Why Alcohol Makes You Snore (And How to Stop It)

You're not imagining it: alcohol can turn even the quietest sleeper into a loud snorer. If you've noticed that drinking leads to noisy nights—sometimes loud enough to wake yourself up—you're experiencing a common side effect of alcohol's impact on your body.

Does Alcohol Cause Snoring?

Yes, alcohol definitely causes snoring. As a depressant and sedative, alcohol slows brain activity and helps you fall asleep faster. However, this comes at a cost to your sleep quality. Alcohol reduces time spent in REM sleep, the stage crucial for health, concentration, and motor skills. You might wake frequently, experience night sweats, or feel tired the next morning.

The same relaxing properties that help you fall asleep also trigger physical changes in your throat that lead to snoring.

Why Does Alcohol Make You Snore?

When you're awake, muscles in your nose, mouth, and throat keep your airways open. During sleep, these muscles relax, narrowing the airways. As air passes through, tissues vibrate, creating the sound we know as snoring.

Alcohol enhances this relaxation, further reducing muscle tension in your upper airway. With throat muscles already relaxed at night, alcohol's additional effect significantly restricts airflow. The air you breathe must force its way through floppy tissues, causing vibrations and louder snoring—a phenomenon known as increased respiratory resistance.

During sleep, everyone's respiratory resistance increases, but alcohol magnifies this effect dramatically. While non-snorers double their respiratory resistance during sleep, and regular snorers quadruple it, alcohol can raise resistance four to five times higher. If you already snore and drink alcohol, your resistance can increase up to eight times normal levels.

This effect accumulates: the more you drink, the more your muscles relax, and the louder you snore. The solution to stop snoring after drinking is straightforward: drink less.

Alcohol also causes nasal tissues to swell, contributing to congestion and making nose breathing more difficult. Additionally, alcohol-induced dehydration dries out mouth and throat tissues, further worsening snoring.

Alcohol and Sleep Apnea

Drinking can also contribute to sleep apnea, a condition involving brief breathing pauses during sleep. Alcohol affects both obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), where throat tissues block airways, and central sleep apnea (CSA), where brain-to-muscle signaling is disrupted.

Research shows alcohol may contribute to OSA development and worsen symptoms in those who already have it. Heavy drinkers are approximately 25% more likely to have OSA compared to non-drinkers or light drinkers. Alcohol increases the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which measures breathing pauses per hour, and can reduce blood oxygen levels in people with OSA.

How Quantity and Timing Affect Snoring

Two key factors determine whether you'll snore after drinking:

• Amount: Larger quantities heighten snoring and OSA effects. Even 2-3 drinks can cause negative impacts.
• Timing: Drinking close to bedtime increases snoring likelihood. Stopping alcohol 3-4 hours before sleep can reduce its effects.

Even one glass of wine can decrease sleep quality by 8%, while heavy drinking (more than 2 drinks for women, 4 for men) can reduce sleep quality by 39%.

Why Snoring Matters

Snoring isn't just annoying—it disrupts sleep, causes breathing gaps, and can wake you repeatedly. Over time, poor sleep quality takes a toll on both physical and mental health.

While avoiding alcohol won't necessarily eliminate snoring entirely, it will likely reduce it. Cutting back or eliminating evening drinking generally improves sleep quality since alcohol prevents restorative rest. If you're finding it difficult to reduce your evening drinking, Quitemate can help.