SleepSpace Snore Detector
Guide to tracking your snoring with SleepSpace and a demo of what an unhealthy snore sounds like
By Dr. Dan Gartenberg
Last Updated: March 30, 2026
Why measure snoring and breathing patterns at night
There is a major difference between a typical snore and a sleep apnea snore when it comes to our health and well being. Sleep apnea is related to increased hypertension, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and about 6 years off your life when untreated. While "normal" snoring due to a cold or sickness is not usually a problem, chronic snoring could be a sign of a deeper issue like sleep apnea. When the snore is erratic, like is the case in the demo recording below, that's when things might be particularly problematic. If you think you might have sleep apnea, you really really really ought to get diagnosed and treated!
In the brief audio recording featured below from SleepSpace, a typical snore is measured next to a hypopnea, which is an instance of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea translates from the Latin root "absence of breathing." See the below video of what the difference between a typical snore and a sleep apnea snore sounds like.
Often times the sleeper is completely unaware of this issue, so recording the sound in the room can be an important first step in helping them get the motivation to get diagnosed and treated. You can easily do this using the SleepSpace app that will record sound throughout the night and seamlessly display it on your iPhone. Then send the recording to a sleep specialist who can guide you on the diagnosis path. Additionally, through a collaboration with Wesper, you can now get diagnosed for sleep apnea without leaving the comfort of your own home, through a link found within the SleepSpace app. Enter code "SLEEPSPACE23" for 10% off!
Other signs of sleep apnea
• Teeth grinding
• Waking up and feeling short of breath
• A Excessive daytime sleepiness
• High blood pressure
• Chest-pain at night
• Restless sleeping
• Morning Headaches
Guaranteed sleep help at no cost to you with our free trial
How to turn on the SleepSpace Snore Detector
1) Download the SleepSpace App from the Apple App Store (not yet available on Android)
2) Make sure your phone is updated to iOS 16 or later and make sure iCloud is enabled
3) Edit your Sleep Journey in the Sleep Screen and scroll down to turn on the snore recorder
4) Make sure your sleep partner consents to you recording sound throughout the night
5) Start your Sleep Journey
6) Save the recorded sound in the morning (see below images)
7) To listen to the recording, go to the "Files" app that is native on every iPhone
Listen to the difference between a normal snore and a sleep apnea snore
- There is a typical snore pattern until about 35 seconds
- Then you can hear the sleeper gasping for air at around 35 seconds in
- Starting at about 1 min 10 seconds in they stop breathing
- This lasts for about 30 second! This can be typical for sleep apnea to stop breathing for that long
- Finally they begin to breath again towards the end of the video
You can imagine how this is not healthy for the heart, brain and overall health of anyone
Guaranteed sleep help at no cost to you with our free trial
Measuring sound in the bedroom is not just important for measuring snoring, but relevant to anyone who wants to better understand their bedroom environment. Often times, subtle sounds wake us up in the middle of the night that negatively impact sleep. I've seen it myself in our sleep lab when I noticed that an air conditioner turning on was waking up sleepers. Additionally, SleepSpace plays sleep enhancing sounds throughout the night designed to entrain deeper sleep. You can listen to how SleepSpace adjusts these sounds when this feature is turned on.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Each night the sound recording will be overwritten in order to save space on your phone, so to save it, you will have to press the save recording button each morning, which stores the file in your iCloud account.
PRIVACY: No recorded data is ever saved on SleepSpace servers, for your privacy and protection.
For increased snore detection accuracy, purchase the SleepSpace Smart Bed which positions the phone closer to you at night for more precise recording of sound: https://smartbed.sleepspace.com/
Other signs of sleep apnea:
1) Teeth grinding
2) Waking up and feeling short of breath
3) Excessive daytime sleepiness
4) High blood pressure
5) Chest-pain at night
6) Restless sleeping
7) Morning headaches
Even if you don't have apnea, snoring can be a major issue for your sleep partner by disrupting their sleep. There are other solutions for typical snoring as well such as a nasal dilator, addressing a deviated septum, or treating your allergies. Other Risk Factors: Alcohol and being overweight often makes sleep apnea worse.
Recommended Treatments
1) CPAP has the best effects of treating the problem.
2) A mandibular device has efficacy for mild to moderate and can be attained through a dentist trained in developing these special mouthpieces.
3) Myofunctional therapy and weight loss show some efficacy as well, but nothing close to the effectiveness of CPAP.
4) These solutions in combination are probably the most effective treatments.
