Mouth Exercises for Snoring: Do They Actually Work?

It sounds too cheap to be true: a few minutes of tongue and throat exercises a day, and your snoring quietens. Yet this is one of the better-studied approaches to snoring — in a pooled analysis of nine studies, “myofunctional therapy” roughly halved snoring intensity.^[1]

The honest picture is a little more nuanced. The trials are small, the certainty of the evidence is officially rated low for sleep apnoea, and the results only come to people who practise daily for months. But for motivated snorers, this is a genuinely evidence-backed, free, side-effect-free option — and it comes with the strangest treatment in all of sleep medicine: the didgeridoo.

What is myofunctional therapy?

Snoring happens when the muscles of the throat, tongue and soft palate relax during sleep, letting tissue sag into the airway and vibrate as air rushes past.^[2] Muscle tone matters: floppier tissue vibrates more easily — which is part of why snoring worsens with age and why alcohol (a muscle relaxant) makes it louder. Read more in what causes snoring.

Myofunctional therapy — also called oropharyngeal exercises — attacks the tone problem directly. Just as physiotherapy strengthens a weak knee, these repetitive tongue, palate and throat movements aim to firm up the airway’s supporting muscles so they hold their shape better during sleep.

What the evidence shows Moderate evidence for snoring

The key trials:

• Ieto et al., CHEST 2015. A randomised controlled trial in people with primary snoring or mild sleep apnoea found oropharyngeal exercises significantly reduced both snoring frequency and snoring intensity.^[3]
• Guimarães et al., 2009. A randomised trial in moderate obstructive sleep apnoea found roughly a 50% reduction in the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI), along with reduced neck circumference and improved symptoms.^[4]
• Camacho et al., 2018 meta-analysis. Pooling nine studies (211 patients), snoring intensity fell by about 51% on a visual analogue scale — from 8.2 to 4.0 — and time spent snoring dropped from 26.3% to 18.1% of sleep.^[1]
• Camacho et al., SLEEP 2015 meta-analysis. For obstructive sleep apnoea, pooled results showed AHI falling by roughly 50% in adults and about 62% in children.^[5]

Now the caveats. A 2020 Cochrane review rated the overall evidence as low-certainty — the studies are small and methods vary^[6] — and a 2026 umbrella review reached the same balanced conclusion: modest benefit, low certainty.^[7] In plain English: the direction of the evidence is consistently positive, especially for snoring itself, but the trials aren’t big or rigorous enough to be sure of the size of the effect.

A daily routine based on the trials

Trial protocols vary, but the exercises used are broadly similar across studies, and a practical session takes around 8–10 minutes a day, kept up for about 3 months. The kinds of exercises used in the trials include:

1. Tongue slides. Place the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind the front teeth, then slide it backwards along the palate. Repeat slowly.
2. Tongue-to-roof presses. Suck the whole tongue flat up against the roof of the mouth and hold, then release. Repeat.
3. Soft-palate elevation. Say the vowel sound “A” (or yawn with your mouth closed) while deliberately lifting the soft palate and uvula at the back of your mouth. Repeat.
4. Vowel pronunciation. Pronounce open vowel sounds (“a-e-i-o-u”) slowly and deliberately, exaggerating the movements, for a couple of minutes.
5. Cheek exercises. Press a finger against the inside of one cheek and use the cheek muscle to push back against it; swap sides.

A few notes: do them when awake and unhurried — many people pair them with brushing their teeth or their commute (the vowels, at least, in private). They should never hurt; mild muscle tiredness is the point, pain is not. And consistency beats intensity: the trial benefits came from daily practice over months, not occasional heroic sessions.

Can singing help? Moderate evidence

Singing is, in effect, enjoyable soft-palate and throat training. In the largest test — Hilton and colleagues, 2013 — 127 snorers and mild sleep apnoea patients were randomised, with 93 completing the study, to three months of daily 20-minute sessions from a programme called “Singing for Snorers” or to a control group. The singers’ daytime sleepiness improved (Epworth score down 2.5 points, p<0.001) and snoring frequency fell (down 1.5 points, p=0.01); loudness showed only a non-significant trend (p=0.08).^[8][9]

So singing won’t necessarily make you quieter, but the trial suggests you’ll snore less often and feel more awake — and it’s the only snoring treatment you might actually look forward to.

The didgeridoo study — yes, really

In 2006 the BMJ published a genuine randomised trial of didgeridoo playing. Twenty-five people with moderate sleep apnoea were randomised to four months of didgeridoo lessons and practice or to a waiting list. The players’ daytime sleepiness fell (Epworth down 3.0 points, p=0.03), their AHI dropped by 6.2 events per hour (p=0.05), and — a detail partners will appreciate — their bed partners’ sleep disturbance improved markedly (down 2.8 points, p<0.01).^[10][11]

The plausible mechanism is the same as myofunctional therapy: circular breathing and sustained playing train exactly the upper-airway muscles that collapse in sleep. A later meta-analysis of wind instrument playing and singing for sleep-disordered breathing collected the wider evidence.^[12] If you’d rather learn an instrument than do tongue presses, this is a fun but real option — your household’s daytime tolerance for didgeridoo practice being the main limiting factor.

Realistic expectations

• It takes time. Benefits in the trials appeared over weeks to months of daily practice — typically assessed at around three months. Nothing will change after three days.
• It helps snoring more than sleep apnoea. The snoring results are the most consistent; for sleep apnoea the reductions look promising but the certainty is low,^[6] and a halved AHI can still leave significant disease.
• Stopping means sliding back. Muscle tone is maintained by use. Treat it like fitness, not like a course of antibiotics.

Who mouth exercises suit

They’re a strong fit if you’re a primary snorer or have mild sleep apnoea, you’re motivated enough for a daily habit, and you want something free with no side effects — including alongside other approaches like positional therapy, lifestyle changes or an oral device. They’re a poor fit if you want instant results, or if your snoring stems mainly from nasal blockage — address that first via our nasal guide. For where exercises rank among every option, see the complete guide to stopping snoring.

The bottom line

Mouth exercises are the rare free remedy with real trial evidence: roughly halved snoring intensity in pooled studies, plus randomised trials for singing and even the didgeridoo. The price is paid in patience — 8–10 minutes a day for months — and the evidence, while consistently positive, remains modest in certainty. For a motivated snorer without red-flag symptoms, they’re one of the best first moves there is.