How to stop snoring for free… and it’ll only take you five minutes a day AND improve your sleep

ANYONE who has slept next to a snorer will understand the particular horror it causes.

It's not just partners who suffer though, snoring can apparently be bad for those who are afflicted too.

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Dr Mike Dilkes and Alexander Adams have written a book called  which details just how debilitating it can be - and gives some tips on how to stop.

Dr Dilkes is a top ear, nose and throat consultant, and  snoring can be improved in just five minutes a day.

Snoring can be caused by slack throat muscles, so exercising them can help.

Completing a few minutes a day can help strengthen and tone them, with US studies suggesting this may be enough to reduce the volume of snoring by 60 per cent.

This figure was based on exercises which take up to 45 minutes daily, but Dr Dilkes insists all that's really needed is five minutes of "yoga for the mouth".

The snoring workouts are detailed in the book, but one involves humming.

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All you need to do is follow these easy steps:

• Open your mouth wide and stick your tongue out as far as possible
• Stretch your tongue from side to side and up and down - try to do two turns
• Hum a song you know well as deeply as you can and go right to the end

The medic also recommends getting a sleeping app like Snorelab to help monitor your snoring.

All you do is put it on when you go to bed, and it'll monitor how much you snore.

Although it might not seem like a big deal, snoring can have a dramatic impact on health.

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It's caused by slack throat muscles, which become more floppy as we relax. The softer they are, the more noise which is made as air works its way through during sleep.

The problem is because the body is working hard to get the air through the floppy muscles, the person won't full into a proper deep sleep.

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Not getting enough can make the body crave sweet and high fat foods, meaning there's a vicious circle as weight can pile on and obesity make snoring worse.

Here are five tips to help you sleep if your partner snores, or you could splash out on this high-tech bed which wakes people if they're snoring.