About 150 million people in the United States snore without having sleep apnea. That estimate comes from a 2024 randomized trial in JAMA Otolaryngology, and the same researchers pointed out something surprising. Very few studies have tested treatments for plain snoring, even though it affects so many people and their bed partners. That means a lot of the anti-snoring advice online is guesswork.

Why Snoring Happens

Snoring is the sound of soft tissue vibrating in your throat as air squeezes past it during sleep. When you fall asleep, the muscles that hold your airway open relax. If the airway is narrow, the air speeds up and the tissue flutters.

Common things that narrow the airway:

• Extra weight, especially around the neck and belly
• Sleeping on your back, which lets the tongue and soft palate fall backward
• A blocked or stuffy nose
• Alcohol or sedating medicines close to bedtime, which relax throat muscles further
• Large tonsils or adenoids, especially in children
• Jaw and mouth shape

The right fix depends on which of these applies to you. That is why one remedy works well for one person and does nothing for another.

Step One: Make Sure It Is Only Snoring

Snoring can be harmless. It can also be the main sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where the airway closes again and again during sleep and oxygen levels drop. Untreated sleep apnea is linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and car crashes.

See a doctor or sleep specialist if your snoring comes with any of these:

• Someone has seen you stop breathing, gasp, or choke in your sleep
• You feel sleepy during the day even after a full night in bed
• You wake with headaches or a dry mouth most mornings
• You have high blood pressure that is hard to control
• You get up to urinate several times a night
• You have nodded off while driving

In 2022, the US Preventive Services Task Force concluded there is not enough evidence to recommend screening adults who have no symptoms. That finding applies to people without warning signs. If you have the signs above, testing is the right move. Many people can now do a sleep study at home.

Treating snoring without checking for sleep apnea can hide a serious problem. A quieter night does not always mean a healthier one.

Approaches With Evidence

Losing Weight
Evidence: Strong (mostly studied in people with sleep apnea)

Extra fat in the neck and tongue narrows the airway. Losing weight opens it back up.

The INTERAPNEA trial, published in JAMA Network Open in 2022, randomly assigned 89 men with overweight or obesity and moderate to severe sleep apnea to usual care or an 8-week lifestyle program. The program covered nutrition, aerobic exercise, sleep habits, and cutting back on alcohol and tobacco. Men in the program lost about 7 kg (15 lb) on average. Their breathing interruptions dropped by 51% at 8 weeks and by 57% six months later. At six months, about 6 in 10 no longer needed CPAP therapy.

Weight-loss medication is also showing results. In the SURMOUNT-OSA trials, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2024, adults with obesity and sleep apnea who took tirzepatide for one year had far fewer breathing interruptions than those on placebo. The most common side effects were stomach-related.

One honest caveat: these trials measured sleep apnea severity, not snoring volume. Still, weight is one of the most consistent drivers of airway narrowing, and losing it treats the cause rather than the sound.

What to do:

• If you carry extra weight, aim for steady loss through diet and regular exercise
• Even 5 to 10% of your body weight can make a difference
• Ask your doctor whether weight-loss medication is appropriate for you

Mandibular Advancement Devices (Oral Appliances)
Evidence: Strong for primary snoring

A mandibular advancement device is a mouthguard-style appliance that holds your lower jaw slightly forward during sleep. This pulls the tongue forward and widens the space behind it.

This is the treatment with the clearest recent trial evidence for plain snoring. In the 2024 JAMA Otolaryngology trial, couples were randomly assigned to have the snorer use either a mandibular advancement device or a combination of nasal and positional measures for four weeks. Bed partners rated 91% of the device users as much improved, compared with 58% in the combination group. Put another way, for every three snorers who used the device instead of the combination approach, one more had a clear improvement. This was a small pilot trial, but it was randomized and focused on snoring itself.

These devices have trade-offs. A 2022 review found that long-term use (five years or more) can slowly shift the front teeth and change your bite. For most people the change is small, but it matters if your bite is already tight. Jaw soreness and extra saliva are common in the first weeks.

What to do:

• Talk to a sleep physician first to rule out sleep apnea
• Get fitted by a dentist trained in dental sleep medicine
• Schedule regular dental follow-up to check your bite over time

CPAP If You Have Sleep Apnea
Evidence: Strong for people with sleep apnea

CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) uses a small machine and mask to keep your airway open with gentle air pressure. It is the standard treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea, and it nearly silences snoring for most users.

