Singing, reduces snoring?
I just read a while ago that there is a program created for snorers which include definite singing exercises designed to reduce snoring caused by lax muscles in the upper throat. The first research into the use of singing exercises to reduce snoring was done by choir director, singer and composer Alise Ojay as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom in 1999. She calls her program “Singing for Snorers.”
According to her pilot research project, she suggested that singing exercises can reduce snoring by toning lax muscles in the upper throat. Since then, with the aim of increasing the effect observed in the trial, she developed Singing for Snorers, a graded program of singing exercises specifically designed to tone the muscles at the common sites of the snoring vibration. These sites are the soft palate, the tongue, the nasal passages and the palatopharyngeal arch.
Since the launch of Singing for Snorers in 2002 there has been very encouraging feedback, not only from ’simple snorers’, but also from people with sleep apnea. Currently, there is a study being conducted at the Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, Throat) Department at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital in United Kingdom to test whether singing can reduce snoring. They are having a randomized controlled trial of the Singing for Snorers exercise program. The trial will have two wings: 60 patients who are chronic snorers and 60 patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea. Half the patients in each wing will sing the exercises for 3 months and half will have no intervention. The trial has been recruiting patients steadily and the numbers coming through suggest it should be completed by Summer 2008. (: