Do nasal strips work for snoring? Sometimes, for snorers whose nose is the bottleneck, and the evidence is small. Partners rated snoring lower in open-label studies of 20 mild snorers (loudness improved by 34%) and 35 habitual snorers (p < 0.001), and in a 30-person sleep-lab study peak snoring intensity fell (p = 0.02), mostly in light sleep. In a sleep-lab study of 10 non-apneic snorers, neither snoring nor sleep quality changed. Across 14 studies in sleep apnea, dilators did not change the apnea-hypopnea index (28.7 to 27.4 events an hour). The cheapest way to find out about your own nose is a 7-night test with a recording.
A nasal strip is the cheapest thing you can put on a snoring problem: an adhesive band with two springy ribs that lifts the sides of the nostrils. Do nasal strips work for snoring? It depends on a question the box does not ask: where does your snoring start?
The studies are older than most people expect, mostly from the 1990s, and they are small. Here is what each one measured, why they disagree, what happens in sleep apnea, and a way to test a strip on yourself.
Do nasal strips work for snoring? Five small trials, two answers
The studies split into those that found less snoring and those that found no change. None used a sham strip, and the two largest positive ones were open label, so people and partners knew when the strip was on.
| Study | People | Design | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scharf 1994 | 20 mild snorers | 2 weeks, open label, partner questionnaires | Snoring loudness improved by 34%, ease of breathing by 25.6% |
| Ulfberg 1997 | 35 habitual snorers, apnea index below 5 | 14 nights, open label | Partner-graded snoring lower (p < 0.001), mouth dryness and sleepiness lower |
| Todorova 1998 | 30 outpatients with primary snoring | Sleep lab, without versus with strip | Peak snoring intensity lower (p = 0.02), mostly in light sleep |
| Liistro 1998 | 10 non-apneic snorers | Two sleep-lab nights, without then with strip | No change in snoring or sleep quality, including in 5 with a nasal valve anomaly |
The oldest of these asked 20 people with mild snoring to use a strip for a week after a baseline week. The questionnaires, which included ones filled in by bed partners, showed snoring loudness 34% better, ease of breathing 25.6% better, sleep quality 21.8% better and daytime sleepiness 26% lower.
Scharf MB, Brannen DE, McDannold M. A subjective evaluation of a nasal dilator on sleep & snoring. Ear Nose Throat J 1994. PMID 8076538
The 35-person study recruited men and women whose sleep tests showed an apnea index below 5, so sleep apnea was excluded, and used the strip for 14 nights. Partner-graded snoring, mouth dryness and the Epworth sleepiness score all fell significantly. The lab study of 30 outpatients put a strip on in the second part of the test and recorded full polysomnography including snoring vibration. The maximum snoring intensity dropped (p = 0.02), mostly in sleep stages 1 and 2 and hardly at all in slow-wave and REM sleep. On the second treatment night, 22 of 30 snored less loudly at their peak. Seventeen of the 30 said they needed some time to get used to the strip.
Ulfberg J, Fenton G. Effect of Breathe Right nasal strip on snoring. Rhinology 1997. PMID 9299650
Todorova A, Schellenberg R, Hofmann HC, Dimpfel W. Effect of the external nasal dilator Breathe Right on snoring. Eur J Med Res 1998. PMID 9707518
The negative study is the cleanest in design, and the smallest. Ten snorers without sleep apnea slept two nights in a lab, first without and then with a strip. Snoring filled between 22% and 98% of their sleep time on the control night. Neither snoring nor sleep quality changed on the strip night, including in five people whose nose exam showed a nasal valve anomaly. The authors concluded that the strip was ineffective in non-apneic snorers.
Liistro G, Rombaux P, Dury M, Pieters T, Aubert G, Rodenstein DO. Effects of Breathe Right on snoring: a polysomnographic study. Respir Med 1998. PMID 9893779
Why a strip suits one snorer and misses another
Breathe Right strips and snoring meet at one point: the nasal valve, the narrowest part of the airway, just inside the nostril. A strip widens it from the outside. In 112 people, an external dilator increased the smallest cross-sectional area of the nose and lowered its resistance in all three groups tested: 33 with mucosal swelling, 28 with a deviated septum at the valve, and 51 with healthy noses (all P < 0.01). The effect was biggest in the septum group (P < 0.001). The people with swollen mucosa had better numbers but did not feel more open (P = 0.06 for the rating).
