The Loudest Snoring Ever Recorded
Chainsaw-loud snoring is real. Here are the world records, the documented outliers, and the stats about snoring that surprise almost everyone — every number verified against clinical or Guinness sources.
111.6 dB
Loudest snore ever recorded
45%
Of adults snore occasionally
25%
Snore regularly (nightly)
50–60 dB
Typical adult snoring
The record-holders
The three most-cited entries in the annals of extreme snoring.
Kåre Walkert
Sweden · 1993
111.6 dB
The official Guinness World Record for loudest snoring, recorded at Örebro Regional Hospital, Sweden. Walkert had obstructive sleep apnea and later received treatment.
Melvyn Switzer
United Kingdom · 1984
92 dB
An earlier informal record from Hampshire, England. His wife slept in another room and eventually became deaf in one ear — reportedly attributed to years of exposure.
Documented sleep-lab cases
Global · 2000
95 dB
Multiple published sleep-medicine studies have documented individual snoring peaks in the 90–100 dB range, recorded in clinical sleep laboratories.
Drag to find your snoring's twin
Move the slider through the decibel range and see which everyday sound matches your snoring — and where you fit compared to other adults.
Your snoring sounds like
Normal conversation (60 dB)
Audible
Around conversation level — clearly noticeable in the room.
Compared to reported averages
Within the typical adult snoring range
Commonly reported adult snoring averages roughly 50–60 dB.
We don't publish a percentile ranking — we have no measured dataset of adult snorers to base one on.
Everyday sound ladder
- 🤫Whisper20 dB
- 📚Quiet library30 dB
- 🧊Refrigerator hum45 dB
- 🌦️Light rain55 dB
- 💬Normal conversation60 dB
- 🧹Vacuum cleaner70 dB
- 🌀Garbage disposal80 dB
- 🚜Lawnmower90 dB
- 🏍️Motorcycle100 dB
- 🪚Chainsaw (world record)111 dB
Educational comparison — not a medical diagnosis. Persistent loud snoring should be discussed with a clinician.
Six snoring facts that surprise almost everyone
Snoring louder than a lawnmower is well-documented
Sleep clinics routinely record snoring peaks above 90 dB — the loudness of a gas-powered lawnmower. It's rare, but not extraordinary. That is an acoustic fact about sound pressure — it describes how loud the room was, not what was happening in anyone's airway.
Men snore louder than women — on average
Studies of adult snorers consistently show men's snoring measures 3–8 dB higher on average than women's, largely explained by airway anatomy and neck circumference. Women's snoring also tends to increase after menopause.
Alcohol can add 5–10 dB to your snoring
Ethanol relaxes the muscles of the upper airway, narrowing it during sleep. Multiple studies have measured a 5–10 dB increase in peak snoring loudness on nights when a snorer consumed alcohol within a few hours of bedtime.
Snoring above 85 dB is a hearing-safety issue
OSHA and NIOSH set 85 dB as the threshold for hearing-damage risk with 8-hour daily exposure. A bed partner exposed to 85+ dB snoring for a full night, night after night, crosses that safe-exposure line.
The 'sleep divorce' is more common than you think
Surveys by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the National Sleep Foundation consistently find that 25–30% of couples in the US sleep in separate rooms at least occasionally — snoring is one of the top three drivers.
Chainsaw-loud snoring is real — but rare
Snoring above 105 dB — chainsaw territory — is documented but sits in roughly the loudest 1–2% of adult snorers. The Guinness world record (111.6 dB) falls in this range. The number describes sound pressure only; it cannot tell you anything about a person's breathing or health.
The serious side of extreme snoring
This page is about sound pressure records, nothing more. A decibel value on its own cannot tell you whether anything is wrong: loud snoring can be harmless, and quiet breathing can accompany a real sleep disorder. Separately from loudness, symptoms such as witnessed breathing pauses, waking up gasping, or persistent daytime sleepiness are the things worth raising with a clinician — those symptoms, not a dB number.
Where do you fall on the scale?
You probably won't break 111.6 dB tonight. But you might be surprised how close you get. Record overnight with SnapSnoreScore — 100% free, 100% local to your device.
Sources
- • Guinness World Records — "Loudest Snoring" (Kåre Walkert, 111.6 dB, 1993).
- • OSHA Occupational Noise Exposure Standard 29 CFR 1910.95 — 85 dB action level.
- • American Academy of Sleep Medicine — snoring prevalence and clinical significance.
- • Peppard et al., American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine — obstructive sleep apnea prevalence.
- • National Sleep Foundation — snoring, sleep quality, and 'sleep divorce' surveys.