My snoring is ruining my marriage!

[CGH93]

Help!

my snoring is ruining my marriage, over the last 4 months I’ve developed a loud snore.

My husband has bought ear plugs but he says it’s not enough!

It’s not affecting me, as in, I don’t know I’m doing it and it’s not making me tired during the day.

He claims I don’t stop breathing, and I don’t have any other typical symptoms of sleep apnea.

My weight has been steady, no drastic changes.

What can I do!? 😫
Im fed up of being scared to fall asleep and then falling out with my husband because of something I can’t control.

(yes, my intention is to see a GP but I can’t get in for 3 weeks)

Mouth tape.

There's options like mouth guards and nose pegs that are meant to help, might be worth a Google

Try those nostril expander things.

Thank you, I’ve had a look on google and those are all the things I’ve seen too.

ive had nose strips before and they didn’t help.

Im nervous of mouth taping!

Do you sleep on your back or on your side? Also change your pillow.

Mandibular advancement devices. They were talking about them on What’s Up Docs (the van Tulekin brothers) on radio 4 this afternoon. Keeps your soft palate a bit more open I think.

I would say don’t panic, if you’ve only developed it in the last few months it may be temporary. Start with changing your sleeping position, different pillow, see how that works. People tend not to snore all night, it’s possible you just snore through a particular phase of your sleep then stop.

On my side

I did wonder about changing pillow, but i
the type of pillow I like/have is over £100. I’ve used this brand for years and it’s not been an issue before now.

but I’m open to try

Thank you for this

I’m just at the point where I’m scared to go to sleep 😔

I’m going to try the above :)

My dh stops on his side, but is always worse after a drink or when hes carrying a bit of excess weight. Are your tonsils enlarged? Allergy season?
Nose tape dulls the sound i find, my dh finds mouth guards too uncomfortable to sleep. Mouth spray too sometimes lessens it

I don’t often have a drink so I don’t think it’s alcohol related for myself, but I know it does have an impact!

erm, possibly, I can’t be sure. It’s not something that stands out to me, I’ve never suffered with allergies before (doesn’t mean that I won’t though?!)

I don’t think I’d cope with a mouth guard either!

i think I’m going to get my humidifier out tonight and see if it helps

My dh’s snoring nearly ended our marriage, it’s awful being tired and someone else is stopping you sleeping when they are sound asleep, at times I genuinely wanted to smother him with a pillow. Have you got a spare room you can move to until you manage to sort it out? DH ended up investing in a really good Mandibula Advancement Device (spent a small fortune on it) and it’s been a game changer. It did hurt his jaw for a while but he got used to it. I no longer want to kill him. I actually remember shouting at him calling him a fucking attention seeker once at 3am who wanted to let the world know he was sleeping, lol. Genuinely drove me nuts and I was so tired all the time.

Honestly it’s my biggest fear, I don’t want it to come between us. Especially when I can help it!

Although not ideal, him losing sleep will cause more problems than you temporarily moving into another room would. Can you try the Mandibula? The first few cheap ones dh tried didn’t work well, but the £100 one he bought works fab. It really does take a while to get comfy though so you have to persevere.

No I absolutely get that! He’s very against me leaving the bedroom, I’ve told him I think that it will benefit us in the short term but he’s reluctant.

im going to look into it tomorrow to see where I can get one from and what it entails x

Also another vote for allergy checks!

Hope you get it sorted, that’s nice that he doesn’t want you to sleep apart.

The Tulleken brothers did whole piece about snoring on Radio 4 today. They interviewed a sleep/snoring specialist and the advice basically was:

Make lifestyle changes as applicable: lose weight, avoid alcohol or other drugs that have a relaxant effect.

sleep on your side, not your back. There’s an electronic device you can buy that you stick on the back of your neck that helps you do this.

try a Mandibular Advancement Device which is like a mouthguard and helps keep your throat in a good position to avoid snoring.

nose strips and sprays don’t really work.

if you have sleep apnea you need to see a sleep clinic and will probably need a cpap machine.

or you can do what me and DH have done: sleep in separate bedrooms

I wouldn’t waste your time on the pillows. Dp tried a load of them and they didn’t work. If it is allergies, and you’re sleeping with duck feather pillows or duvets, I would try and change to hypoallergenic though.

You don’t always know you have sleep apnea so it might be worth testing for it. Dp (when he remembers grrr) wears a CPAP advice - without it his snoring could wake up the street (but I find the CPAP noisy in itself).

I wear ear plugs and an eye mask that wraps around my ears otherwise I get no sleep!

you can get devices to do a home check for sleep apnea now (they aren’t cheap but you can use the same ones the NHS send you)

I second the advice above. The only thing that works for me is the mouth guard which gently keep you jaw in the position to stop the soft palate vibrating. I fell for an Instagram advert, but it has helped.
Not a sexy look or feeling but your partner does get some sleep

I know you said your weight has been steady but are you overweight?

Not over weight now, I’m a good weight for my height with a good BMI :)

Meant not over weight no, thankfully I haven’t been before

Thank you for your help