Roithmann R, Chapnik J, Cole P, Szalai J, Zamel N. Role of the external nasal dilator in the management of nasal obstruction. Laryngoscope 1998. PMID 9591551
A wider nose helps only if the nose was part of the problem. A cohort of 4,916 adults aged 30 to 60 showed the link: people who reported severe nasal congestion always or almost always had 3.0 times the odds of habitual snoring (95% CI 2.2 to 4.0), and the link held in people without sleep apnea. But the same field has results that cut the other way. Among 683 people referred for snoring or possible sleep apnea, those with normal, unilaterally high and bilaterally high nasal resistance did not differ significantly in snoring or apnea indices. Another group of 40 snoring men had surgery that lowered nasal resistance, yet snoring time and intensity did not change on a sleep study.
Young T, Finn L, Palta M. Chronic nasal congestion at night is a risk factor for snoring in a population-based cohort study. Arch Intern Med 2001. PMID 11427099
Miljeteig H, Hoffstein V, Cole P. The effect of unilateral and bilateral nasal obstruction on snoring and sleep apnea. Laryngoscope 1992. PMID 1405965
Virkkula P, Bachour A, Hytönen M, Salmi T, Malmberg H, Hurmerinta K, Maasilta P. Snoring is not relieved by nasal surgery despite improvement in nasal resistance. Chest 2006. PMID 16424416
Why would a clear nose not always silence a snore? The vibration may start further back in the throat, and a wide nostril cannot reach it. The Miljeteig authors add a second reason: resistance was measured while people sat awake, and it may differ lying down. Neither explanation has been settled. The practical reading is that a strip is a good bet if your snoring is worse with a cold, with allergies or when one side feels shut, and a weaker bet if the nose is clear and the sound still comes.
Sleep apnea: a strip is not a treatment
People with sleep apnea sometimes reach for a strip because snoring is the part they can hear. A systematic review of nasal dilators screened 112 studies and analyzed 14. In 147 patients the apnea-hypopnea index moved from 28.7 to 27.4 events an hour (p = 0.64), with no significant change in the lowest oxygen saturation or the snoring index, and external strips specifically did not lower the apnea index.
Camacho M, Malu OO, Kram YA, Nigam G, Riaz M, Song SA, Tolisano AM, Kushida CA. Nasal Dilators (Breathe Right Strips and NoZovent) for Snoring and OSA: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pulm Med 2016. PMID 28070421
One small study found a more hopeful picture on a single night. Of 26 patients with a respiratory disturbance index above 10, 19 had a lower index when sleeping with strips, and the authors listed turbinate enlargement, septal deviation, allergic rhinitis, little throat obstruction and age under 55 as typical findings in those who responded. It is a one-night lab check, not a treatment trial, and the pooled data above did not confirm a general benefit.
Gosepath J, Amedee RG, Romantschuck S, Mann WJ. Breathe Right nasal strips and the respiratory disturbance index in sleep related breathing disorders. Am J Rhinol 1999. PMID 10582117
Choking sounds in the night, pauses a partner has noticed, or sleepiness that follows you through the day should be checked before you buy anything for the nose. They can point to sleep apnea, which a nasal strip does not treat.
A strip can make you feel better without changing your sleep
Placebo effects are strong with devices you can feel. In 26 patients with severe sleep apnea (average apnea-hypopnea index 60.7), a strip changed none of the sleep-lab measures, yet sleepiness fell from 15.8 to 13.0 on the Epworth scale (p = 0.001) and depressive symptoms improved (p = 0.005). The authors concluded that a nasal strip is an attractive placebo for CPAP trials. A device that looks like treatment can lift mood and sleepiness without touching the breathing events.
Yagihara F, Lorenzi-Filho G, Santos-Silva R. Nasal Dilator Strip is an Effective Placebo Intervention for Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea. J Clin Sleep Med 2017. PMID 27707442
Not every benefit is a placebo, either. In a 4-week randomized trial, 42 nonobese adults with chronic sleep-maintenance insomnia and mild breathing symptoms used strips plus short education, and 38 controls got general sleep education. The strip group improved by a large margin on the Insomnia Severity Index and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The authors noted that replication needs placebo controls and objectively confirmed breathing problems, so the result tells you that people felt better, not why.
