Share your snoring woes and cures

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If you share a bed with a snorer, night times can be an exhausting experience. Or worse, if you're the one tooting like a foghorn, they can be horribly embarrassing. To mark National Stop Snoring Week (22 - 26 April) please would you share any sound tips - short of kipping elsewhere - you've discovered for getting some undisturbed shut-eye, or making sure your DP gets a little.

my "depression" wasn't depression at all - lifted totally within about 2 weeks of CPAP. Cpap is a bugger to get used to but I did and find it hard to sleep without it now.

Can you just buy a CPAP machine?

DH was tested for sleep apnea but does not have it, although consultant said from his results he was one of the worst snorers she'd ever seen. I'm convinced a CPAP machine would be the cure.

He had one operation to laser his nose, small nostrils for his size, that had been damaged by a cricket ball in the face 18 years ago and it worked for about 3 years.

He needs to loose weight, but he hasn't. We've been in separate rooms for 5 years, yes you read it right 5 YEARS. I miss the intamacy and I don't want sex with him because he makes me too pissed off with the lack of effort with the snoring.

We went away for 5 days over half term with the children, all in the same room, if the children fall to sleep before him it does not wake them. But I was weeping with exhaustion in the bathroom at 1.30am on the third night, but this does not make him sort it out.

He's needs a fitted Somniguard thing £1,000 but we can't afford it yet. We have tried everything on the market and nothing works, my Mum even made him an elasticated head guard thing to keep his jaw locked shut, but it did not work.

It's truly heart breaking and fucking horrendous.

We get on great otherwise and have been together scince we were 16 & 18 but I think in later life it will have been the snoring that will drive us apart.

After reading all the thread it basically boils down to the fact that men who snore are lazy, fat inconsiderate bastards! And I include my own Dh in this.

you can get a basic cpap machine for around £400-500 I think but you need a letter from a doctor. If he doesn't have sleep apnoea then I'm not sure why you think one would work CPAP machines keep your airway open by forcing air down it - if his airway doesn't close then I'm not sure how this will change things.

Also trying to get people with sleep apnoea to actually wear their mask is a bugger even when it makes them feel so much better - I don't see how you would make him wear one.

Have he tired a CPAP mask - do you understand how intrusive they are?

Would you like me to photograph mine perhaps if you haven't seen one in action?

"We went away for 5 days over half term with the children, all in the same room, if the children fall to sleep before him it does not wake them. But I was weeping with exhaustion in the bathroom at 1.30am on the third night, but this does not make him sort it out."

you poor thing I feel the same sometimes.

Kewcumber - I have seen one in action and know what they look like and the NHS consultant said they do work for snoring and would in his case but he can't get one on the NHS for snoring only sleep apnea, so his GP may be able to give him a prescription to buy one privately.

I could not give a shit about how intrusive they are to the wearer, if it makes him stop snoring so he feels less half dead each day and I don't have to listen to the snoring, so be it.

duelingfanjo - thanks, people think I exagerate about it, but is it so loud on both the in and the out breath, no one could sleep next to him.

You can hire them to try them out, the one DH has is very neat and unobtrusive, I was amazed he'd consider it, but the knows it works and is quite happy with it. The total size of the box with all the bits is like a child size shoe box. There are ones and some are very cheap and noisy, his is silent.

This site is good for info - www.britishsnoring.co.uk/cpap_rental.php?gclid=CJHk8s_X47YCFYXItAodMn0ASw

Grants I feel your pain ... I had to start taking sleeping tablets to get some sleep. Now sleep apart but miss intimacy and it does impact on the relationship. On holidays i always bring them otherwise i would not sleep. Dc's are older , so i don't have to worry if they need me in the night. Like you, it was the indifference - not bothering to get it checked out at a sleep clinic, not willing to do anything to change. Broken nose- many times-rugby - probably the cause.

I wasn't thinking you would care how intrusive it was! My point was more whether he would actually stick with it. My sleep apnoea was truly dreadful and I really really struggled with it the feeling of having something strapped tightly around your head and face is very claustrophobic - and I don't suffer at all from claustrophobia.

Don't buy a cheap noisy one - the noise may be as bad as snoring. Hiring would be a better option - lot of money to spend if he doesn't tolerate it well.

I used to snore until I learnt the Buteyko technique for controlling my asthma. One of the things it recommends is to make yourself break the habit of mouth-breathing by putting a little piece of microporous tape (or sticking plaster) over your mouth at night: as well as sorting out my asthma this also cured my snoring! It also magically (and quite counter-intuitively) helps to unblock your nose at night of you've got a cold. It feels very funny at first, but is well worth it. A little-known but cheap and effective solution.....

Not all snorers are fat and lazy! DH is awful. We are in separate rooms mostly and I use earplugs when we have to share (guests etc). He snores no matter which position he is in but when on his back he's worse. Nose strips make a bit of a difference but not really enough to warrant the cost and the jaw advancement thing was impossible as he can't sleep with it in.

I has had one consultation with an ENT but really needs to go back again

never heard of buteyko technique - must look it up. One of the reasons I need a whole mouth mask rather than just a nose one is that I'm a mouth breather - also tend to get sinusitis. Must try it out. How long did you try before it worked and have you been able to give up the tape?

I am allergic to micropore so couldn't wear it all night but can probably find some kind of plaster that also works.

fascinated to hear about the buteyko technique....but my immediate reaction is to think I'd feel as though I were suffocating? I tend towards blocky/stuffy nose, could I still try it?

(though it's dh that snores - he tried an app last night which told him he really wasn't too bad )

DH had a follow up today and said that he felt as though he was waking up with a cold every morning, so they said they could fix that by putting a humidifying element in his apnoea machine. they are so helpful at the hospital.

I have a humidifier minding they are generally fab - though mine doesn;t seem to be working atm. Mind you if you turn them up too high they drip into your mouth and you think you're drowning in your sleep!

I spoke to dp about his snoring last night and said he needs to see gp and he has an app for next tues :) is it worth me recording his snoring so the gp can hear it?

Yes, and go with him so you can tell the GP just what impact the snoring has on you.

Kew, do you have a fleecy hose cover? DH reckons his makes a big difference to 'drippage'

Yes, 5madthings. Do.

Objective evidence can't be dismissed as easily as your DH saying, "Mrs5 says that I snore terribly and has sent me to see you!".

I must admit CMOT that if its chilly I just bury the hose under the duvet with me. My cpap machine and I have a very healthy and happy relationship in bed!

Yes record snoring - in fact I would record it from outside the room as well as inside.

Right i shall record him. I think.you can get an app on your phone to recird snoring? Will have a look.

Oh abd i did that test questionnaire you recomended and he scored 16? And it said indicates moderate sleep apnea? See a dr!

Re Buteyko, it's a Russian-invented technique for controlling the symptoms of asthma; the fact that it also works for snoring was a fortuitous side-effect! Taping your mouth is, bizarrely, ideal if you have a tendency to a blocked nose at nights because it actually helps to unblock your nose. It does feel very strange at first, and I can vividly remember thinking "this is a really stupid idea because I am going to suffocate", but it's great, and I haven't suffocated despite using mouth tape at nights for the last 5 years or so. I'm allergic to microporous tape too, but a little piece of sticking plaster works fine. Not sure if I've trained myself to stop mouth-breathing completely - I know I'm better than I was, but I still tape at nights anyway so that I can be certain that for 8 hours in every 24 I'm definitely breathing through my nose.