British Home Snores

I am no expert but I have been kicked and prodded by my wife during many a sleeping hour as her natural reaction to my persistent snoring. I have tried a few preventative measures such as avoiding alcohol, wearing a sticky nose band, lying on my front and keeping the bedroom window open for an influx of cold clean air. The bruises on my shins testify to the fact that none of these have had any success.

Now for the technical physical details; Snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome are two highly prevalent sleep disorders caused by collapse of the upper airways.

The most effective intervention for these disorders is continuous positive airway pressure therapy, which reduces daytime sleepiness and the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the most severely affected patients. It is a potentially life threatening affliction. 

Moderately affected patients complain about snoring and daytime sleepiness, however, continuous positive airway pressure therapy may not be suitable and other effective interventions are needed.

After so many decades of scientific and medical investigation and no doubt millions of pounds spent on laboratory and clinical research it was quite a surprise when a didgeridoo instructor reported that he and some of his students experienced reduced daytime sleepiness and snoring after practising with this instrument for several months.

Just about everyone must know about the didgeridoo but here is a crash course about it.

The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu) is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia potentially within the last 1,500 years and still in widespread use today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe". 

Musicologists classify it as a brass aerophone. A modern didgeridoo is usually cylindrical or conical, and can measure anywhere from 1 to 3 m (3 to 10 ft) long. Most are around 1.2 m (4 ft) long. Generally, the longer the instrument, the lower its pitch or key. However, flared instruments play a higher pitch than unflared instruments of the same length.

In one of the instructor's pupils, the apnoea-hypopnoea decreased significantly.This was thought to be due to training of the muscles of the upper airways, which control airway dilation and wall stiffening.

Scientists tested the hypothesis that training of the upper airways by didgeridoo playing reduces daytime sleepiness in moderately affected patients.

Participants in the intervention group started their didgeridoo training on an eight week programme.

The instructor taught the participants the lip technique to produce and hold the keynote for 20-30 seconds.

In the second lesson at week 2 the instructor explained the concept and technique of circular breathing. Circular breathing is a technique that enables the wind instrumentalist to maintain a sound for long periods of time by inhaling through the nose while maintaining airflow through the instrument, using the cheeks as bellows.

In the third lesson (week 4) the didgeridoo instructor taught the participants his technique to further optimise the complex interaction between the lips, the vocal tract, and circular breathing so that the vibrations in the upper airway are more readily transmitted to the lower airways

By the fourth lesson, eight weeks on the instructor and the participants repeated the basics of didgeridoo playing and made corrections when necessary. Participants had to practice at home for at least 20 minutes on at least five days a week and recorded the days with practice and the practice time.

The often long suffering partners of those with the condition rated their sleep disturbance by the participants' snoring during the previous seven nights on a visual analogue scale from 0 (not disturbed at all) to 5 (severely disturbed), 7 (very severely disturbed), 9 (very, very severely disturbed), and 10 (extremely disturbed). 

The partners completed the scale independently from the participants and sent it back to the study centre.

In conclusion, didgeridoo playing improved daytime sleepiness in patients with moderate snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea and reduced sleep disturbance in their partners. 

Larger trials will be required to confirm the promising preliminary findings, but the first study results may give hope to the many people with moderate obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome and snoring, as well as to their partners.


(Reproduced shamelessly from the work of Puhan, Suarez, Lo Cascio, Zahn, Heitz and Braendli published in the BMJ in 2006. Winners of the Peace Prize in the 2017 Ig Nobel Awards by the publication Improbable Research)