© Lisa F. Young | Dreamstime.com
A month or so ago, I was fortunate enough to speak on an Australian radio program about how I stopped snoring. It’s a story I hadn’t completely shared in this site but I think it’s time (plus, I owe the radio show, 2UE, a “thanks” for having me on! Mike Jeffreys, the host, was both charming and personable and I’m hooked on his show, now.)
One morning several years ago, my husband told me that I had been snoring the night before. I chalked it up to being overly tired and maybe congested from allergies. What that means is that I blew him off. Several days later, he said it had happened again. He was getting a bit frustrated. I was getting a big embarrassed.
The pattern continued, with his comments and suggestions ever increasing and my annoyance at being the center of this daily ritual growing. During the day, our relationship was fine – unchanged. At night and in the first bits of each morning, it was strained. Then, one morning I awoke to find he’d slipped to the guest bedroom. It was the only way he could get a good night’s sleep as my snoring was constantly waking him throughout the night.
My husband thinks of life as an open book which means anything going on in our life is discussion material with friends, family, neighbors, people he meets at the grocery store…you name it. This included my snoring problems. I think he’d simply had it with not being able to sleep in the same room comfortably but I twinge at the slightest hint of humiliation and this matter of talking about the problem with everyone was causing me to clam up worse than ever. It wasn’t, however, making the snoring go away.
Eventually, one snoring product after another showed up on my bathroom counter or on my side of the bed. Funny shaped anti snoring pillows, boxes of nasal strips in different sizes, and a little nose insert that would supposedly stimulate my nasal passages to reduce snoring. The little gifts of love like flowers and chocolate had been replaced by these constant reminders that I was growing older.
I quietly tried them all and he quietly moved back into our bedroom to help me figure out which products were stopping the snoring. For me, as I’ve mentioned, the Breathe Right Nasal Strips and some steam on a regular basis have been enough to do the trick.
The story of how I stopped snoring is romantic in its own way as I understand now what my husband must have gone through trying to balance being with his wife while still being able to actually sleep through the night. I only wish I’d not let my vanity get in the way of finding a snoring solution sooner than I did.
