Among devices to stop snoring, a custom dental device that holds the jaw forward has the strongest evidence: the 2015 AASM and AADSM guideline recommends oral appliances over no therapy for adults with primary snoring, and in a 2024 randomized trial 21 of 23 sleeping partners (91%) rated their partner's snoring as much improved or better. Positional devices have good data in position-dependent sleep apnea and some for snoring, nasal strips and dilators gave mixed results, and a chin strap alone did not reduce snoring or sleep apnea in 26 patients. No device is proven to stop snoring immediately; in non-apneic snorers, lying on the side lowered snoring time and intensity in a study of 72 patients. Snoring with gasps or pauses needs a medical check first.
Devices to stop snoring are ranked online by price, comfort and star ratings, and a search for the best anti snoring devices brings up lists of exactly that. Trials do something different. They test a class of device, such as a dental appliance or a nasal strip, against another treatment or a placebo, and they report what happened to snoring.
This article follows the trials. It goes class by class, gives each an editorial evidence rating on a simple scale, says what is not known, and finishes with what helps tonight and what a recording of the night can add.
Which devices to stop snoring have evidence behind them?
The ratings in the table are our own editorial grades, based on the studies cited below. They describe how solid the evidence is for snoring, not how well a given product works, and nothing here replaces a fitting by a dentist or a check by a doctor.
| Device class | Best evidence | What it found | Own rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom dental device (jaw forward) | Guideline 2015; RCT 2024 (50 couples); RCT 2015 (96 patients) | Recommended over no therapy for primary snoring; 91% partner-rated responders; less snoring than placebo device | Strongest |
| Positional trainer or pillow | Meta-analysis of 18 studies in apnea; pillow trial in 22 snorers; study of 72 patients | Lowers apnea index and time on back; snoring lower on the side in non-apneic snorers | Moderate |
| Nasal strip or dilator | Small trials of 10 to 35 people; pooled apnea data | Mixed in snorers; no effect on apnea index | Weak, mixed |
| Tongue-stabilizing device | 27 patients with sleep apnea, crossover | Apnea index fell, similar to a dental device; poorer compliance | Limited, no snoring data |
| Chin strap alone | 26 patients with sleep apnea, one night | No change in apnea index or snoring index | Not supported |
Mouth tape, throat sprays, vibrating bands that do not track position and most items sold as "stop snoring" sets are missing from the table because the studies cited here did not test them on their own. The page on mouth taping goes through what is known there.
Dental devices: the best-studied class
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine published a guideline in 2015. It recommends that sleep physicians prescribe oral appliances, rather than no therapy, for adult patients who request treatment of primary snoring, meaning snoring without sleep apnea. For adults with sleep apnea, it suggests that a qualified dentist use a custom, titratable appliance over non-custom devices, and that treatment is followed up with dental oversight and repeat sleep testing.
Ramar K, Dort LC, Katz SG, Lettieri CJ, Harrod CG, Thomas SM, Chervin RD. Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Snoring with Oral Appliance Therapy: An Update for 2015. J Clin Sleep Med 2015. PMID 26094920
A pilot randomized trial from 2024 is the most direct test in snorers. Fifty couples were randomized, and 42 finished 4 weeks of treatment. People who snored used either a mandibular advancement device or a combined package of an external nasal dilator, a nasal saline rinse with mometasone, mouth taping and side-sleeping therapy. Sleeping partners rated the change. In the dental device group 21 of 23 snorers (91%) were rated as responders, compared with 11 of 19 (58%) in the combined package, a difference of 33 percentage points (95% CI 8 to 58) and a number needed to treat of 3. Both groups snored less. Four of the ten people who dropped out did so because of side effects, split evenly between the groups.
Ioerger P, Afshari A, Hentati F, Strober W, Kallogjeri D, Ju YE, Piccirillo JF. Mandibular Advancement vs Combined Airway and Positional Therapy for Snoring: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2024. PMID 38780959
A larger placebo-controlled trial adds a sober note. In 96 patients with daytime sleepiness and snoring or mild to moderate sleep apnea, a custom adjustable oral appliance reduced snoring (P < .001) and sleep apnea compared with a placebo device, but daytime sleepiness and quality of life did not improve beyond placebo over four months. A device can quiet the snore without making you feel more rested, which matters if sleepiness was your reason for treatment.
