Written by
Eric Suni, Staff Writer
Medically Reviewed by
Kimberly Truong, Sleep Physician
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Snoring can be a sore subject for bed partners, roommates, and family members. It can cause disrupted sleep and may even force some to sleep in separate bedrooms.
To avoid these problems, it’s natural to want to snore less. At the same time, it can be hard to know which methods to reduce snoring are actually backed by science.
For people with mild snoring, research has shown that mouth and throat exercises can help tone the muscles around the airway so that snoring is not as frequent or noisy. Likewise, the same mouth and throat exercises have been shown to improve mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
These mouth exercises are also called “myofunctional therapy” or “oropharyngeal exercises.” It is often taught by a trained myofunctional therapist.
As with any type of workout regimen, it requires time and effort for these mouth exercises to have an effect. When done properly, a significant number of snorers and those with mild to moderate OSA have reported that these exercises lead to less snoring and better sleep.
During sleep, the space behind our tongue narrows, and the tissue around it becomes floppy and relaxed. When air gets forced through as we breathe in and out, the tissue flutters, making noise like a flag whipping in the wind.
Snoring happens when the airflow from breathing causes floppy tissue in the back of the throat to vibrate.
Obstructive sleep apnea happens when floppy muscles in the back of the throat relax to the point where the muscles nearly or completely closes off the airway. This disrupts sleep and can cause low oxygenation during sleep.
Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea occurs due to floppy airway muscles, poor tongue positioning (“tongue posture”), and breathing through the mouth during sleep. Mouth and throat exercises can tone up the airway and tongue muscles while promoting breathing through the nose.
Like how going to the gym regularly can tone up your arms, regular mouth and throat exercises will add strength to your mouth and airway muscles. Muscles that are more taut are less likely to be floppy and flutter.
Technically, these exercises are called “myofunctional therapy” or “oropharyngeal exercises”. The oropharynx is the area at the back of your mouth that includes the back of the tongue, sides of the throat, tonsils, adenoids, and soft palate (the soft muscular part at the back of the roof of the mouth).
Researchers have found that doing repetitive oropharyngeal exercises while you’re awake can help keep the tissue from becoming excessively floppy and vibrating during sleep. Several studies have shown that toning these muscles has been shown to help reduce snoring and milder forms of obstructive sleep apnea.
The benefits of these mouth and throat exercises (“myofunctional therapy”) have been widely studied in people who snore or have mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea. People with obstructive sleep apnea have the most benefit with myofunctional therapy when used in conjunction with a CPAP machine or after surgery.
It is important to note that even for mild snoring, mouth and throat exercises are not always effective. Individual factors, like the size and shape of a person’s mouth, tongue, and throat, may affect how well these exercises work.
Oropharyngeal exercises may be less effective if a person’s snoring is related to alcohol or use of sedatives that cause relaxation of the muscles in the back of the throat.
Based on the existing research, the best bet is to do mouth exercises for at least 10 minutes per day for three months in order to notice a reduction in snoring or OSA. Most people perform the exercises two to three times per day.
Most research studies demonstrate benefit after 3 months of mouth and throat exercises. Another study showed that performing myofunctional exercises as part of a smartphone game for at least 15 minutes per day was effective in improving snoring.
As with any workout, it takes time to build muscle, so you shouldn’t expect anti-snoring exercises to work overnight. The good thing about these exercises is that you don’t need any special gym equipment–you can do them almost anywhere.
Some people may find myofunctional therapy to be tedious or silly, but there are virtually no physical downsides.
Health risks could arise if people use mouth exercises instead of other prescribed treatments for their snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. It is recommended to talk with a doctor before starting or stopping any type of therapy for snoring or sleep apnea.
There are various types of exercises meant to strengthen the tongue, facial muscles, and throat through specific training techniques. Each of these exercises can be grouped together in various ways and performed two to three times per day.
Tongue Exercise #1: Tongue Slide
Tongue Exercise #2: Tongue Stretch
Tongue Exercise #3: Tongue Push Up
Tongue Exercise #4: Tongue Push Down
Mouth exercises engage your facial muscles to help prevent snoring. These exercises can be done several times per day.
Face Exercise #1: Cheek Hook
Face Exercise #2:
Practice breathing through your nose.
Purpose: This exercise improves nasal breathing, which stabilizes the airway during sleep.
Saying different vowel sounds involves the muscles in your throat, so deliberately repeating these sounds can help tone those muscles.
Singing activates multiple muscles in the mouth and throat and involves pronouncing diverse sounds, including vowels. Preliminary research has found that focused singing training may cut down on snoring. When singing, try to focus on repeating and forcefully pronouncing individual sounds rather than just singing normal lyrics.
Some cases of snoring are an indicator of obstructive sleep apnea, an underlying sleep disorder. Sleep apnea can have serious health consequences if it goes undiagnosed and untreated.
If you have any of these risk factors, it is important to talk with a doctor:
While mouth exercises are a promising home remedy, they aren’t a solution for all snoring or obstructive sleep apnea. Even when helpful, they may need to be combined with other treatments recommended by a doctor.
These mouth exercises are similar to exercises that are often done as part of speech therapy. People looking for specific advice on how to conduct these exercises can ask their doctor for a referral to a speech therapist or someone with experience in exercises to strengthen the mouth, tongue, and throat.
Staff Writer
Eric Suni has over a decade of experience as a science writer and was previously an information specialist for the National Cancer Institute.
Sleep Physician
PhD
Dr. Truong is a Stanford-trained sleep physician with board certifications in sleep and internal medicine. She is the founder of Earlybird Health.
