Allergy medications are available in:

• Pill form
• Liquid
• Inhaler
• Nasal spray
• Eyedrop
• Skin cream,
• Shot (injection)

You can buy some over the counter; others are available by prescription. 

There are three main types of allergy medications.

1. Antihistamines block histamine, a symptom-causing chemical released in your body by your immune system during an allergic reaction.
2. Decongestants provide fast and temporary relief of nasal and sinus congestion.
3. Corticosteroids relieve allergy symptoms by reducing allergy-related inflammation.

There are many over-the-counter medications available without a prescription. One issue to note is that some allergy medications are known to cause drowsiness, so you should take them cautiously. Additionally, it would be best to be cautious about taking more than one medication at a time.

When to See a Healthcare Provider if Allergies Cause Snoring

If you experience snoring on a chronic basis and it affects your quality of sleep and daily life, it’s always a good idea to see a healthcare provider to help find the severity and cause of your snoring.

A primary care provider can collect your medical history and complete a physical exam.

Depending on the allergens that cause your symptoms (i.e., spring vs. indoor allergens), your provider may recommend over-the-counter (OTC) medications or a combination of OTC and prescription medications.

Depending on the severity of your allergies, your provider may refer you to a specialist for allergy skin testing to see if you would benefit from a series of allergy shots or sublingual allergy drops (under the tongue). Typically, these services are provided through an allergist, immunologist doctor, or otolaryngologist (ear, nose, and throat) doctor.

Conclusion – When Allergies Cause Snoring

Allergies can make sleeping difficult, but with the right strategies and tactics, they don’t have to stand in the way of achieving restful sleep. 

You can effectively manage your allergies with proper self-care and management for snoring and sleep apnea, improving your sleep quality and quality of life.

Need help finding time to take better care of yourself because your allergies cause snoring? Get your FREE copy of the Self-care Starter Guide!

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originally published 2/16/23