Marklund M, Carlberg B, Forsgren L, Olsson T, Stenlund H, Franklin KA. Oral Appliance Therapy in Patients With Daytime Sleepiness and Snoring or Mild to Moderate Sleep Apnea: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med 2015. PMID 26030264
Side effects are part of the picture. In 75 patients followed for 2.5 years, the bite changed slightly (overjet -0.4 mm), more than in reference patients and least with soft devices of under 6 mm protrusion, leading the authors to recommend follow-up. In a series of 619 patients treated for snoring and sleep apnea, 148 (24%) stopped using the device. Both papers support the guideline's point about dental oversight.
Marklund M, Franklin KA, Persson M. Orthodontic side-effects of mandibular advancement devices during treatment of snoring and sleep apnoea. Eur J Orthod 2001. PMID 11398551
Marklund M, Stenlund H, Franklin KA. Mandibular advancement devices in 630 men and women with obstructive sleep apnea and snoring: tolerability and predictors of treatment success. Chest 2004. PMID 15078734
The over-the-counter boil-and-bite versions are not what these studies tested, and the guideline's preference for custom devices applies to sleep apnea. The mouthpiece article covers that distinction: Does an anti snoring mouthpiece work?
Positional devices and pillows
Position is the cheapest lever in snoring. In 72 patients who complained of habitual snoring and had an overnight sleep study, nonapneic snorers snored significantly less in time (p = 0.0004) and in intensity (p = 0.0003) when lying on their side than on their back. Patients with sleep apnea were different and varied: those with a higher apnea index on the back tended to snore more, not less, on the side.
Nakano H, Ikeda T, Hayashi M, Ohshima E, Onizuka A. Effects of body position on snoring in apneic and nonapneic snorers. Sleep 2003. PMID 12683476
Devices that keep you off your back have been tested mostly in position-dependent sleep apnea. A meta-analysis of 18 studies (10 randomized trials, 8 cohort studies) of vibrating trainers found that they reduced the apnea-hypopnea index by 9.19 events an hour and the share of the night spent on the back by 32.79 percentage points, with minimal effects on sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and quality of life. In a randomized trial, a sleep position trainer and an oral appliance lowered the apnea index about equally in patients with mild to moderate positional sleep apnea.
ALQarni AS, Turnbull CD, Morrell MJ, Kelly JL. Efficacy of vibrotactile positional therapy devices on patients with positional obstructive sleep apnoea: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Thorax 2023. PMID 37344178
Benoist L, de Ruiter M, de Lange J, de Vries N. A randomized, controlled trial of positional therapy versus oral appliance therapy for position-dependent sleep apnea. Sleep Med 2017. PMID 28522078
Pillows that change head position have their own small trials, covered in Pillows and snoring.
Nasal strips, dilators and the nose
The nasal devices are the cheapest and the most mixed. External strips reduced partner-rated snoring in open-label studies of 20 and 35 snorers and a 30-person lab study, and did nothing in a 10-person lab study. Pooled across 14 studies in sleep apnea, dilators did not change the apnea-hypopnea index (28.7 to 27.4 events an hour). They are worth a test if your nose is the bottleneck: Do nasal strips work for snoring? and Nasal dilators for snoring give the details.
Chin straps and tongue devices
A chin strap looks logical, since it closes the mouth. The only polysomnography test in this article's sources gave a clear no. Twenty-six adults with sleep apnea slept the first two hours of a sleep study with a chinstrap only, then with CPAP. The chinstrap changed nothing significant compared with the diagnostic night: the median apnea-hypopnea index was 25.9 an hour against 16.0, the snoring index 180.0 against 253.2 per hour, and the subjective snoring score was similar. CPAP improved all of these. The authors called the chinstrap ineffective for both apnea and snoring. These were people with sleep apnea, so the result may not carry over to simple snoring.
Bhat S, Gushway-Henry N, Polos PG, DeBari VA, Riar S, Gupta D, Lysenko L, Patel D, Pi J, Chokroverty S. The efficacy of a chinstrap in treating sleep disordered breathing and snoring. J Clin Sleep Med 2014. PMID 25126035
A tongue-stabilizing device was compared with a dental device in 27 patients with sleep apnea in a crossover trial. The apnea-hypopnea index fell from 26.96 to 11.68 with the dental device and to 13.15 with the tongue device, and 68% responded to the dental device against 45% to the tongue device. Compliance was poorer with the tongue device and patients clearly preferred the dental one. No snoring-only data were reported in the abstract.
