There’s no quick fix for snoring, but there are simple things you can do to help you cope better with your partner’s disruptive bedroom habit and achieve a good night’s sleep.
Research by sleep experts Bensons For Beds has compiled some effective and easily achievable ways that partners can cope with their other half’s snores to ensure everyone gets the right amount of Z’s.
Bensons For Beds has revealed the most popular sounds people listen to fall asleep. By ranking tracks by the number of times that they feature in Sleep sounds and Sleep ASMR playlists on Spotify, and looking at the Youtube video count of all videos with at least 10 million views found by searching Sleep Sounds, the data has shed light on the best and most influential sounds to help you sleep, especially when your other half is snoring next to you.
As the research above explores, the new ASMR phenomenon is an innovative way to drown out unwanted noise. Known to activate regions of the brain associated with calming, sleep-inducing hormones, it’s no wonder those with snoring partners are turning up the sleep sounds as they relax at night.
Thunderbolts of lightning are no longer ‘very, very’ frightening as the data shockingly unveils the sound of thunderstorms that aid most people to sleep. We can see how this would work well for snoring partners, as the dramatic sounds help distract disturbed sleepers from their snoring spouses.
However, it doesn’t have to be a loud sound that successfully overrides a snore; white noise ranks as the third most popular sound that helps people sleep, along with whispering at 4th and stroking brush noises at 9th.
Keegan, 29, suggests: ‘Using the sound of your partner’s snore to fall asleep as a win-win situation for a couple, I follow the rhythm of her snoring, similar to breathing techniques in meditation, and breathe with her snoring, which helps me to fall asleep myself.’
Connie, 27, hasn’t found a way to appreciate her partner’s snore in the same way: ‘My partner tends to snore excessively after a few drinks or when he sleeps flat on his back. It does wake me up occasionally and can drive me crazy when it is deafening. Unfortunately, I do not have a cure but pushing him onto his side tends to help a lot.’
Bensons for Beds resident sleep expert Dr Sophie Bostock said: ‘The vibration of soft tissue causes snoring as air is forced through a narrowing in the nasal passages or upper airways. Anything which reduces muscular tone or adds to the weight of soft tissue will make things worse, such as lack of exercise or weight gain.’
‘Other things which make snoring worse include lying on your back, nasal congestion, breathing through your mouth, alcohol and being over-tired. Practising nasal breathing, and reducing nasal congestion with a warm shower, can be helpful for some people.’
If soothing sounds and tactical manoeuvres don’t work, 40-year old Luana Ribeira shares a trick for coping with her partner’s snoring. The couple suggests sleeping separately helps their relationship with having a full night’s rest and being unable to blame the other for any bad night’s sleep.
‘We have our own space if we want to be alone or need peace to work from home, and we get excited about seeing each other in the morning’, says the North-Wales based entrepreneur.
With a testimonial as positive as this, it might be time to replace the spare bedroom mattress and experiment with sleeping apart from a snoring spouse for the best night’s sleep.
Bensons For Beds sleep expert, Dr Sophie Bostock, agrees: ‘Sleeping in separate bedrooms does not have to be negative. Many couples find that by spending their nights apart, they can get a deeper, more restorative sleep and may feel like being nicer to each other in the morning.’
Try out these top tips and tricks to get a good night’s sleep when your partner snores to reduce resentment and improve your well-being.
