What kind of snorer are you?

We know that every person who snores does so because their breathing is being restricted in one or more ways. By finding out exactly what’s going on in your body, in your upper throat, nasal passages and airway, we can decide the best order in which to execute the stop-snoring techniques. We’ll determine this using a few simple preliminary tests.

Test one:

Go to the bathroom or any room that contains a mirror and stand in front of it. Keep your mouth closed for this test. Use the index finger of either of your hands to press closed one of your nostrils. Now take a slow, deep breath through your other nostril and note what happens. If it closes as you breathe in, use a bobby pin or something similar to gently keep it open. Breathe through your open nostril once more. Make a note of your answers, in the form of a yes or a no, to both of the following questions and then continue onto test two. Does breathing in through your open nostril feel smooth, easy and unrestricted? And does propping your nostril open with a small object like a bobby pin make it noticeably easier to breathe through it?

Test two:

Discard the bobby pin or other object used in the last test. Still standing in front of the mirror, straighten your neck and lift your chin so that it’s parallel to the floor. Breathe through both of your nostrils while keeping your mouth completely shut. Make a note of your answer, in the form of a yes or a no, to the following question, then move onto test three. Can you breathe easily through your nose without it feeling stuffy or overly restricted?

Test three:

With you mouth open, make a snoring sound. After a few seconds of doing so, close your mouth and try to make the same sound. Note down, yes or no, your answer to the following question. Can you only make the snoring sound properly with your mouth open?

Test four:

Do this one carefully. First, make a snoring sound with your mouth slightly open. Now stick your tongue out as far as you can and grip it between you teeth. Make the snoring sound once more. Note down your answer to the following question. Is the snoring noise significantly lessened or harder to create when you have your tongue positioned far forward, between your teeth? Again, write a yes or no answer.

You should now have a piece of paper with test one, test two, test three and test four, and a series of yeses and no’s written on it.

Listen carefully to the following explanations and see how they correspond to your personal answers. Also, we're going to talk about restrictive nasal passages