Fun Sleep Fact: We often snore more during REM sleep due to our body being paralyzed during this phase, and is often why snoring happens later on in the night (when we have more REM).
Hint: For Apple Watch users, low pulse oxygenation could also be a sign that you should get diagnosed for sleep apnea and SleepSpace with Apple watch displays these pulse oxygenation values to you at night.
Snoring and room sound
Record snoring while you sleep, then listen back with context
If you are looking for a snore recorder app, what you usually want is not just a random audio file. You want to know when the sound happened, how often it showed up, whether it lined up with awakenings or poor recovery, and whether the pattern looks more like ordinary snoring, partner snoring, room noise, or a breathing issue worth taking more seriously.
Snoring is more useful when it is treated as a pattern instead of a random sound. It can change with sleep position, alcohol, congestion, bedtime timing, stress, bedroom noise, and who else is in the room. [1] [2] [4]
One short clip can be interesting. A multi-night pattern is far more useful. The best at-home snore tracking apps help people understand what happened across several nights and what to do next, not just whether the night sounded bad. [5] [7]
SleepSpace is a strong fit for this because the app can put snoring, room sound, timing, diary notes, and overall recovery into the same feedback loop. That is a much better starting point than guessing from memory or relying on one comment from a bed partner.
Review the full night
Sleep tracking becomes more useful when sound lives inside a broader nightly review
What to look for
What a good snore recorder app should actually help you answer
Questions that matter
- Did the snoring happen all night, or only in a few clusters?
- Did it seem worse on your back, after alcohol, or during congested nights?
- Did the sound line up with awakenings, dry mouth, morning headaches, or lower-quality sleep?
- Was the sound coming from you, your partner, or the room itself?
- Was the night only loud, or did it also feel fragmented and unrefreshing?
Why the newer playback story matters
The newer Sound in Room workflow turns audio into something easier to interpret. Exact event timing, 15-second clips, waveform playback, peak dB values, and save or export behavior make the recording more actionable than a single mystery file pulled from the morning after.
"Listen to yourself snore" is one need, but "review what happened around the sound event" is usually the more valuable one.
Playback and timing
Why snoring playback is more useful than a simple yes-or-no snore score
Many people searching for "record my snoring" are really trying to solve a decision problem. They want to know whether the sound is occasional and positional, whether it seems to be breaking up the night, or whether it sounds concerning enough to bring into a sleep-apnea conversation. [2] [6]
Playback changes the value of the data because it lets you review the sound with timing attached. In newer SleepSpace workflows, that means looking at exact moments in the night, saving a night worth keeping, and reviewing sound in a way that is easier to compare with your sleep diary, your morning Score, or what your partner noticed.
That matters for people looking for snoring playback, a way to share recordings with a doctor, or a clearer sense of what sleep-apnea-related snoring may sound like. Most people are not only trying to collect sound. They are trying to interpret it.
Your partner and the room
Track partner snoring, room noise, and your own breathing without turning the night into a blame project
Many people are not only asking "Do I snore?" They are asking "Is my partner's snoring what keeps breaking my sleep?" or "Is the problem my breathing, my bed partner, or the room?" [7]
That is where the broader Sound in Room framing helps. Room sound can include your own snoring, partner snoring, sudden noise events, and environmental disruption. The point is not to blame the loud person in the room. The point is to make an invisible pattern visible enough to choose the next step with less guesswork.
If your situation is more about noise sensitivity than airway concern, SleepSpace also has a deeper sound masking guide. If the story feels more like broken sleep from a bed partner, the partner-poked sleep pattern is also worth reading.
When to take it seriously
When snoring starts to look more like an airway problem than a noise problem
Clues worth taking seriously
- Very loud or forceful snoring that seems to dominate the night.
- Snoring paired with gasping, choking, witnessed pauses, or severe daytime sleepiness.
- Snoring that is much worse on the back or after alcohol.
- Dry mouth, headaches, or unrefreshing sleep even when time in bed looks adequate.
- A pattern that keeps recurring across several nights instead of one unusual evening.
Important distinction
Snoring recordings can help you notice patterns. They do not diagnose obstructive sleep apnea on their own. What they do well is sharpen the conversation, especially when paired with symptom context and a multi-night review. [2] [3] [6]
If the pattern looks meaningful, the next move is usually evaluation, not endless self-monitoring. SleepSpace can help you arrive at that next step with cleaner information.
