I was contacted recently by a student who was having problems with one of her housemates. She gets on well with them – when they’re awake! But when one in particular is asleep, by all accounts he snores for England!
Snoring is not the snorer’s fault: they’re asleep when they do it. so my first reaction was to advise the person kept awake to alter the level of noise that will wake them up.
In other words, get ear-plugs.
There are various types: I would choose earplugs specifically made for sleeping. You can access a list of earplugs at:
Earplugs for snoring at Amazon.co.uk
(All together now: other retailers are available.)
If the earphones don’t work – if we’re talking about aircraft-engine snoring – investigate why it’s so loud. Is the snorer leaving their door ajar to let the air circulate? Could you ask them to shut the door when they go to bed?
You might also suggest they go to the doctor’s to investigate whether the extra-loud snoring is indicative of a respiratory or other health problem. There are also devices you can get at your pharmacist to stop snoring.
It’s also possible that the snoring is caused by alcohol use. If this is happening regularly and it’s due to alcohol use, very possibly the snoring is not your biggest problem, not theirs. That applies in spades if the snoring is due to abuse of depressant drugs, or the exhausted sleep at the end of a cocaine binge.
If we’re looking at the eventualities in the above paragraph, you may want to go to your tutor and say how much the snoring is affecting you, possibly as a way into talking about how other behaviours connected to substance use are affecting you.
More often than not, though, we are looking at nothing more than the Great British Snore. Is it possible that you’re working yourself so hard that when you eventually fall asleep your waking mechanism is on a hair trigger? Or even that it’s you using alcohol or other substances, so that when you aren’t using you find it hard to get to sleep and this is why noises keep you awake?
The last sentence is probably somewhat insulting, but if you take something to your tutor then they have to cover all the bases.
But for a quick answer to the problem of the snoring, try the earplugs.
Kriss Day
See also: British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association
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