Deane SA, Cistulli PA, Ng AT, Zeng B, Petocz P, Darendeliler MA. Comparison of mandibular advancement splint and tongue stabilizing device in obstructive sleep apnea: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep 2009. PMID 19480232
How can I stop snoring immediately?
No product turns snoring off at once. What the research does support, for tonight, is position: if you lie on your back and snore, rolling onto your side lowers the sound in most people without sleep apnea. A rolled towel or a pillow behind the back is the low-tech way to stay there. Other quick levers are discussed in How to stop snoring, including alcohol in the evening. Anything that claims to stop snoring forever is selling more than the studies measured.
Snoring with gasps, silences someone has noticed, morning headaches or heavy sleepiness in the day should be checked by a doctor before any device is bought. A device that quiets the sound can hide a problem that remains.
There is a good reason for urgency when a partner is involved. In 10 couples measured in a sleep lab, a partner's sleep efficiency rose from 74% to 87% on the night the snorer's snoring and breathing events were treated with CPAP, about 62 more minutes of sleep. That study used CPAP, which treats sleep apnea, and not any of the devices above, but it shows what the noise costs the person next to you.
Beninati W, Harris CD, Herold DL, Shepard JW. The effect of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea on the sleep quality of bed partners. Mayo Clin Proc 1999. PMID 10918859
Where SleepTrace fits
Before buying any device it helps to know how much you actually snore. SleepTrace listens through the phone's microphone, recognizes snoring, talking and coughing, and saves short clips of those moments (the free plan plays back 3 clips a month). It shows when snoring happened and how much of the night it covered, and it marks possible breathing pauses with a timestamp, without a clip. After you start a device, the same nights can be compared with the old ones. Sleep phases are estimated from sound and are not a medical measurement, and the sleep apnea indicator is a screening estimate, not a diagnosis.
Setup is one step on iPhone or Android: leave the app open, put the phone on the charger and let the screen dim. It cannot tell whether a device is fitted well, which position you were in, or whether you breathed through your mouth. For the dentist's side of the story, read Does an anti snoring mouthpiece work?
Frequently asked questions
By evidence, a custom-fitted oral appliance that moves the lower jaw forward. The 2015 AASM and AADSM guideline recommends oral appliances rather than no therapy for adults who request treatment of primary snoring, and a custom, titratable one over an off-the-shelf device for sleep apnea. In a 2024 randomized trial of 42 couples who finished, 91% of partners of dental device users rated snoring much improved or better, against 58% in a comparison group using a nasal strip, saline rinse with mometasone, mouth tape and side sleeping.
Dental devices can change the bite slightly. After about 2.5 years, 75 users had a change in overjet of -0.4 mm, larger than in reference patients, and the authors recommended follow-up. In a series of 619 patients, 148 (24%) stopped using the device. A dentist trained in sleep medicine can check the fit and the bite.
Not in the one study that tested it. In 26 patients with sleep apnea, a chinstrap worn for the first two hours of a sleep study changed neither the apnea-hypopnea index nor the snoring index compared with the diagnostic night, and CPAP did. The authors called it ineffective for snoring.
No device is proven to do that. What the research supports for tonight is position: in 72 patients, snorers without sleep apnea snored less in time and in intensity on their side than on their back. Patients with sleep apnea responded variably, so loud snoring with gasps should be checked by a doctor.
Not on its own. Dental devices are an option for sleep apnea that a doctor has diagnosed, usually chosen after a sleep study, and strips, dilators and chin straps did not improve apnea measures in the studies cited here. If snoring comes with pauses in breathing, daytime sleepiness or morning headaches, a sleep assessment comes before gadgets.
SleepTrace is a wellness app, not a medical device. This article is general information, not medical advice. If your symptoms are frequent, severe or worrying, please talk to a doctor.
A device only counts if the snoring actually changes. SleepTrace logs snoring for every night, saves clips of it to play back (each shows a peak dB value), and lets you compare a week before with a week after. It cannot tell whether a device fits your jaw, and snoring that comes with possible breathing pauses is a reason to see a doctor first.
Hear your own night. SleepTrace turns a night of audio into your sleep phases, the sounds you made, and how it all trends. Works without a wearable, better with one. Your phone on the nightstand is enough to start. Get it for iPhone or Android →