Loud and frequent snoring can be more than just a nuisance to your partner. Snoring may indicate a serious health condition. It can disrupt more than just your household.
Snoring is common. Almost half of adults snore at least occasionally.
Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, avoiding alcohol close to bedtime – or sleeping on your side can help stop snoring.
Surgery is available that may reduce disruptive snoring. However, surgery isn’t always the first choice for everyone who snores.
Snoring occurs when the air you breathe flows past relaxed tissues, like your tongue, soft palate, and airway. The sagging tissues narrow your airway, causing bad vibrations.
The more narrowed your airway, the more forceful the airflow becomes. Tissue vibration increases, and your snoring grows louder.
Having a low, thick soft palate or enlarged tonsils or tissues in the back of your throat (adenoids) can narrow your airway.
Excess weight contributes to the narrowing of your airway.
Snoring can also be brought on by consuming too much alcohol before bedtime. Alcohol relaxes throat muscles and decreases your natural defenses against airway obstruction.
Chronic nasal congestion or a crooked partition between your nostrils (deviated nasal septum) may be to blame.
Snoring may also be associated with obstructive sleep apnea. In this serious condition, your throat tissues obstruct your airway, preventing you from breathing. Sleep apnea is often characterized by loud snoring followed by periods of silence that can last 10 seconds or more.
Sometimes, complete obstruction does not occur, but rather, while still snoring, the airway becomes so small that the airflow is inadequate for your needs. Eventually, the lack of oxygen and an increase in carbon dioxide signal you to wake up, forcing your airway to open with a loud snort or gasping sound. This pattern may be repeated many times during the night.
If you are overweight, losing weight may reduce snoring.
Lying on your back allows your tongue to fall backward into your throat, narrowing your airway and partially obstructing airflow. To prevent sleeping on your back, some people sew a tennis ball in the back of their pajama top.
Having allergies or a deviated septum can limit airflow through your nose. This forces you to breathe through your mouth, increasing the likelihood of snoring. Don’t use an oral or spray decongestant for more than three days in a row for acute congestion unless directed to do so by your doctor. Ask your doctor about a prescription steroid spray if you have chronic congestion. To correct a deviated septum, you may need surgery.
Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages at least four hours before bedtime, and let your doctor know about your snoring before taking sedatives or hypnotics.
Research, testing, and experience have indicated there is a critical relationship between body position and breathing. When the head, neck, and shoulders are in a neutral, open, aligned posture, it makes breathing easier.
The Oxygen Pillow is designed to help stabilize sleep posture and maximize airflow.
For some snorers, this makes a modest difference. For some, it can be profound. When it comes to improving nighttime breathing (and snoring), every bit counts.