Using the pattern
Use sound, diary notes, and recovery together if you want a coach or clinician to make sense of the pattern
A simple recording feature becomes much more useful when several nights of sound are turned into a cleaner story. That usually means looking at when the events happened, whether the night was worse on certain positions or routines, and whether the sound matched what you felt the next morning.
The SleepSpace digital sleep diary is useful here because it adds timing, awakenings, sleep efficiency, and your subjective experience of the night. If you are already working with a sleep coach or sleep specialist, that combination is much more helpful than simply saying "I think I snore a lot."
That is especially useful for people who want to bring something concrete into a medical, coaching, or sleep-clinic conversation instead of only saying, "I think I snore a lot."
Keep exploring
Related SleepSpace resources if you want to go deeper
SleepSpace resource
Sleep apnea guide
Helpful if you want a clearer explanation of what to watch for when snoring starts sounding more like a breathing issue.
SleepSpace resource
Breath health evaluation and treatment path
Helpful if you are past casual curiosity and want the next-step map for screening, evaluation, and treatment conversations.
SleepSpace resource
Goose: self-snore waker
Useful if your own snoring is loud enough to wake you and the problem feels more like broken continuity than simple noise.
SleepSpace resource
Rhino: explosive snorer
Best for heavy, forceful, or socially obvious snoring that may be carrying more airway meaning than people assume.
SleepSpace resource
Walrus: thunder snorer
Helpful when snoring feels like the loud symptom of a quieter quality problem and the morning is worse than the clock suggests.
SleepSpace resource
Digital sleep diary
Add subjective sleep quality, awakenings, and bedtime context so the sound data does not have to carry the whole story by itself.
FAQ
Common questions after looking more closely at snoring
Can I record myself snoring with my phone and still get something useful?
Yes, but the useful part is not only the recording. The value comes from reviewing several nights, keeping the phone placement consistent, and comparing the sound to your timing, awakenings, and morning recovery.
Can SleepSpace help me track partner snoring or room noise too?
Yes. Sound in Room is broader than only self-snoring. It can help you review whether the disruption seems to come from your own breathing, your partner, or other bedroom noise that keeps breaking continuity.
Can snoring playback diagnose sleep apnea?
No. Playback can sharpen suspicion and make the pattern easier to discuss, but it is not a stand-alone diagnosis. If the pattern looks concerning, use it as a bridge into evaluation, not as the final answer.
Why do timestamps, waveform playback, and peak dB matter?
They help turn the overnight recording into something interpretable. Instead of only hearing a sound, you can review when it happened, how intense it seemed, and how it fit into the rest of the night.
How many nights should I track before I decide the pattern is real?
Several nights is a much better starting point than one. Snoring is often position-sensitive and routine-sensitive, so multi-night review usually tells a more honest story.
What is the best next step if the recordings sound concerning?
Add diary context, note symptoms such as daytime sleepiness or dry mouth, and review the pattern with a qualified clinician or sleep specialist. SleepSpace can help organize the clues before that conversation.
References
Selected references
- Benjafield AV, Ayas NT, Eastwood PR, et al. Estimation of the global prevalence and burden of obstructive sleep apnoea: a literature-based analysis. Lancet Respir Med. 2019. PubMed
- Jordan AS, McSharry DG, Malhotra A. Adult obstructive sleep apnoea. Lancet. 2014. PubMed
- Peppard PE, Young T, Palta M, Skatrud J. Prospective study of the association between sleep-disordered breathing and hypertension. N Engl J Med. 2000. PubMed
- Levendowski DJ, Ferini-Strambi L, Gamaldo C, et al. Positional therapy in the management of positional obstructive sleep apnea: a review of the current literature. 2017. PubMed
- Rundo JV, Pusalavidyasagar S. Oral appliance therapy in obstructive sleep apnea and snoring: systematic review and new directions of development. 2019. PubMed
- Berry RB, Budhiraja R, Gottlieb DJ, et al. Rules for scoring respiratory events in sleep: update of the 2007 AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events. J Clin Sleep Med. 2012. DOI
- Behar J, Roebuck A, Shahid M, Daly J, Hallack A, Palmius N, Stradling J, Clifford G. A review of current sleep screening applications for smartphones. Physiol Meas. 2013. DOI
- Basner M, McGuire S. Environmental Noise and Effects on Sleep: an update to the WHO systematic review and meta-analysis. 2022. PubMed
Next step
If you want to move from wondering to measuring, start with the SleepSpace assessment, download the app, and use the combination of sound review, diary context, and multi-night patterns to decide whether the next step is self-experimentation, a coach conversation, or a formal breathing evaluation.