Can a long uvula cause snoring? The soft palate, Mallampati scores and what helps

A long uvula or a long, soft palate can cause snoring, because it narrows the space behind your nose and gives the airflow something loose to shake. It's rarely the only reason, though. Simple changes can still help, and a doctor can tell you whether your throat shape points toward sleep apnea or surgery.

What do the uvula and soft palate have to do with snoring?

The uvula and soft palate sit right where air turns the corner from your nose into your throat, so their size matters for snoring. The soft palate is the soft flesh at the back of your throat that extends from the hard, bony roof of your mouth. The uvula is the teardrop-shaped tissue hanging at the back of your throat. That's how Cleveland Clinic describes them in its guide to UPPP surgery.

Cleveland Clinic explains the snoring link plainly. If the roof of your mouth is longer or softer than usual, or your uvula is longer, the opening from your nose to your throat can be narrower and partly block your airway. As you breathe, these tissues vibrate and can bump against one another, and the result is a snoring sound.

NICE, the UK's health guidance body, describes snoring as a noisy breathing-in sound caused by vibration and partial blockage in the throat, and names vibration of the soft palate as one cause. It also points out that snoring can come from several different levels of the upper airway. So a long uvula may be part of your story, but your nose, tongue and tonsils can be playing a part too. Our guide to how snoring happens walks through each level.

Does a long uvula cause snoring?

A long uvula is linked to snoring, but the research is less tidy than you might expect. A 2018 systematic review in Sleep and Breathing pulled together 16 studies with 2,604 patients that measured the uvula and looked at snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. The authors found a lot of variation between studies. In general, a uvula longer than 15 mm was considered elongated and one wider than 10 mm was considered wide.

The review concluded that there is a relationship between uvula size, snoring and sleep apnea, and that larger uvulas appear to go with more severe snoring and sleep apnea. It also said the direct link still needs better research. That's a fair summary of where things stand: a big uvula is a reasonable suspect, not a proven culprit, and it usually sits alongside other factors.

If you're curious about your own uvula, we'd suggest asking a doctor or dentist to take a look at your next visit rather than judging it in a mirror.

What is a Mallampati score?

A Mallampati score is a quick, no-equipment exam that grades how crowded the back of your mouth looks. It was first developed to predict which patients would be hard to intubate for surgery, and sleep clinicians later borrowed it to help judge the risk of sleep apnea.

In the version used in a 2023 study in the Jornal Brasileiro de Pneumologia, you sit up, swallow once, open your mouth wide and stick your tongue out without making a sound. The examiner then grades what they can see:

A higher class means a narrower view of the throat. That 2023 study found the score tracked with tongue size, body weight and neck size as well as with sleep apnea, so a high class doesn't only reflect your uvula. A big tongue can hide everything behind it.

What is the modified Mallampati or Friedman score?

The modified Mallampati grade and the Friedman tongue position are two closely related versions of this exam, both commonly used when checking for obstructive sleep apnea. A 2020 review in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine says both have the potential to be useful. It also warns that the exam can be hard to perform and that examiners aren't consistent in the terms they use or in how they carry it out.

Does a high Mallampati score mean sleep apnea?

A high Mallampati score raises the odds of sleep apnea, but it doesn't diagnose it. In a 2006 study in Sleep, researchers scored 137 adults being checked for sleep apnea at the UCSF Sleep Disorders Center, then ran overnight sleep studies. For every 1-point rise in the score, the odds of having obstructive sleep apnea rose about 2.5 times, and the number of breathing events per hour went up by about 5. That held even after the researchers accounted for more than 30 other factors, including body size and other airway features.

The 2023 Brazilian study of 80 adult men found a similar pattern. Men with a class III or IV score had about three times the odds of moderate to severe sleep apnea. Class IV men also had more severe sleep apnea, larger necks and bigger tongues than class II men.

So if a doctor or dentist tells you your Mallampati score is high, treat it as a reason to pay attention to your other symptoms, not as a verdict. Only a sleep study can answer the question. Our guide to home sleep apnea tests explains how that works, and snoring vs. sleep apnea covers how to tell the two apart.

What helps snoring from a long uvula or soft palate?

What helps most is working on everything around the uvula, since there's no exercise, spray or device we know of that shrinks the uvula itself. The good news is that snoring rarely depends on one thing, so the other factors give you plenty to work with.

The NHS suggests these changes for snoring in general:

• Sleep on your side. It suggests a tennis ball sewn into the back of your sleepwear, a special pillow or a bed wedge.
• Don't drink too much alcohol, and don't smoke.
• Avoid sleeping pills, which can sometimes cause snoring.
• Lose weight if you're overweight.