Krakow B, Melendrez D, Sisley B, Warner TD, Krakow J, Leahigh L, Lee S. Nasal dilator strip therapy for chronic sleep-maintenance insomnia and symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing: a randomized controlled trial. Sleep Breath 2006. PMID 16496118
Nose tape, snoring strip, mouth tape: which is which
Nose tape for snoring and a snoring strip are, in most cases, names for the same product: the adhesive band across the bridge of the nose, which is what the trials above tested. Mouth tape is a different idea with a different evidence base: it closes the lips rather than opening the nose. If mouth breathing is part of your picture, read Does mouth taping work? and How to stop mouth breathing before combining the two. The wider list of options, from side sleeping to dental devices, is in How to stop snoring.
A 7-night test with a recording
The positive trials used a structure you can copy: a baseline period and a strip period, judged partly by someone other than the person wearing the strip. Alternating nights is the tidier version at home, because the nights are close together.
- Pick seven nights in a row with a similar routine. Skip nights with alcohol, a cold or a late meal, because they change snoring by themselves.
- Wear the strip on nights 1, 3, 5 and 7, and no strip on nights 2, 4 and 6. Apply it to clean, dry skin.
- Record every night with the same phone in the same spot, and keep your sleeping position and bedtime as steady as you can.
- Ask a partner to rate each morning without knowing which nights had the strip, or listen to the clips later without looking at the dates.
- Compare the four strip nights with the three others. If the difference is small or inconsistent, expect little from the strip.
A pattern across seven nights does not remove expectation, and a lab would do better. It does separate a strip that clearly helps from a strip that does nothing, which is the decision you actually face at the pharmacy.
Where SleepTrace fits
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, Premium has no limit). It shows how much of the night it detected snoring and when, and it marks possible breathing pauses with a timestamp, without a clip. Run it on both strip and no-strip nights and you can compare the nights side by side. It estimates sleep phases from sound, so treat the numbers as estimates and not as a medical measurement. Both iPhone and Android work, as long as the app stays open and the phone is charging; the screen dims on its own.
It cannot see your nose, whether you breathe through your mouth, your sleeping position or how well a strip is sticking, and its sleep apnea indicator is a screening estimate that does not diagnose anything. For how phone-based tools differ, see Snore recorder apps.
Frequently asked questions
For some people, in small trials. Partners rated snoring lower in open-label studies of 20 and 35 snorers, and a sleep-lab study of 30 outpatients found lower peak snoring intensity (p = 0.02) concentrated in light sleep. A sleep-lab study of 10 non-apneic snorers found no change in snoring or sleep quality. The better odds are for snoring that starts in a blocked nose.
No. A systematic review of 14 studies with 147 patients found no significant change in the apnea-hypopnea index (28.7 to 27.4 events an hour, p = 0.64), lowest oxygen level or snoring index. In 26 patients with severe sleep apnea, a strip changed no sleep-lab measure, though the patients felt less sleepy and less depressed, which led the authors to call the strip a good placebo for CPAP trials.
Usually yes: the product most people mean is an adhesive strip with springy bands that pulls the sides of the nose open. It is not the same as mouth tape, which is a separate question covered in our article on mouth taping.
It can. In the sleep apnea trial above, sleepiness fell from a score of 15.8 to 13.0 and depressive symptoms fell although no sleep-lab number moved. A randomized trial of 80 adults with insomnia and mild breathing symptoms found large improvements with strips plus education, and its authors said placebo-controlled replication was needed.
The positive trials ran from 2 nights in a lab to 2 weeks at home and compared a baseline with a strip period. A 7-night test with the strip on four nights and off three, judged by a recording or a partner who does not know which nights are which, gives you a first answer. Snoring with gasping or silences belongs with a doctor, not a trial of strips.
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 strip only helps if the nose is the bottleneck, so your answer is personal. Try it for a week and look at the morning view: SleepTrace shows how much you snored and keeps clips to play back. It cannot see your nose or tell why you snore, and a strip is no treatment for possible breathing pauses; those belong with a doctor.
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 →