If you or your partner snore at night, you know there’s nothing you won’t try to stop it. People will try hypnosis, nasal strips, mouthguards and more without a solution. Improving your air quality can do wonders in your home – that includes dry air. Many homes suffer from dry air, especially homes with heat and air conditionings that run. The simple solution to dry air is using a humidifier. So, do humidifiers help with snoring? We have the scoop here.
What Causes Snoring?
Snoring can be triggered by many things, but the root cause of snoring is always the same. Snoring is a result of obstructed airflow and breathing.
Some of the most simple explanations for why your airflow is obstructed can be that your posture and alignment is wrong while sleeping. In some other cases, it’s clear that you have a cold, flu or are suffering from allergies. These triggers are easily detected and easily resolved with things like a new pillow or decongestant.
Some women snore only when they are pregnant and some people only snore if they drink alcohol. Some people find that their snoring goes away when they lose excess unhealthy weight.
Chronic snorers, on the other hand, have more serious causes. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes breathing to start or stop suddenly. There are two main forms of sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a blockage in the airway. The blockage can be caused by your tonsils or an excess of tissue in the soft palate. The excess of tissue is most common as a result of obesity. Central sleep apnea is a result of the brain not sending the signals to your body to breathe. Sleep apnea is a serious illness that needs to be diagnosed and treated with your doctor.
How Do Humidifiers Work?
A humidifier is a device that releases moisture into the air. The small home appliances turn water taken from a reservoir tank into steam or vapor that is then emitted into the room.
Humidifiers come in a wide range of sizes for every size space. The sizes are determined by the size of the water reservoir that humidity is released from. In most humidifiers you are able to adjust the level of humidity that you want. Some of the advanced models measure the moisture in your air and can self adjust.
There are five types of humidifiers: evaporative, ultrasonic, vaporizer, warm mist and cool mist. However, the two biggest types to know about are cool mist and warm mist.
Warm mist humidifiers heat the water to create steam while cool mist humidifiers use high-frequency vibrations or a moisture-wicking filter and fan to disperse moisture.
Benefits of Humidifiers
Low indoor humidity can cause a lot of problems for your household and family. Low moisture can damage wooden furniture, wall paint, artwork and more. But the biggest issue can be how it affects your family’s health and quality of life. Dry air dries out your body’s mucus, causing dry skin, sore throat, and chronic congestion.
If you are always feeling dried out and sick at home or struggle with constant congestion, it is likely that your home’s air is too dry for your body. There are many benefits to having humidifiers at home, specifically in the bedroom. However, alleviating these symptoms is one of the biggest changes to your quality of life.
Do Humidifiers Help With Snoring?
Yes! In every day cases of snoring caused by temporary blockage, that is. Adjusting the indoor humidity can clear up that chronic congestion and ease your breathing. By opening your airways, you can clear the obstructed sinuses and orthonasal passages that cause snoring.
However, sleep apnea is a more serious story. While humidifiers can help with some of their symptoms of dryness and congestion, sleep apnea patients should continue to seek further treatment from a specialist.
More Tips to Help With Snoring
Air quality doesn’t just stop at the humidity levels either. Air purifiers are another machine that has countless benefits for every household. Breathing clean air has a bigger impact on your health than many people realize. Using an air purifier in tandem with your humidifier completely maximizes its effects.
Anyone that snores, or has a partner that snores, knows that there is nothing they won’t try to prevent snoring. If you want to double, triple or quadruple up on preventative methods, there is a lot you can do.
Correcting your sleeping posture is number one. A humidifier can clear up all sorts of congestion, but if you are still blocking your airways with the way you sleep, the cleared congestion won’t prevent snoring. Depending on your sleeping position, there are different types of pillows that you should be using for support at night.
Adjusting your lifestyle can improve the quality of your sleep overall. If you have a lot of stress, that can exaggerate symptoms, so it’s important to find a relaxing night time routine to get into. Some people suggest avoiding blue lights from TV and cell phones at night, using aromatherapy, swapping alcohol for herbal teas and improving your eating habits.
Our Top Pick: Veva Cool Mist Essential Oil Humidifier
Top air purifier company, Veva, recently launched a cool mist humidifier. Not only is it just a humidifier, it’s also designed to safely diffuse essential oils as well.
Other humidifiers run about 24 hours at a time and only have a ½-2 liter tank on average. This can be annoying since you’ll have to fill it up frequently. The Veva boasts a 45 hour run time and a 4 ½ liter water tank. Since it fills easily from the top, maintaining it doesn’t interrupt your routine or make a mess.
The Veva humidifier has an excellent 323 square feet of coverage area. That is plenty of coverage for the average bedroom, living room or office. It is safety tested and ultra-quiet, but the cherry on top is that it is extremely affordable.
One of the best perks of this is that it’s easy to set up and comes with user-friendly customer service. Scan a QR code to quickly register for an extended warranty. You can also easily contact a fast responding customer service team.
Bottom Line
Overall, the average snorer benefits from humidifiers in many ways. Keeping your indoor air humidity levels in check will improve your breathing, day and night. A humidifier decongests your airways and opens you up to healthy breathing. People who will obviously benefit the most are people who snore (or have partners that do!). If you believe you may be suffering from a more serious problem like sleep apnea, see a specialist.