A 2025 randomized crossover study in the Journal of Sleep Research measured snoring objectively. CPAP cut snoring from about 49 snores per hour to about 4. Some snoring remained in some people, but the drop was large.

CPAP is not used for snoring alone. If testing shows sleep apnea, though, it is one of the most effective options available.

Changing Your Sleep Position
Evidence: Moderate, works best for back sleepers

For many people, snoring is loudest on their back. Side sleeping keeps the tongue and soft palate from falling into the airway.

A 2026 multicenter randomized trial in Thorax tested a neck-worn device that vibrates gently when you roll onto your back. Compared with a sham device, it reduced breathing interruptions by 34% over three months in people whose apnea was worse on their back. Bed partners reported less snoring and better sleep for themselves. More than half of users chose to keep the device after the trial.

There is a catch. The 2025 Journal of Sleep Research study found that keeping people off their backs did not reduce snoring for the group as a whole. It only helped people whose snoring was mainly a back-sleeping problem. In that subgroup, snoring dropped from about 26 to about 14 snores per hour.

What to do:

• Record yourself for a week with a snoring app, or ask your partner, to see if snoring happens mostly on your back
• If it does, try a positional device, a backpack-style pillow, or a body pillow behind your back
• If you snore in every position, position changes alone probably will not be enough

Mouth and Throat Exercises (Myofunctional Therapy)
Evidence: Moderate, with mixed results

Myofunctional therapy is a set of daily exercises that strengthen the tongue, soft palate, and throat muscles. Stronger muscles are less likely to collapse during sleep.

The recent trials point in a hopeful but mixed direction:

• A 2025 randomized trial in Acta Oto-Laryngologica gave 125 snorers either tongue and mouth exercises or finger exercises for six weeks. Bed partners rated snoring lower in the exercise group. Measurements from home sleep tests, however, did not differ between groups.
• A 2024 randomized trial in the Journal of Oral Rehabilitation found that four weeks of online throat exercises reduced snoring frequency and loudness, and improved sleep quality.
• A 2022 randomized trial in people with obesity found no meaningful change in app-measured snoring.
• Two recent reviews of randomized trials, from 2023 and 2025, found that these exercises reduced sleepiness and improved sleep quality in adults with sleep apnea. The 2025 review also found less snoring intensity, and larger benefits when people trained more than 30 minutes a day.

The pattern suggests exercises help some people, especially with consistent daily practice, but they are unlikely to fix heavy snoring tied to significant weight.

What to do:

• Work with a trained myofunctional therapist or use a structured program
• Typical exercises include pressing the whole tongue against the roof of your mouth, sliding the tongue backward along the palate, and lifting the soft palate while saying “ah”
• Practice daily for at least six to eight weeks before judging results

Treating a Blocked Nose
Evidence: Limited

A stuffy nose pushes you to breathe through your mouth, which makes snoring more likely. In the 2024 JAMA Otolaryngology trial, a combination of nasal strips, saline rinses with a steroid, side sleeping, and mouth taping helped 58% of snorers by their partner’s rating. That is a meaningful number, but it was clearly less effective than an oral appliance, and the study could not show which part of the combination did the work.

For people with structural nose problems, a small 2026 study found that nasal valve surgery reduced the share of the night spent snoring. This was not a randomized trial, so the evidence is limited.

What to do:

• If allergies or congestion are a problem, treat them with your doctor’s guidance
• Saline rinses and external nasal strips are low-risk to try
• If your nose is blocked most of the time, see an ear, nose, and throat specialist

Cutting Back on Alcohol and Quitting Smoking
Evidence: Limited in the last five years

Alcohol relaxes throat muscles, and smoking irritates and inflames the airway lining. Both are long-standing clinical recommendations. Most of the direct research on alcohol and snoring, however, is older than five years, so it is not the basis of this guide.

Recent evidence is indirect. The INTERAPNEA program included alcohol and tobacco cessation and produced large improvements, but the trial could not separate these effects from weight loss. A 2024 survey of 815 adults found smoking was independently linked to habitual snoring, along with age and belly fat. Surveys show links, not cause and effect.

