DAVID GREENE, HOST:
All right, so, Rachel, I don't call my wife by the wrong name. But she tells me that occasionally, I do do this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNORING)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
(Laughter).
GREENE: Although, it doesn't sound that bad. So you can actually create health problems for your partner if you're snoring, and it's a serious thing.
MARTIN: Yes.
GREENE: But there are some gadgets that can help. And here's NPR's Patti Neighmond.
MARTIN: OK.
PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: Here I am standing in my local pharmacy, looking at a row of anti-snoring aids - nasal strips, Breathe Right, snore therapy. I wonder if any of these work.
KIM HUTCHISON: Talking about what may or may not work, we would first identify where the sound comes from.
NEIGHMOND: Dr. Kim Hutchison is a sleep specialist at Oregon Health and Science University. Before she recommends gadgets, she says there's one important caveat.
HUTCHISON: I don't want to fix their snoring without alerting them to the fact that this may be a symptom of something more serious.
NEIGHMOND: Like sleep apnea, where patients actually stop breathing, sometimes hundreds of times a night. Once that's ruled out, snoring is basically a mechanical problem. And for that, there's an array of what she calls medieval-looking options.
HUTCHISON: Some anti-snoring devices are more medieval than others.
NEIGHMOND: Prongs to keep nasal passages open, chin straps to literally keep your mouth shut and mouth pieces that hold the lower jaw forward.
HUTCHISON: I call this the bulldog effect. It's a mouthpiece that's fit for your mouth, and it holds you in a bit of an underbite. And that helps to hold the tongue forward and the jaw forward, which opens up the physical space in the back of the throat.
NEIGHMOND: The goal of all these devices - decrease congestion in the back of the throat so air flows easily and quietly into the lungs.
HUTCHISON: One that affects the mouth and chin is a tongue bulb. And that is a silicone suction device that fits over your mouth, and it uses negative pressure to hold your tongue in a forward position while you sleep.
NEIGHMOND: Opening up the airway in the back of the throat. Snoring is worse when you sleep on your back, so there are a number of ways to get you on your side. A belt with little cushions attached to the back makes it uncomfortable to sleep that way. Body pillows encourage side sleeping. And then there's a device like a dog collar.
HUTCHISON: Worn around the neck that begin to vibrate when the user turns onto their back. And the vibration slowly increases in intensity.
NEIGHMOND: Until the snorer turns over. A bit startling, but...
HUTCHISON: Right up there with getting a big shove from your partner to turn over on your side.
NEIGHMOND: And if those don't work, Hutchison says you can do what she does. As the wife of a positional snorer, she goes to bed with earplugs. Patti Neighmond, NPR News.