As you may have already realized, snoring is one of the most frustrating problems a person can have. It is estimated around 40% of adults experience or have previously experienced a problem with snoring. There are many reasons for the development of snoring and in this short article I’ll discuss several of them as well as some great tips for helping you stop snoring forever.

People can snore because they are overweight, because they sleep in the wrong position, because they make lifestyle choices that cause the throat area to be congested, but the majority of the time the problem is because of something called the soft palate. This is a small area of skin that vibrates in the throat area once you’re muscles relax. (while you’re sleeping)

This vibration that is caused brings about the lovely sound we all know as snoring. As you already know, there are many solutions out there from masks, to special pillows, etc. There are also many pills and creams and of course - surgery which you should not consider. There is however a few tips that will help you tremendously, and they don’t require huge investments of money and you’re health like other options.

Only 2 years ago I was a ‘chronic snorer’ and the following tips helped me tremendously to finally get over it and stop sleeping in separate rooms to my partner.

Tip 1: Varying sleep position - Try varying you’re sleeping position. Most snorer’s lay on their back and their heads sink back. Try having you’re head slightly elevated as this can improve the airway from you’re throat.

Tip 2: Limit you’re alcohol and smoking - (if you drink and/or smoke try limit these 2 things as they have been shown to increase the production of mucus in the throat and therefore restrict you’re airways.

Tip 3: If you are overweight, lose a few pounds - Having too much fat surrounding the neck area is definitely a negative and if you are in this situation take a look at you’re diet and consider an exercise plan to lose weight. It will help you a lot.

Tip 4: Be consistent: Even people who don’t usually snore sometimes do when they sleep in strange patterns. Try going to sleep and waking up at the same time and form a habit. This will reduce you’re snoring.

Tip 5: Learn and implement simple exercises to strengthen you’re throat muscles - This is the ultimate way to eliminate snoring forever and I am certain this is what produced the most results for me. You can grab guides for this extremely cheap and the exercises only take a couple minutes per day. Just make sure you do them.

In today’s fast paced society a lot of people suffer from tiredness. Fortunately, tiredness is not something you have to live with for the rest of your life. For most people it is possible to sleep less and have more energy.

The reasons for tiredness vary depending on the individual. In some cases, it is easy to find the cause, for example jet lag or depression. But sometimes it is not possible to find the cause or it may be a combination of different factors. Some people feel tired once in a while but some others are feeling tired most of the time.

The popular ways of getting rid of tiredness seldom work. A lot of medication is available but as a long term solution medication has a lot of disadvantages. Sleeping more sounds like the best solution but for many that does not help. Sleeping more can actually make you more tired. It is not the quantity of sleep that is important, the quality is much more important.

There are a number of people who think the way to get rid of tiredness is to drink more coffee and other drinks containing caffeine. While caffeine delivers a quick energy boost, it is a short-lived boost. Soon you feel even more fatigued than before. If you try to get more energy by drinking coffee or using medication, you are trying to fix the symptom, not the cause. This is the wrong way, it is always better to try to fix the cause rather than the symptom.

One very interesting solution is to pay attention to your sleep cycle. A sleep cycle consists of a number of different phases of sleep. For most people a sleep cycle last about 90 minutes, so during the night a number of sleep cycles are completed. By waking up at the end of a sleep cycle you feel much more energized than if you get up in the middle of a sleep cycle.

Sleeping during the day is generally a bad idea, you don’t get more energy and you may have trouble falling asleep in the evening. But short naps, often called power naps, done the right way can boost your energy.

The main advantage of trying to get more out of your sleep is that by sleeping less, you get more time for others things. But not only that, you have more energy to get more things done during the day. Given such advantages, it is well worth trying to optimize your sleep, even if it can be uncomfortable in the beginning.

Many of us go through life in a constant state of sleep deprivation. We all have to sleep, and we all know people who can sleep anywhere at any time - but many of us are also familiar with the awful frustration of twisting and turning in bed or the nodding dog sensation on a plane or train when we desperately need to rest.

Long journeys provide an opportunity for some of us with a chance for a ‘power nap’ or a few hours of restful sleep before that important meeting - but how many of us try very hard but still arrive exhausted and angry that we could not do what should come so naturally.

There are always drugs, of course, to push the body down the road to sleep if we are happy to take pills and risk the possible side-effects.

If you are one who is in need of learning the art of going to sleep at any time and any place then this little gem could well be the answer for you.

The first clue is when I learned that your brain doesnt know the difference between imagination and the real world! I suppose it is reasonably obvious as we often make use of our ‘fantasies’. Perhaps best not to go into too much detail on this but we have all gained great pleasure from imagining doing something. The mind and body seem to be easily deceived.

OK so what does this have to do with not being able to sleep?

Well….what is it you are doing when you go to bed?

If you are anything like me you are still watching the film in your head, having conversations with people from work, preparing your presentation, worrying about your children, planning your future or re-running that conversation you had with your best friend.

And what does your brain and body think?

THAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY THERE! Actually with those people, or in that film!

So do you think it will take you into sleep? Of course not.

The people who find it easy to sleep usually have one thing in common - they want to go to sleep and they welcome it. They go to bed (or sit in the seat on the plane) and say OK sleep, I am ready for you. Here I am sleep, come and take me.

My wife is absolutely one to re-run conversations, go over and over decisions she has made, worry about the future and the past - BUT NOT WHEN SHE GOES TO BED. She loves to sleep and thats all she thinks about at that time. Consequently she can sleep anywhere with no problems.

So what do I do now?

I go to bed to sleep. When I am laying down (or even in a seat on a plane- so glad I can do this now) I make sure I stay in bed in my mind. All the temptations to make conversations or be somewhere else are denied by concentrating on being where I am.

I deliberately sense my toes, my arms, my legs. I hear the sounds around me and register any movement - but never let myself day dream or get lost somewhere else.

If I cant stop thinking the wrong thoughts then I verbalise in my head what I can feel and hear. Quietly and slowly.

This works. It has taken me until I am nearly 50 but I now have something to help me sleep.

“I travel back and forth across the Atlantic at least once a month”, said the author of the original blog. “I have to say that I used to always spend many days adjusting to the time difference when I arrived and then to recover when I returned. As I begin to master this simple technique I can now often sleep on the journey and arrive refreshed. It is also helping the night before important meetings when I would otherwise be rehearsing the presentations in my head rather than getting the rest I need.”

This could be a life-saver for many who need to improve their performance at work or who simply want that sensation of feeling rested and ready for the new day.