What to do:

• Avoid alcohol in the three to four hours before bed
• If you smoke, ask your doctor about quitting support
• Track whether your snoring is worse on nights you drink

Laser and Surgical Procedures
Evidence: Limited for long-term results

Several in-office and surgical procedures target the soft palate, the main source of snoring vibration.

• Laser treatment (Er:YAG): A 2025 review of 56 studies found this non-surgical laser reduced snoring loudness with mild, short-lived side effects. Results typically lasted 12 to 24 months, and 25 to 40% of people needed repeat sessions. The authors rated the evidence for long-term benefit as low to very low quality.
• Palate surgery: A 2021 review of barbed pharyngoplasty, a type of palate surgery for sleep apnea, found it lowered snoring scores. About 1 in 5 patients had temporary trouble swallowing.

Procedures make the most sense after a full evaluation, when simpler options have failed and the source of snoring is clear.

What to Skip: Mouth Taping

Mouth taping is popular on social media. The research does not support it as a stand-alone fix.

A 2025 systematic review in PLOS ONE looked at 10 studies with 213 patients. Only two showed any improvement in breathing measures. Others showed no benefit, and several raised safety concerns, including the risk of suffocation in people who cannot breathe well through their nose. Many studies excluded anyone with nasal blockage, the very people most likely to try taping at home.

If you snore because of mouth breathing, the better step is to find out why you cannot breathe through your nose.

A Note on Children Who Snore

Snoring in children is not something to ignore. The Pediatric Adenotonsillectomy Trial for Snoring, published in JAMA in 2023, randomly assigned 459 children aged 3 to 12 who snored but did not have significant sleep apnea to either surgery to remove the tonsils and adenoids or watchful waiting.

After 12 months, surgery did not improve attention or planning skills. It did improve behavior, sleepiness, quality of life, and blood pressure. Only 1.3% of children who had surgery progressed to sleep apnea, compared with 13.2% of those who waited. About 2.7% had a serious complication from surgery. A 2026 follow-up analysis in Sleep found that 65% of children who had surgery saw clear improvement in at least two areas of health, compared with 39% of those who waited.

If your child snores three or more nights a week, talk with your pediatrician. Surgery is one option, and the decision depends on the child.

A Simple Plan to Get Started

1. Check for warning signs. If you have any red flags for sleep apnea, get evaluated before trying anything else.
2. Track your snoring for one week. Use a snoring app or partner notes. Write down your sleep position and any evening alcohol.
3. Start with low-cost changes. Sleep on your side, skip alcohol close to bedtime, and treat nasal congestion.
4. Address weight. If you carry extra weight, this is the change with the broadest benefit for your airway and your overall health.
5. Add daily mouth and throat exercises and give them six to eight weeks.
6. Move to an oral appliance if snoring is still loud. This has the strongest trial support for plain snoring.
7. Consider procedures last, after a full evaluation by a sleep specialist or ear, nose, and throat surgeon.

Evidence at a Glance

Approach	Strength of evidence	Best suited for
Weight loss	Strong	People with overweight or obesity
Mandibular advancement device	Strong	Primary snoring and mild to moderate sleep apnea
CPAP	Strong	People diagnosed with sleep apnea
Positional therapy	Moderate	People who snore mainly on their back
Mouth and throat exercises	Moderate	Motivated people willing to train daily
Nasal treatments	Limited	People with congestion or nasal blockage
Alcohol reduction and quitting smoking	Limited (recent data)	Everyone, as part of overall health
Laser and palate procedures	Limited	Selected cases after full evaluation
Mouth taping	Not recommended	Not advised without medical guidance

The Bottom Line

Snoring has more than one cause, so there is no single cure. The strongest recent evidence supports weight loss, oral appliances, and CPAP for people with sleep apnea. Side sleeping works well for people who snore mainly on their back. Throat exercises help some people with steady practice. Mouth taping and quick fixes without a diagnosis carry more risk than the internet suggests.

Start by ruling out sleep apnea. Then match the treatment to the reason you snore.

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Medical disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes only and does not replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea or other medical conditions. Always talk with a qualified healthcare provider about your symptoms before starting any treatment, device, medication, or exercise program.

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