One of the most common things we hear from patients is: “I changed my pillow, tried sleeping on my side, tried strips and sprays — but nothing worked.” Putting in the effort without seeing results can be discouraging.
This time, we’ll walk through how to check what’s actually causing your snoring, and match it to the right countermeasure.
Kazuyuki Sugaya
Director, Ueno Snoring Clinic / Anesthesiologist
Our director, with over 20,000 general anesthesia cases, focuses primarily on the diagnosis and treatment of snoring and sleep apnea, offering care tailored to each patient. [Insurance-Covered] Ueno Snoring Clinic
This article was reviewed by our Director, Kazuyuki Sugaya, and explains accurate medical information about the testing and treatment of snoring and sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) in clear, accessible terms.
The causes of snoring range from the structure of the throat to body weight. Ueno Snoring Clinic doesn’t rely on a single treatment approach — we’re set up to recommend the best plan for each patient from a broad, evidence-based range of options.
Insurance-Covered: Thorough Testing and Ongoing Treatment
Self-Pay: Address the Root Cause, Short-Term Focus
*As a clinic specializing in snoring treatment, we work to resolve “snoring that won’t stop” through both insurance-covered and self-pay options.
Quick Answer
Snoring can originate from different places in different people — the nose, the throat, the tongue, sleep position, or everyday habits — and trying a remedy that doesn’t match your actual cause is often exactly why “nothing seems to work.” A short self-check can help narrow down which of these five types most closely matches your snoring, so you can start with the approach most likely to help. If self-care doesn’t improve things no matter what you try, or your snoring is consistently severe, identifying the true cause through a proper evaluation is usually the faster path forward.
📋 What This Article Covers
Snoring actually originates from a different “location” in different people, which is why choosing a countermeasure that doesn’t match your particular cause often fails to help. In other words, if you feel like you’re going in circles, it’s usually not that you’re doing it wrong — it’s a mismatch between the cause and the countermeasure.
In this article, a 3-minute self-check will help you sort out whether your snoring leans toward:
At the end, we’ll summarize the recommended “first steps” for each type, along with signs that mean it’s time to see a doctor.
If you’re concerned about snoring, apnea, or daytime sleepiness, it’s better to get your condition checked with a proper evaluation rather than simply waiting and watching on your own.
Snoring happens when the airway narrows and the surrounding tissue vibrates, producing sound. What matters most is where that narrowing tends to happen — and the right countermeasure depends heavily on that location.
So which type is closest to you? Let’s find out with the self-check below.
Answer the questions below and check off anything that applies. (It’s normal to match more than one type — whichever category has the most checks is your likely primary cause.)
☐ Your mouth is dry when you wake up
☐ Your nose tends to get blocked, or gets stuffy depending on the season
☐ You get a nasal, stuffy-sounding voice even without a cold
☐ Your bedroom is dry (heating on, no humidifier)
☐ Your nose seems clearer on your side than on your back
☐ It’s hard to breathe when you keep your mouth closed
Nose type characteristics
When your nose doesn’t flow well, you’re more likely to breathe through your mouth, which dries out the throat and makes vibration (snoring) more likely. In other words, the nose type often involves a chain reaction: mouth breathing leads to dryness, which leads to vibration.
☐ Your snoring sounds low and rumbling (“grrr,” “gooo”)
☐ You’ve been told your mouth is open while you sleep
☐ Your snoring gets worse when your bedroom is dry
☐ Your throat feels weak, or scratchy when you wake up
☐ Your snoring sound changes noticeably with weight fluctuation
☐ You still snore somewhat even when sleeping on your side
Throat type characteristics
If the back of your throat (around the soft palate) vibrates easily, posture changes alone may not fully resolve it. Dryness, alcohol, and fatigue tend to make the vibration worse.
☐ You’ve been told your snoring increases when you sleep on your back
☐ You’ve been told you sleep with your mouth open
☐ It’s especially bad on days you’ve been drinking
☐ It gets worse when you’re tired or sleep-deprived
☐ Your snoring suddenly gets loud, then suddenly stops
☐ Your tongue or mouth feels dry in the morning
Tongue type characteristics
When muscle tone drops during sleep, the tongue is more likely to fall backward toward the throat while lying on your back. Add alcohol or fatigue, and it tends to get worse. In other words, the tongue type is strongly influenced by the combination of gravity and muscle relaxation.
