Snoring is often a symptom of a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnea, which increases the possibility of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.
People experiencing obstructive sleep apnea commonly stop breathing for 10-20 seconds while sleeping, this can occur from a few to hundred times at a night.
It is not necessary that snoring happens only due to sleep apnea in all the cases, however, many people who snore do not have sleep apnea, but anyone who comes to know they snore should consider this disorder as one of the possible causes.
Snoring is mostly caused by the tongue not having enough space in the back of the throat, especially in those people who are obese or sleep on their back. There are certain chemicals in the brain whose job is to trigger breathing, and these can fail in people who snore while sleeping. As a result of it, oxygen levels drop dramatically, causing cortisone, adrenaline, and other hormones to surge.
These specific hormones contribute to high blood pressure and irregularities of the heart and it can cause heart failure, trigger heart attacks, even sudden deaths. Even without snoring, people experiencing obstructive sleep apnea have decreased oxygen in their system that can damage their hearts.
Risk Factors and Symptoms:
People once thought that obstructive sleep apnea was a condition of the obese, but now this is not true. While some people who are obese may have sleep apnea, the risks may include:
- People with diabetes
- People in their 50s or 60s
- Those with congestive heart failure
- Most of them are men.
As more people age, they develop hypertension, diabetes or metabolic syndrome which is pre-diabetes, the number of people with obstructive sleep apnea increases, which concerns the health providers.
People with this condition normally understand that it is bad for their heart health, so it is easier to convince the patients to see a sleep specialist than it once was.
Symptoms of this condition include:
- Daytime fatigue or wanting to take nap
- Falling asleep or feeling drowsy at odd times such as while driving or watching television
- Snoring while asleep
- Waking up suddenly gasping or choking for no specific reason
- Waking up with dry or sore throat
- Headache
- Inability to focus
- Not feeling fresh after waking up
Is Your Health At Risk?
The irritating sound you hear at night may sound like a normal part of your sleep, but snoring can actually be hazardous to your health. We wanted to take a moment and answer the most commonly asked question-related to snoring.
Why do People Snore?
We all know the sound very well, but you may not know what causes that sound. The snoring sounds you hear are made when a sleeping person inhales. As air flows in through the mouth or nose, parts of the upper airway vibrate, which includes the tongue, soft palate, tonsils, andenois, uvula and walls of the throat.
You never snore while you are awake because the muscles in the airway are more tense. However, while you sleep, these muscles rest and the soft tissues collapse, blocking the amount of space available for the air to pass. The point where the soft palate, tongue, and throat meet can collapse at the back of your throat during sleep and extremely limit the airway.
Normally, as the airway becomes smaller, more tissues vibrate. The result is loud snoring of both a relatively constricted airway and turbulent airflow through those lax passages.
What are the Key Factors Causing Loud Snoring?
Snoring is normally more common among men and people who are obese, unhealthy, or overweight. It also tends to run in families and gets worse along with the age.
Here are Some of the Temporary Factors that may Cause anyone to Snore Loudly:
- Having a deviated septum which blocks airflow through the nose
- Having low muscle tone in the throat, often due to age o being unhealthy
- Having enlarged tonsils, mostly in children
- Having congested nasal passages, sometimes due to allergies or a cold
- Having an oversized jaw or overbite
When is Snoring Dangerous?
Loud snoring itself is not dangerous, but it can be a sign of a more serious or dangerous condition. In fact, it is a symptom that is commonly linked with obstructive sleep apnea. For people experiencing sleep apnea, the airway is blocked so much that when they lie down and sleep, that inhalation becomes difficult or it cuts off the airway completely. As the brain becomes deprived of oxygen. It causes the person to wake up gasping just to start breathing again. This episode of suddenly waking up gasping can occur from a few to hundred times throughout the night.
Not only does this cause loud snoring sounds, but sleep apnea can have an extreme effect on your health. Anyone suffering from sleep apnea experiences decreased oxygen and obtains little to no relaxed REM sleep.
In the short term, this results in normal drowsiness and groggy feeling throughout the day after waking up. In the long term, it can cause clumsiness, car accidents, memory issues, as well as hypertension.
Sleep apnea is also linked with obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and depression, and these are just a few of them.
Sleep apnea is not just the dangerous factor, loud and noisy snoring can also be one of the risk factors for hypertension. The exact science between snoring linked with health issues is still being studied, but it is important that it is more than just a symptom.
People often ask “where can I find help for sleep disorders?”, there are many sleep specialists, they help their patients recover from all kinds of sleep disorders.
Should you be Concerned if your Child Snores?
The clear answer is, most probably not. Snoring is not entirely rare or common for children, some studies have shown that more than 10% of kids snore regularly at night. In about 1-3% of children, snoring may be a symptom of something serious. Loud snoring in children can be caused by enlarged tonsils and adenoid or obstructive sleep apnea.
How Can you Stop Snoring?
This question is asked very frequently. Many patients want to stop snoring to seek better sleep or want to be less disruptive to a loved one during the night. There are various ways you can stop or control snoring.
These include:
- Quit smoking
- Lose weight
- Avoid sleeping pills
- Treating allergy symptoms
- Reduce alcohol intake
Nasal strips can also help reduce snoring caused by blocked or congested airways in the nose. Many people reduce snoring by homemade tricks like sleeping on their sides instead of lying flat on their back.