The NHS also matches treatments to the cause. If your tongue partly blocks the back of your throat, it suggests a mouthpiece that brings the tongue forward. If your mouth falls open in your sleep, it suggests a chin strap or a device that helps you breathe through your nose. If your nose is blocked or narrow, it suggests nasal dilators or strips, or decongestants and nasal sprays. Our guides to alcohol and snoring and oral appliances for snoring go deeper on each.

Can nasal strips and mouth tape help?

Nasal strips and mouth tape can help with the parts of snoring that come from a blocked nose or an open mouth, even if your soft palate is also on the long side. They don't change your uvula. What they do is encourage you to breathe through your nose, which matters if you also sleep with your mouth open.

The best-known mouth tape study looked at 20 mouth breathers with mild sleep apnea. On a home sleep test a week after their first one, this time with a strip of silicone tape over their lips, 13 of the 20 cut their snoring index by at least half, and the median snoring index fell by 47%, from 303.8 to 121.1 events an hour. It's a small study without a control group, but for people who snore with their mouths open, the result is encouraging. The study left out people with a BMI of 30 or more and people with more than mild sleep apnea.

If you'd like to try this route, the Titan Sleep System pairs nasal strips with mouth tape. Check that you can breathe comfortably through your nose first with our nose test, and read how to start mouth taping for a gentle first week. We don't recommend mouth tape for children.

When is surgery on the uvula or soft palate considered?

Surgery on the uvula or soft palate comes up when simpler treatments haven't worked and an exam shows the soft palate is the main problem. The NHS says surgery is sometimes used for snoring when other treatments don't help, but that it doesn't always work and snoring can come back.

For snoring alone, one option is radiofrequency treatment, which uses an electrode to send energy into the soft palate so it scars and tightens. NICE says there are no major safety concerns and the short-term evidence is adequate, but that long-term results are uncertain and some people need further procedures. It says the treatment should only be used when snoring has been shown to come from abnormal movement of the soft palate and sleep apnea has been ruled out.

For obstructive sleep apnea, the main palate operation is uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, or UPPP. Cleveland Clinic says it removes all or part of the soft palate, uvula and tonsils, and may be an option if first-line treatments such as CPAP and weight loss haven't worked. Doctors use a staging system based on tonsil size, how the soft palate sits relative to the tongue, and BMI to judge who is likely to benefit. In a 2006 Taiwanese study of 110 people with sleep apnea who had UPPP, success rates were 100% in the most favorable anatomy stage and 20% in the least favorable one. Cleveland Clinic lists recovery of two to four weeks or longer, a sore throat for up to a month, and rare complications such as scarring that narrows the airway.

Our full guide to snoring surgery compares the procedures, side effects and recovery in detail.

When should you see a doctor?

See a doctor if your snoring comes with other signs, whatever your uvula looks like. The NHS advises seeing a GP if lifestyle changes aren't helping, if snoring has a big impact on your life or your partner's, or if you feel sleepy in the day, your breathing stops and starts while you sleep, or you make gasping or choking noises. Those can be signs of sleep apnea, which the NHS says can be serious if not treated.

At the appointment, the NHS says a GP will look inside your mouth and nose for anything that might be causing the snoring, and it can help to bring a partner who can describe it. That exam is where a long uvula or a high Mallampati score would usually be spotted. If your nose is blocked most nights, mention that too, since nasal strips and tape work best with a clear nose. If you're pregnant, ask your midwife or doctor before trying any new snoring product. Our guide to sleep apnea warning signs covers the symptoms in more detail.

Our pick (paid partner): Titan Sleep System

If your snoring has a nose or mouth part to it alongside a long palate, our pick is the Titan Sleep System. We haven't tested or ranked these products ourselves; this is our recommendation.

Titan says the system pairs TitanAir Nasal Strips, drug-free external nasal dilators with flexible spring-loaded bands, with Titan Bamboo Silk Mouth Tape as one nightly routine. Titan describes the tape as a soft, breathable bamboo silk strip and suggests 20 to 30 minutes of daytime practice before the first night. It says every batch is third-party tested and certified PFAS-free, and its 30-night guarantee refunds you if your sleep isn't better after 30 nights.

Read next

• Snoring surgery: procedures, side effects, recovery and who it helps
• 10 reasons you snore, and what to try for each
• Why do I snore if I'm not overweight?

* This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or health condition. Talk to a qualified healthcare provider about your health.