☐ You’re quiet on your side, but suddenly loud on your back
☐ Using a body pillow or cushion to stay on your side improves things
☐ It gets worse when your bedding changes, like while traveling
☐ The sound changes with pillow height
☐ It’s worse sleeping on a sofa or the floor than in a bed
Posture type characteristics
For the posture type, “sleeping on your back” is the central cause. This type has a clear, high-probability fix: making side-sleeping your default. Rather than piling on more countermeasures, building a system that keeps you from rolling onto your back tends to get better results.
☐ It’s only bad on days you drink, and your mouth is very dry the next morning
☐ It gets worse during busy periods at work
☐ It gets worse when your bedroom is dry
☐ It’s worse on days with a late dinner, or when you stay up late
☐ It gets worse during high-stress periods
Lifestyle factors type characteristics
Rather than a fixed anatomical “location,” this type reflects conditions that make vibration more likely all lining up at once. On the flip side, since the cause can be relatively simple, deciding on priorities and adjusting habits is sometimes all it takes to see improvement.
It’s normal to match more than one type. Here, we’ll outline what to try first for each type. The key is trying a small number of high-impact steps, in the order most likely to help.
3 things to try first:
For the nose type, simply improving nasal airflow can reduce mouth breathing, which in turn reduces throat vibration. Try it for about a week and see if you notice a change.
3 things to try first:
For the throat type, posture changes alone often produce only a small effect. Since dryness, alcohol, and fatigue tend to drive real change, start there.
3 things to try first:
The tongue type tends to worsen with the combination of sleeping on your back and relaxed muscles, so simply removing those conditions can lead to real improvement.
3 things to try first:
For the posture type, what matters is designing your setup so you don’t roll onto your back — not adding more and more countermeasures.
3 things to try first:
The lifestyle factors type tends not to sustain when you push too hard. Turning habits into simple, repeatable rules — within what’s realistic for you — tends to produce better results.
Self-care can be highly effective when it matches your actual cause — but when the cause is different from what you’re addressing, it often doesn’t help much. If any of the following apply to you, it’s usually faster to properly identify the underlying cause than to keep trying more things on your own:
Snoring doesn’t always have just one cause — it’s common for the nose, throat, tongue, posture, and lifestyle factors to overlap. That’s exactly why identifying the primary cause is the more direct path to improvement.
If possible, preparing the following before your appointment can make your consultation much smoother:
A phone recording: 1-2 minutes (audio or video both work)
Three quick notes: sleep position (back or side), alcohol, and fatigue level (a single line for each is fine)
It doesn’t need to be perfect — even a short recording can help communicate your situation quickly.
You may also find these related articles helpful:
At Ueno Snoring Clinic, we’ll talk through your symptoms with you, help sort out whether the nose, throat, tongue, posture, or lifestyle factors are the most likely primary cause, and build a treatment plan together that fits your situation.
If you’re uneasy about committing to something right away, or worried about pain or recovery time — that’s completely fine. Start with a consultation, and only move forward once you feel comfortable with the plan.
Ueno Snoring Clinic offers insurance-covered sleep testing and CPAP management, as well as self-pay laser treatment for snoring, tailored to your specific condition. If you’d like to find out which treatment fits you, please start with an initial consultation.
Details of the tests and treatments offered at Ueno Snoring Clinic can be found here
The fastest path to improving your snoring isn’t trying more remedies — it’s narrowing down where the cause actually lies. Today’s self-check should have given you a good idea of your likely primary type.
If self-care doesn’t lead to any change, several causes may be overlapping. If you’d rather not keep going in circles, let’s start by properly identifying the cause together — please feel free to reach out.
English Support Available
We provide medical services for international patients. Please check our English website for details on how to visit our clinic.
Supervising Physician
Kazuyuki Sugaya, Director of Ueno Snoring Clinic
After graduating from Fujita Health University School of Medicine in 2004, Dr. Sugaya began his career as an anesthesiologist at Toho University Omori Medical Center. He has since gained extensive clinical experience at municipal hospitals and private clinics nationwide, administering general anesthesia in over 20,000 cases. In 2020, he founded the "Tokyo Spine Clinic," and has served as the Director of Ueno Snoring Clinic since 2025.
Related Columns
By Appointment Only
Specialized Snoring Treatment in Ueno
Ueno Snoring Clinic
Insurance-covered home testing available.
Following a physician’s consultation and result explanation,
we support the improvement of snoring and sleep apnea with "Dual Deep Thermia"—a non-surgical laser treatment, if necessary.
3-min walk from Ueno Station. Please feel free to consult us.
