SoundSleep
A snore score is a single number that stands in for a night of snoring. It exists because “you snored a lot” is not something you can track, compare, or bring to a doctor. A number is. But the number only means something if you know how it was made, and most apps do not say.
What goes into the score
Every snore score is some blend of three things: how long you snored, how often it happened, and how loud it was. Apps weight those differently, which is why the same night can score 40 in one app and 120 in another. Neither is wrong. They are on different scales.
SoundSleep scores every night from 0 to 100 and shows the weighting rather than hiding it:
- Duration, half the score. Total time spent snoring. Thirty minutes of snoring in a night fills this part completely.
- Frequency, 30%. How many separate snoring episodes the night contained. Fifty episodes fills it.
- Loudness, 20%. The average peak level of those episodes, on the app’s relative 0–100 loudness scale.
Duration carries the most weight on purpose. A person who snores softly for three hours has a bigger problem than one who produces two loud snorts and stops, and the score should say so.
What counts as a good snore score
On SoundSleep’s scale, a night under 30 is quiet, 30 to 60 is moderate, and 60 or above is heavy. A quiet night usually means a few minutes of light snoring, or none. A heavy night means long stretches of it, loud, all night.
The more useful question is not “is my score good?” but “is it lower than my normal?” Snoring varies a lot from one night to the next. A cold, a late dinner, a warm room, or a glass of wine can swing the same person by 20 points. That is why the app spends your first three nights building a baseline before it compares anything. One number in isolation is a coin flip. A trend over ten nights is evidence.
Why the score is only as good as the detection
A score built on the wrong sounds is worse than no score. If an app counts the fan, the dog, or your partner as your snoring, the number is fiction. SoundSleep classifies every sound before it scores it, separates your snoring from sleep talking and room noise, and keeps a clip of each event so you can listen and check. If a night’s score looks wrong, you can hear why.
It also matters what the app does on a night when it hears nothing. A zero should mean “you did not snore,” not “the microphone stopped working.” The morning report tells you which one it was.
How to actually lower it
Everyone has a theory: side sleeping, no alcohol, a new pillow, mouth tape, nasal strips. Some of it will work for you and most of it will not, and the internet cannot tell you which because it has never met you. The honest method is to tag what you did before bed, let the app collect enough tagged nights, and read what each factor cost you in points. If you want a real answer on one remedy, run it as an ON/OFF experiment and let the app alternate the nights. We wrote about that in what actually changes your snore score.
What a snore score is not
It is not a diagnosis. Loud, frequent snoring with pauses in breathing is a reason to talk to a clinician about sleep apnea, and a run of heavy nights is exactly the kind of evidence worth bringing along. But no app can diagnose anything from a microphone, and any app that suggests otherwise is overselling. More on that in can a sleep app diagnose a sleep disorder?
Common questions
What is a snore score?
A snore score is a single number summarizing a night of snoring, built from how long you snored, how often, and how loud. SoundSleep scores nights from 0 to 100, weighting duration 50%, frequency 30%, and loudness 20%.
What is a good snore score?
On SoundSleep's 0 to 100 scale, under 30 is quiet, 30 to 60 is moderate, and 60 or above is heavy. The more useful comparison is against your own baseline, since normal nights vary by 20 points or more.
Why do different apps give different snore scores?
Each app weights duration, frequency, and loudness differently and uses its own scale. Some scores top out at 100, others can exceed 300. Compare nights within one app, not across apps.
How do I lower my snore score?
Tag what you did before bed (alcohol, late meals, side sleeping, a new pillow), track consistently, and let the app show which factors actually change your score. Test a single remedy with alternating ON and OFF nights rather than trusting one quiet night.