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- someone has seen you pause breathing while asleep;
- you wake up gasping or choking;
- you are drowsy during the day or have high blood pressure.
Test at home: Lofta's home sleep test is $189 for one night on a disposable WatchPAT One, and a physician reads your results. See Lofta's home test Paid link: we may earn a commission at no cost to you. Compare all options in our home sleep test guide.
The short verdict
Throat exercises have real but modest evidence for snoring: small trials show less snoring after about three months of daily practice, while the best review rates that evidence as low quality. They are cheap and low-risk to try once sleep apnea is ruled out. Expect slow, partial change, not a cure.
What “throat exercises” means in research
Researchers call it myofunctional therapy, or oropharyngeal exercises. It is a set of repeated movements for the tongue, lips, cheeks, soft palate and jaw. Cochrane describes it as a mix of moving and holding exercises that work on speaking, breathing, blowing, sucking, chewing and swallowing (Cochrane review). The theory is simple. The muscles that hold the airway open relax during sleep. Training them might keep the airway from narrowing and vibrating as much.
The key studies at a glance
| Study | Who | What they did | What changed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guimarães 2009 (randomized) | 31 adults with moderate sleep apnea | About 30 minutes a day for 3 months vs a sham routine | Exercise group improved in apnea severity and symptoms; sham group did not change |
| Ieto 2015 (randomized) | 39 adults with primary snoring or mild to moderate apnea | Daily exercises for 3 months vs nasal strips plus breathing exercises | Loud snores per hour fell from a median of 99.5 to 48.2; no significant change in the comparison group |
| Goswami 2019 (randomized) | 16 habitual snorers who finished, all with mild or no apnea | 15 minutes a day of a vowel-sound phone game vs 5 seconds of voice recording | At 8 weeks, snoring rate fell 22% vs 5.6% in controls |
| Camacho 2015 (meta-analysis) | 9 adult studies, 120 patients | Pooled before-and-after data | Apnea scores fell from 24.5 to 12.3 events an hour; snoring and sleepiness improved |
| Camacho 2018 (meta-analysis) | 9 studies, 211 adults | Pooled snoring outcomes | Self-rated snoring loudness fell 51%; time spent snoring fell 31% |
| Cochrane 2020 (systematic review) | 9 randomized trials, 347 people | Graded the quality of the evidence | Certainty moderate to very low; vs sham, sleepiness probably improves, and snoring results are mixed |
Two details matter. First, the trials ran for two to four months, so these are not overnight results. Second, the people studied were mostly middle-aged adults, and many had sleep apnea, not just snoring. The Ieto and Goswami trials are the closest match to an ordinary snorer.
Six kinds of exercise that show up in the studies
This is a description of what researchers tested, not a prescription. The studies used set routines, often taught and checked by a therapist.
- Soft palate sounds. Saying vowel sounds, either held or in short repeated bursts, to work the soft palate (Camacho 2015).
- Tongue placement and pressing. Sliding the tongue along the teeth, placing its tip against the front of the roof of the mouth, pressing it flat against the roof of the mouth, and pushing it down to the floor of the mouth (Camacho 2015).
- Lip, cheek and jaw work. Tightening and relaxing the lips, sucking movements for the cheeks, gentle finger pressure against the cheek muscles, and side-to-side jaw movement (Camacho 2015).
- Breathing and blowing. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, first plain and then while inflating a balloon (Camacho 2015).
- Swallowing and chewing drills. Swallowing with the teeth together and the tongue up, and alternating chewing sides (Camacho 2015).
- Sound-based training. Researchers have also explored singing and playing instruments (Camacho 2015). One trial in the Cochrane review used didgeridoo playing (Cochrane). Another used a phone game driven by vowel sounds that move the base of the tongue (Goswami 2019).
What the evidence can and cannot tell you
- It is small. The largest snoring meta-analysis still covers only 211 adults (Camacho 2018).
- It is short. Cochrane found trials lasting two to four months, and asked for longer follow-up in future studies (Cochrane).
- Snoring results are mixed. Against sham therapy, Cochrane rated the effect on snoring frequency as very uncertain, but found subjective snoring loudness probably drops slightly (Cochrane).
- It does not beat CPAP. Compared with CPAP, exercises alone may leave a higher apnea score (Cochrane).
- Side effects were not tracked. Cochrane looked for adverse-event data and found that none of the trials reported it (Cochrane).
Put together: exercises are a reasonable, low-cost thing to try for plain snoring. They work slowly, if at all, and only with daily practice.
Learning the exercises
You can learn a routine from a speech-language pathologist or a myofunctional therapist, which is closest to how the trials worked. If you would rather follow a home program, we reviewed one: the Stop Snoring and Sleep Apnea Exercise Program. It is $49 one-time with a 60-day refund. It uses the same general approach, but it has not been tested in its own trial. If you are weighing it against a bedtime breathing routine, see our Stop Snoring vs Breathing for Sleep comparison.
Stop Snoring Exercise Program
Our review: what it includes, refund terms, and where the sales page overreaches.
The official-site buttons on our review are paid links
FAQ
Do throat exercises really reduce snoring?
In small trials, yes, for some people. A randomized trial of 39 snorers found loud snores per hour roughly halved after three months of daily exercises. A Cochrane review still rates the overall evidence as moderate to very low certainty.
How long do the studies say it takes?
The trials ran for two to four months. One phone-based trial measured a change at 8 weeks. None tested a quick fix.
How much daily practice did the studies use?
It varied. One trial used about 30 minutes a day, and a phone-game trial used 15 minutes a day. Home programs that ask for less time have not been tested against these routines.
Can throat exercises replace CPAP?
No. Compared with CPAP, exercises alone may leave more breathing events. Keep using any prescribed treatment and talk to your doctor about adding exercises.
Are throat exercises safe?
They are low-tech, but the trials did not report side effects, so there is no formal safety data. Stop if anything hurts, and check with a doctor if you have jaw, swallowing or voice problems.
More reading: what to try first for snoring and mouth tape vs nasal strips.
Sources
- Rueda JR, et al. Myofunctional therapy (oropharyngeal exercises) for obstructive sleep apnoea. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020.
- Camacho M, et al. Myofunctional therapy to treat obstructive sleep apnea: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep, 2015.
- Camacho M, et al. Oropharyngeal and tongue exercises (myofunctional therapy) for snoring: a systematic review and meta-analysis. European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, 2018.
- Guimarães KC, et al. Effects of oropharyngeal exercises on patients with moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med, 2009.
- Ieto V, et al. Effects of oropharyngeal exercises on snoring: a randomized trial. CHEST, 2015.
- Goswami U, et al. Smartphone-based delivery of oropharyngeal exercises for treatment of snoring: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep and Breathing, 2019.
- NHLBI. What Is Sleep Apnea?