Snoring: exercises, a device, or a sleep test first?

Edited by Jeremiah Forsythe, editor · October 7, 2026 · We read the studies and clinical guidelines linked below; we did not try these approaches ourselves. How we research

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Which path fits you?

Pick the line that sounds most like you. If more than one fits, start with the one nearest the top.

Mouth and throat (myofunctional) exercises

Myofunctional therapy is a set of exercises for the tongue, soft palate, cheeks and jaw, done daily, usually for a few minutes at a time. The idea is that stronger, better-coordinated airway muscles are less likely to sag and vibrate during sleep. Typical moves include pushing the tongue up against the roof of the mouth, sliding it backward along the palate, saying vowel sounds forcefully to lift the soft palate, and chewing and swallowing drills. (Camacho et al., 2015)

What the studies show

• The first randomized trial. Guimarães and colleagues (2009) randomized 31 adults with moderate sleep apnea to about 30 minutes a day of oropharyngeal exercises or a sham routine for three months. The exercise group snored less often and less loudly, felt less sleepy, and their apnea-hypopnea index fell from about 22 to about 14 events an hour. The sham group didn't change. (Am J Respir Crit Care Med)
• A trial in people whose main problem was snoring. Ieto and colleagues (2015) randomized 39 adults with primary snoring or mild to moderate sleep apnea. After three months of daily exercises, objectively recorded snoring frequency fell by about 36% and overall snoring intensity (total snore power) by about 59%; the comparison group (nasal strips plus breathing exercises) didn't change significantly. (CHEST)
• Pooled results. Camacho's 2015 meta-analysis of nine adult studies (120 patients) found the apnea index fell by roughly half and snoring decreased in every study that measured it. A 2018 follow-up focused on snoring (211 adults) found snoring intensity scores dropped by roughly a third to a half. (Sleep, 2015; Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol, 2018)
• The caveats. A Cochrane review rated the evidence moderate to very low certainty: studies were small, short and often not blinded. Compared with CPAP, exercises alone left more breathing events. (Cochrane, Rueda et al.) In other words, exercises are a reasonable way to turn down plain snoring, not a substitute for sleep apnea treatment.

Who it suits: people with no red flags who will practice daily for at least three months, since that's how long the trials ran. Who should skip it as a first step: anyone with diagnosed moderate or severe sleep apnea expecting it to replace CPAP or another prescribed treatment.

You can learn the exercises from a speech-language pathologist or myofunctional therapist, or follow a structured home program. The one we've reviewed is Christian Goodman's Stop Snoring and Sleep Apnea Exercise Program: a $49 one-time digital program with a 60-day refund. The exercise approach has research behind it; this specific program has no trials of its own, and some sales-page claims go further than the evidence. If what keeps you up is winding down rather than snoring, we also reviewed Breathing for Sleep, a bedtime breathing and tongue-posture routine with weaker evidence.

Anti-snoring mouthpieces: MAD vs TSD

Oral appliances hold the lower jaw or the tongue forward so the airway stays more open. There are two main types:

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine recommend oral appliances, rather than no treatment, for adults who want treatment for primary snoring, meaning snoring without sleep apnea. For people who do have sleep apnea, they prefer a custom, adjustable appliance made by a qualified dentist over non-custom devices, with dental follow-up and a follow-up sleep test to confirm it's working. The same guideline found too little evidence to judge tongue-retaining devices for sleep apnea. (AASM/AADSM guideline, 2015)

Mayo Clinic lists excess saliva, dry mouth, jaw pain and facial discomfort as possible side effects, and recommends dental checks of the fit and your teeth during the first year. (Mayo Clinic) The upside over exercises is speed: a device that fits works from the night you wear it. The downside is that it only works while it's in, and an over-the-counter one can mask sleep apnea symptoms your partner would otherwise notice. That's one more reason to clear the red flags first.

Position and lifestyle basics (try these first, they're free)

Mayo Clinic says doctors usually start with lifestyle changes. (Mayo Clinic) The ones with the clearest logic:

• Sleep on your side. On your back, the tongue can fall backward and narrow the airway. If you keep rolling over, Mayo's old trick is a tennis ball sewn into the back of a pajama top.
• Raise the head of the bed by about 4 inches.
• Skip alcohol for at least two hours before bed, and tell your doctor you snore before taking sedatives; both relax throat muscles.
• Treat a stuffy nose. Allergies or a deviated septum push you to breathe through your mouth. Nasal strips help some people, but Mayo notes they aren't effective for sleep apnea.
• Lose weight if you're overweight, quit smoking, and get at least seven hours of sleep.

Give the basics two weeks and ask your bed partner to keep notes (or use a phone snore-recording app). If the snoring mostly goes away when you stay off your back, you may not need anything else.

Reminder: pages we link to may contain paid links that earn VitalSorted a commission at no extra cost to you. Commissions never decide our verdicts. Read our disclosure. More on sleep: our sleep aids guide and home sleep apnea tests explained.