Regardless of whether you’ve been with your partner for two weeks or twenty years, there are some conversations that are hard to bring up and require delicacy and diplomacy to navigate. Of these, the topic of snoring can be a difficult one to broach with your partner. Snoring has been proven to have a detrimental effect on relationships; sleep is vital for your health and cognitive function, so anything that disrupts your sleep cycle – therefore making you tired and irritable – is inevitably going to become a source of anger and frustration.
Don’t let snoring ruin your relationship. At Smith ENT, we’ve worked with many people to reduce or resolve their snoring. If you’re nervous to bring this subject up with your partner, we discuss our top tips below.
Be calm & choose the right moment
It can be difficult to raise this subject in a gentle manner when you’re both suffering from a lack of sleep. Your patience might be tenuous, and frustrations can easily flare. This scenario isn’t ideal for a productive conversation, so try to schedule a time when you’re both able to sit down comfortably and chat it out. It’s worth keeping in mind – and may help you keep your cool – that your partner isn’t snoring just to annoy you; it’s a condition that they may not even be aware of or might be embarrassed about.
Explain why you’re bringing it up
You love your partner, which is why you’re keen to talk about their snoring in order to make sleeping in the same room more peaceful. Explain to them how their snoring is affecting you through disrupting your sleep patterns – thereby impacting your waking hours – but also remind them how snoring could be affecting their health detrimentally, too. Their sleep might be getting disrupted by their snoring, and a lack of sleep has been proven to cause other health problems down the track.
Come ready with solutions
The best way to get someone on the defensive is to offer critique without also presenting a solution. Even if you don’t know exactly what is needed to resolve snoring, suggest to your partner that they make an appointment with an ENT specialist and seek help identifying and treating their snoring. Dr Ted Smith from Smith ENT has worked with many patients to help them resolve their snoring issues. Get in touch with him today.