Table of Contents
9 Causes of Snoring:
1. Anatomy of your Mouth:
If you have a low, thick and soft palate decreases the space of your airway and make it narrow. If the uvula of your throat is elongated.
2. The Science behind Snoring:
When you doze off into deep sleep, the muscles in the roof of your mouth, tongue and your throat begin to relax. They slip backwards when they relax and can partially block your airways. When air passes through such region, it vibrates.
3. Alcohol Consumption:
Alcohol relaxes your throat muscles. It is also responsible for building up a natural defense of your throat against snoring. It also induces too much sleep. If you do not sleep for enough hours, you may start making snoring sounds whenever you get to sleep there after.
4. Blocked Nasal Passages:
When the passages of your nose through which the air enters your body is blocked due to congestion of mucus, you will make snoring sounds. The air that passes through the nasal passages hits the obstruction and vibration is caused thereby creating sounds which we call snoring. The congestion may be caused due to cold. Often, people contract cold due to allergies. If your surrounding is dusty and unclean, you may have cold and as a result you could snore.
5. Deviated Nasal Septum:
Sometimes, people are born with such a structure of the bone of their nose that it may cause deviated septum. This may also happen if the person has suffered a nose injury and consequently the structure of their bone has become disrupted so as to cause deviated septum. This is the misalignment of the wall that separates both sides of the nose, which restricts airflow. This is one of the main causes of snoring. The condition can be corrected with a surgery. You might want to discuss the same to your doctor.
6. Sleep Deprivation:
If you have been deprived of sleep for a very long time, whenever you sleep, you shall snore. Sleeping after being deprived of sleep makes the muscles of your throat slip further backwards causing obstruction. This obstruction can cause sound when air passes from the way.
7. Sleeping Position:
Sleeping on the back causes the tongue to slip further behind. It makes the throat narrow and acts as a hindrance to air passages. This leads to snoring.
8. Obesity:
Though most thin people also snore, study suggests that obesity can be linked to snoring. Fat people snore more than thin people.
9. Family History:
A lot of people have obstructive sleep apnea running into everyone in their family. It is a breathing disorder. It can disrupt a persons sleep and cause obstructive sleep causing a person to snore.
Health Risks due to Snoring:
Snoring can cause a wide range of health problems. A few of them are as stated below:
1. Sleep Deprivation:
You may find it difficult to sleep. When you do, you disturb others around you. Also, snoring is a sign of lack of oxygen. These factors cause discomfort when you’re asleep thus making you deprived.
2. Anger and Frustration:
Lack of sleep will have its natural consequences. You will get angry instantly, impulsive and also remain frustrated. These factors lead to behavioral problems and can disrupt work and family relations. They also meddle with your decision making power and may possibly create a havoc in life.
3. High Blood Pressure and Heart Problems:
Sleep deprivation triggers high blood pressure. It leads to tension and stress in the life of a person thus causing health risks like high blood pressure. Heart ailments follow increased blood pressure problems. Such a person has a higher risk of heart attack.
Symptoms of Snoring:
Snoring is accompanied by Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). It is not necessary that every person that snores has this problem but if you have one of the below symptoms with snoring, you could have Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
1. Excessive daytime sleeping:
If you sleep too much during the day time and prefer skipping your important meeting to sleep, that means you haven’t slept well at night. You may have OSA and may also be snoring at night.
2. High Blood Pressure:
If your blood pressure remains high and you have constant headache, you could have Obstructive Sleep Apnea. This happens because you are not sleeping enough in the day time.
3. Sore Throat early in the Morning:
If you wake up feeling dry in the throat, you may have been snoring at night. Your throat feels dry and sore. You may have throat ache too due to snoring early in the morning.
4. Restless Sleep:
In the night, if you are not sleeping well, that may be due to obstructive breathing. This may cause you to feel restless. You may be sleeping but it isn’t a sound sleep that comforts you through the night and relaxes your mind and body.
5. Gasping for breath at Night:
You may often wake up feeling breathless in the middle of the night. This is because your body does not get enough oxygen to meet its requirement. This happens because your nasal passages are narrow and don’t let sufficient air pass through them.
6. Attention Deficit Problems in Children:
Though very few children snore, they may have problems like difficulty in concentrating, lack of attention, sluggishness, etc. due to snoring.
Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea:
1. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure:
This is a treatment in which pressurized air is passed through nasal or face mask. It is used to cure sleep apnea.
2. Surgery:
If there is a problem that needs to be corrected in your body, you need to undergo a surgery for the same. The surgeries include tonsillectomy to remove enlarged tonsils, pillar procedure wherein small plastic implants are inserted in the soft palate to make the lose tissue more stiff.
3. Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP):
In this surgery, excess tissue from the soft palate is removed.
4. Somnoplasty:
It tries to make the flabby tissues interfering with your throat more stiff using radio frequency.
Above surgical methods are used after the doctor examines the gravity of your problem and suggests the same to you. In other cases, one can use simple remedies to stop snoring immediately for best results.
