Snore no more: treat yourself--and your partner--to a peaceful slumber; sleeping on your side makes your throat less likely to collapse and block breathing.

If you--or your partner--suffer from snoring, you certainly aren't alone. It's estimated that approximately 90 million Americans over the age of 18 snore occasionally, and about 37 million are habitual snorers. The majority of them are overweight men. And, alas, snoring tends to worsen with age.

But regardless of age or body type, you don't have to resign yourself to night after night of interrupted sleep. "More than 90 percent of all snorers can be cured," says Derek Lipman, MD, an ear, nose and throat surgeon from Portland, Oregon, and author of Snoring from A to ZZZZ: Proven Cures for the Night's Worst Nuisance.

In order to treat the problem, however, you'll need to understand the cause.

bedtime story

The physiology behind snoring is fairly straightforward. As you progress from shallow sleep to deep sleep, the muscles in the roof of your mouth, tongue and throat relax.

If the tissues in your throat relax enough, they vibrate and may partially obstruct your airway. And the more narrowed your airway, the more forceful the airflow becomes. The tissue vibration increases, and your snoring grows louder.

But what causes this problem in some and not in others?