What causes snoring, and how to find your own cause

Why people snore

Snoring comes from the throat. During sleep, the muscles at the back of the throat, the soft palate, the uvula and the tongue relax. They take up more room and narrow the airway; as you breathe in, the air makes the pharynx vibrate, and that’s the sound you hear (ameli.fr, in French).

The MSD Manual adds a simple image: relaxed tissue flutters more easily, just as a cloth flag flutters in a breeze where a metal sheet of the same size doesn’t move. People don’t snore while awake, which suggests that the relaxation of sleep is part of the cause (MSD).

Most of the causes below act on one of these two things: they relax the throat further, or they narrow the airway.

The common causes

Sources: ameli.fr, in French, ameli.fr, in French, MSD Manual, checked on November 5, 2026.

A few useful details:

• Alcohol: France’s national health insurance advises not drinking in the hours before bed, and in particular cutting out alcohol at dinner (ameli.fr, in French).
• The medicines involved are the ones taken at bedtime: sleeping pills, tranquilizers, some antihistamines. They reduce the tone of the throat muscles during the night (ameli.fr, in French). Don’t stop a treatment on your own: talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
• A blocked nose is often a temporary cause: during a cold or an allergy flare-up, the lining of the nose and throat swells and blocks the way (ameli.fr, in French).
• Anatomy doesn’t change with habits. It can explain snoring that goes on without alcohol, without excess weight and on your side.

Several causes can add up: a slightly narrow throat, a glass of wine at dinner, a night on your back.

In men, in women

Men snore more than women, and snoring increases with age: it regularly affects more than 40% of adults over 50 (ameli.fr, in French). In women, it becomes more common after menopause (ameli.fr, in French), and pregnancy is also one of the risk factors (MSD).

Finding your cause: compare your nights

Lists of causes say what makes people snore in general. To know what makes you snore, you have to watch it over several nights. France’s national health insurance suggests just that: put a few changes in habits into practice and judge the benefit for yourself (ameli.fr, in French).

1. Record yourself for two weeks, without changing anything. Phone plugged in on the bedside table, an app that starts when it hears a sound: the guide to recording yourself sleeping gives the settings. If you don’t know yet whether you snore, start there: how to tell if you snore.
2. Every evening, note whatever is out of the ordinary: a drink or more, a late meal, a stuffy nose, being very tired, a sleeping pill.
3. Every morning, look at how long you snored, and listen to a few clips to check that it really is you, and really snoring (why sound sorting sometimes gets it wrong).
4. Compare the nights with and without each thing you noted. If your nights “with a drink” have clearly more snoring than the others, you have a lead. If nothing changes, the cause is probably elsewhere.
5. For position, run the test the other way: a few nights trying to stay on your side, then compare.

Keep the limits of the method in mind. One night proves nothing, because snoring varies from night to night (MSD). And if nothing you note makes a difference, your snoring may come down to your anatomy: that’s a question for a doctor.

With Sleepeek, you tick your evening notes in a few seconds (alcohol, late meal, stuffy nose, tiredness, on my side…), and in the morning you see your minutes of snoring. With Sleepeek+, the “Compare” screen puts your nights with and without each note side by side.

When to see a doctor

France’s national health insurance advises seeing a doctor in these situations (ameli.fr, in French):

• your snoring doesn’t go away despite your efforts;
• you have episodes of gasping for breath during sleep, or wake up with a start feeling like you’re choking;
• you don’t feel rested when you wake up, and you struggle to stay awake during the day;
• you doze off during the day, in front of the TV, in a meeting or at the wheel;
• your snoring comes with headaches, memory or concentration problems, irritability;
• your snoring causes tension with the person who shares your room.

The MSD Manual also lists pauses in breathing noticed by a bed partner, headaches on waking and very loud, constant snoring (MSD). Talk to your doctor: if they suspect sleep apnea, they can prescribe a medical sleep recording.