Adjustable Beds and Snoring: What to Expect

Raising the head of the bed can help to alleviate snoring. That is worth trying, and it is the whole of what an adjustable bed does here — it changes your position, nothing more. It is not a treatment, it does not work for everyone, and if the snoring involves pauses in breathing or gasping, the useful next step is a GP rather than a bed.

This guide covers what to expect, how to set the bed up, and how to tell the difference between snoring that a position change might help and snoring that needs looking at properly.

What an adjustable bed actually changes

It changes the angle you lie at. That is the entire mechanism, and everyone already knows it works to some degree — it is why people prop themselves up on pillows, and why a partner nudges a snorer onto their side.

What an adjustable bed adds over a stack of pillows is that it holds the position properly, all night, without sliding or collapsing, and lets you fine-tune the angle rather than choosing between one pillow and two.

We are not going to describe what happens inside your throat when you do it. Plenty of pages will, usually with a diagram. We sell beds, we have not measured anything in anyone's airway, and a retailer explaining your anatomy to you is a retailer exceeding what it knows.

Setting it up

There is no correct angle. What suits one person is uncomfortable for another, and the number matters far less than whether you can sleep in the position.

1. Start small. A slight raise, not a dramatic one. Most people who find this helpful end up lower than they expected.
2. Change one thing at a time. If you adjust the head, the legs and the pillow all at once, you will not know which change did anything.
3. Give each setting several nights. One night tells you very little. Snoring varies with alcohol, a blocked nose, how tired you are and which way you end up facing.
4. Re-check the pillow. Raising the head section reduces the gap the pillow has to fill. A pillow that was right flat is often too tall once the bed is raised, and the resulting neck angle gets blamed on the bed.
5. Save it once you find it. A memory preset is the feature that makes this practical night after night.

If you slide down the bed overnight, a very slight foot raise often stops that. It is a common fix and people rarely think of it.

How to judge a bed if this is why you are buying

• Fine control, not a big maximum. The useful thing is small increments and the ability to stop where it suits you. A large advertised angle is not the point, and a bed with three fixed presets gives you less to work with than one with smooth control.
• A savable preset. You want to return to the same position every night without hunting for it.
• A motor you have heard in a quiet room. Showroom floors are noisy; bedrooms at 10pm are not. Ask.
• What happens to your partner. On a single shared mattress, raising your head raises their side too. On a split configuration each side is independent, so one person can sleep elevated while the other stays flat. Where snoring is concerned this is often the decisive feature, because it is a two-person problem with two different preferences.
• Whether you can try it for more than five minutes. The question is not whether the position feels fine now, but whether you can sleep in it.

Note what is not on that list: any figure in degrees or decibels. Bed makers rarely publish calibrated numbers for either, and a specific figure on a product page usually means someone invented one. We do not publish an elevation range or a noise rating for the Sophie bed, because we do not have measured ones to give you.

The things that change snoring more than a bed does

Worth saying, because a bed is an expensive place to start if something simpler is going on.

• Alcohol in the evening relaxes everything and is one of the most reliable ways to make snoring worse on a given night.
• A blocked nose, from a cold or hay fever, will override any position you choose.
• Sleeping on your back versus your side. Many people snore on their back and not on their side, and an elevated position sometimes helps mainly because it makes back-sleeping less likely.
• Weight change affects it for some people, which is a matter for a GP rather than a bed retailer.
• Some medications, particularly sedatives. Worth asking your pharmacist about.

None of that is a reason not to raise the bed. It is a reason to be realistic about what the bed is doing.

When this is not a furniture problem

This is the important part of the page.

Snoring with pauses in breathing, gasping or choking sounds, or waking unrefreshed after a full night's sleep, can indicate obstructive sleep apnoea. So can heavy daytime sleepiness, morning headaches, or a partner who has noticed you stop breathing.

Sleep apnoea is common, it is diagnosable, and it is treatable. It is also not something a bed addresses, and no one should be buying furniture instead of getting assessed. If any of that describes you or the person next to you, see your GP and ask about a sleep study.

We would rather say that plainly and lose the sale than sell a bed to someone who needed a referral.

Trying it before you commit

Position is unusually hard to judge from a description, and snoring is unusually hard to judge in a showroom, given you have to be asleep. Our free in-home demonstration lets you set the bed up in your own room and spend 30 to 60 minutes working out whether the position is one you could actually sleep in. It is obligation-free and there is no cost.

Call 1300 9 SLEEP (1300 975 337) Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm AEST, or see the Sophie adjustable bed range and the 25 adjustable bed myths.

Common questions

Does an adjustable bed stop snoring?

No, and we would not claim it does. Raising the head of the bed can help to alleviate snoring, which is worth trying, but it changes your position rather than treating anything. Some people find a real difference and others find none. This is general information, not medical advice.

How high should I raise the bed for snoring?

There is no correct angle, and we do not publish one, because we have no measured figure to give. Start with a small raise, change one thing at a time, and give each setting several nights — snoring varies with alcohol, a blocked nose and how tired you are, so one night tells you very little.

Will raising the bed affect my partner?

On a single shared mattress, yes — raising your head raises their side too. On a split configuration each side is an independent base with its own remote, so one person can sleep elevated while the other stays flat. Snoring is a two-person problem with two different preferences, so this is often the decisive feature.

What changes snoring more than a bed does?

Alcohol in the evening, a blocked nose from a cold or hay fever, sleeping on your back rather than your side, weight change, and some medications including sedatives. None of that is a reason not to raise the bed, but it is a reason to be realistic about what the bed is doing.

When should I see a doctor about snoring?

If the snoring involves pauses in breathing, gasping or choking sounds, or if you wake unrefreshed after a full night, that can indicate obstructive sleep apnoea — as can heavy daytime sleepiness or morning headaches. It is common, diagnosable and treatable, and it is not something a bed addresses. See your GP and ask about a sleep study.

Information on this page is general in nature and is not a replacement for professional medical advice. Talk to your GP, occupational therapist or treating clinician about what suits your situation.