How to Sleep When Your Spouse Snores

Trying to block snoring

A snoring spouse can be a challenging situation in a marriage. Often, snoring is a result of a health problem, making it difficult to eliminate the snoring. A spouse who is being kept awake by a snoring sleep mate does have options, however. Instead of suffering with sleeplessness, take the necessary steps to make sure you get enough sleep even when the snoring won't stop.

Things You'll Need

• Noise-canceling earplugs
• White noise machine

Instructions

1. Buy noise-canceling earplugs. Earplugs are effective for reducing and even eliminating the noises heard when they are worn.

2. Use a white noise machine to drown out the snoring. Set the white noise machine to a level that will cover up the noise of the snoring. Many white noise machines have noise options like "wind," "rain," "ocean," or other nature sounds that will help to counteract the snoring noise.

3. Keep your partner off his or her back. Snoring is generally the worst when a person is sleeping on the back. If the snoring is getting very loud or bothersome, wake up your partner and ask him or her to roll over. Gently nudging a snoring spouse often helps to interrupt snoring.

4. Consider earphones with a soft noise or music playing directly in your ears. Be careful not to play this noise or music so loud that it could damage your hearing.

Tips & Warnings

• Sometimes going to bed before a snoring spouse will help get an hour or two of quiet sleep before the snoring begins. Also, if you get into a deep sleep before the snoring begins, perhaps the snoring will not immediately awaken you.

• Be aware that when wearing noise-canceling earplugs, you may not be able to hear important noises around you, such as a child, the telephone, a weather alarm or a smoke detector.

References

• Snoring Information