Snoring has been known to wreck relationships; couples who have lived together for many years have failed to resolve the problem of snoring. Some people snore loud and long, others not at all and while most times snoring is a minor annoyance to either partner, sometimes snoring may literally be fatal.
The Problems Snoring Brings:
Although many treat snoring as a topic for jokes and humour and do not take it seriously, it has some serious, even life-threatening side consequences.
Prods, kicks, and punches from your partner, the threat of divorce and complaints from the neighbours are all common.
The noise of snoring is caused by soft parts of the nose and throat - in particular, the soft palate - vibrating as you breathe in and out. At night, the muscles that help keep your airways open relax and become floppy. This causes the airways to narrow and vibrate more, making snoring more likely.
Causes of Snoring:
There are also a number of factors that can make snoring worse:
- Alcohol or sleeping tablets
- Overweight and obesity
- Colds
- allergies
- nasal polyps
- damaged or crooked nose
- mouth breathing
- sleeping on one's back
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, a killer:
In obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) the relaxed throat muscles block the airway briefly hundreds of times each night stopping your breathing and depriving your body of oxygen. In the short-term this causes tiredness during the day, irritability and restlessness, and puts you at risk of accidents when driving or operating machinery etc. In the long-term it can cause high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.
Treatment for OSA involves wearing a dental splint and using a continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) machine while you sleep to keep the airways properly ventilated. Obstructive sleep apnoea is confirmed by a sleep test done in a specially equipped sleep laboratory. As this problem is becoming widely recognised as being bad for general health and well being, there are many sleep labs to diagnose and treat with the problem.
Snoring Self Help Strategies:
- Avoid alcohol late at night
- Maintain normal weight
- Raise the bed head
- Sleep on your side - to prevent rolling on to your back wedge a pillow under your back
- Keep nasal passages clear by using a humidifier, rubbing a few drops of eucalyptus or olbas oil on the pillow case
- Antihistamines and anti-inflamatory sprays may help; always check with a pharmacist especially when taking other medications.
Other 'cures' you may want to try include nasal strips, devices that re-position the jaw, homeopathic nasal drops and sprays. Try a few to see what works for you.
Surgery last resort treatment:
As a last resort, surgery can be used to remove nasal polyps, straighten crooked noses and to remove floppy soft palate tissue to stop it vibrating. Laser surgery stiffens the palate to reduce vibration. Somnoplasty uses radio frequency energy to shrink the floppy soft palate tissue rather than cutting it out.
For many snoring is not fun and may well be fatal.
More: BBC and Mayo Clinic.
