What is Snoring?

Normally breathing increases and decreases as we do more or less work, and so breathing is usually very light and quiet during sleep because we are doing almost nothing. Yet watching someone snore is like watching someone breathe while they exercise because it is far more like the type of breathing that is needed to move fast rather than lie in a bed.

This means that snoring is a type of hyperventilation, and therefore responds well to the Buteyko method that normalises the automatic breathing pattern.

“How can Buteyko change your breathing when you are asleep and not the least bit conscious of your breathing?” Is a question that is frequently asked at free talks about the Buteyko method.

The reason that Buteyko can help people with snoring problems is because the part of the brain that controls breathing has a property called “plasticity”. In the same way that your breathing centre gradually got used to breathing so much air each minute that you started to snore, it can also get used to breathe a more normal amount of air so that the snoring goes away. For more suggestions to improve your snoring, take a look at