What causes Snoring?

Snoring results from the vibration of narrowed respiratory structures when air passes through. It is caused by many factors. One of which is by lying flat on your back. The tongue may slide back toward the throat with this position, and it can narrow the airway. Snoring can ruin your chances of getting adequate REM sleep and subsequently reduce your energy levels throughout the day.

Nasal obstructions due to genetic defects, for instance Deviated Nasal Septum or due to injury, trauma or growth of polyps can also narrow down the nasal passage and create snoring sounds, during sleep. Any infections like Rhinitis, Sinusitis or even allergic inflammations can also contribute towards nasal blockage and snoring sounds.

Try these easy suggestions before using aids for snoring:

You may initiate some lifestyle modifications before considering about the use of anti-snoring devices. Perform regular and consistent exercises to lose some weight. Being overweight contributes to snoring, so get ready to lose those extra pounds and inches soon.

Avoid drinking too much alcohol, especially after evening; in order to stop snoring. Cutting back on smoking is also a great

Develop a habit of sleeping on your sides, and also by keeping the head of your bed elevated by at least 2-4 inches.

Get appropriate treatment for your nasal block and get your doctor’s counsel regarding the overall status of your health. Many a times snoring could be the warning sign of a major disease lurking beneath, so get your self investigated thoroughly.

Here is a list of aids to stop snoring to help you sleep peacefully throughout the night.

1) External Aids:

• Jaw Supporter: A device that keeps your mouth closed and airways open.
• Medical Tape: Used to tape around your mouth to prevent it from opening during sleep and aggravate snoring.
• Chin Cushion: Cushions used under the chin to prevent the head from falling forward and narrowing the opening of the throat.
• Chin Strips: These are adhesive strips used beneath the chin
• Nasal strips: Designed to keep the passage of the nose wide open.

2) Nasal Aids:

• Nasal Brace: Inserted within the nose to keep airways open
• Nose Cones: Inserted within the nasal cavity and works well for people with DNS etc
• Nasal Clips: Used to apply pressure to the septum of the nose and utilizes principles of Acupressure and Magneto therapy.
• Nasal Decongestant Sprays: These are medications that help to minimize swelling and clear out nasal secretions to facilitate an easy breathing.
• Snoring nose ring: It is a ring that applies pressure to the Trigeminal nerve

3) Oral Aids:

• Mandibular Advancement Device: This is a stop snoring aid that is used to pull the lower jaw into a slightly forward position to maintain open airways

4) Other Aids:

• Snoring pillows: These work by encouraging snorers to sleep on their side.
• Anti-snoring pills: These are medicated pills to be consumed internally; before bedtime.
• Anti-snoring rings: A ring specifically designed to apply acupressure on the middle part of your small finger.

Aids that stop snoring, maybe a little price; but do high prices really matter when it’s your health that’s at stake? Choose the stop snoring aid that suits you the best, and

always ask your physician for counsel before adopting any of these devices.

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Start with these self-help tips, as listed below:

Lose some weight:

You snore from being overweight. Fat deposits buildup around your throat making your airway passages become narrow for air to pass. Narrowed airway contributes to these unpleasant sounds to form.

No alcohol and smoke:

Alcohol and smoking causes muscle relaxation which in turn, causes respiratory muscles to relax and leads to the vibration of the tissues during breathing.

Don’t lie on your back:

Sleeping flat on you back causes your tongue to drop at the back your mouth and narrows your airway. Slightly elevate your head during sleep to promote better sleep and minimize snoring.

Clear out nasal passages:

Stuffy nose makes respiration harder because some of these nasal secretions may pool around your throat causing you to snore. Use nasal decongestants, drink more fluids, and use steam inhalations. You also need to bath in a warm shower before going to bed because this will help open up the nasal passages and clear the blocked sinuses.

Good sleep Habits:

Poor sleep hygiene can also cause snoring. Working too much without allotting adequate time for sleep will make you sleep profoundly deep; and such deep sleep is usually accompanied by loud snoring sounds.

Medical Treatments

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP):

This is a machine used to keep the blocked airway open. A device introduces pressurized air into a CPAP snoring mask you wear over your nose.

Dental Appliances:

These are effective in reducing snoring. It looks just like the mouth guard that an athlete or boxing contestant wears as a protective mouth guard. It opens the airways by slightly moving your lower jaw or the tongue forward to encourage a comfortable and snore free sleep.

Surgery:

Surgeries like tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy can enhance airway size by removing the tissues that cause the problem. Also there are specialized snoring surgeries like Injection Snoreplasty, Somnoplasty, nasal pillar installation procedure etc. These surgical options should be relegated to occupy the last rank, amongst the list of remedies for snoring.

Laser Techniques:

Due to technological advancements in the current period; doctors are able to utilize laser therapy to remove certain parts of the flabby and toneless soft tissues that make you snore.

Alternative Therapies:

Not many people believe in opting for alternative treatments for any disease, because of the lack of complete knowledge about these holistic systems of medicine. Yoga therapies, Acupressure, Magneto therapy, homeopathy have all been used since ages to treat a myriad of health issues, and that includes snoring too. So why not give a second thought at trying one of these safe and harmless modes of treatment to tackle your snoring?

It is common knowledge that snoring can damage your personal and social relationships; but you probably have not yet realized that it could very well affect your professional life too. Lack of adequate and restful sleep at night is bound to drag your energy levels down and make you feel fatigued, listless and incompetent for your daily work.

Each of these remedies to stop snoring can be very helpful for you. It aids for a better quality of sleep, and make you feel rejuvenated next day. Don’t let snoring affect you and your relationship. Stay healthy and start it with a good sleep.

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#1 Laser Therapy:

In this method, the soft tissues that generate the snoring sound are trimmed down using laser rays. Pros and Cons:85 % of the patients report successful cure of their snoring with this procedure. But the process is quite painful and may also be accompanied by other side effects like bleeding through the nose, altered tone of the voice, debility of the muscles of the naso-pharyngeal area (which causes ingested food and liquids to return back through the nose). 15 % of the patients can suffer from snoring even after going through all these troubles, and getting the laser therapy done.

#2 Somnoplasty:
Another surgical option to help stop snoring is Somnoplasty. This method uses low power radio frequency rays as a replacement for laser rays. Here there is no trimming or cutting away of any tissue. The fundamental approach applied here is to utilize radio frequency waves to accomplish stiffening of uvula and soft palate.
Pros and Cons of Somnoplasty:
This is an OPD process and does not call for any overnight admission in the hospital; but it takes almost 6-8 weeks for complete recovery. When compared to the laser therapy, Somnoplasty appears to be less painful, but it is not entirely trouble free and will necessitate repeated visits to the surgeon.

#3 Injection Snoreplasty:
The modus operandi used in Injection Snoreplasty is almost similar to radio wave treatment in Somnoplasty, as it involves creating trauma to the internal soft tissues like uvula and soft palate. But in Snoreplasty, the agent used to inflict trauma is a chemical sclerosing compound called as Sotradecol. Repeated infliction of such trauma leads to scar formation and eventual hardening of the soft tissues and thus they are prevented from flapping any more and thus stop snoring.

Pros and Cons of Snoreplasty:This is also an Out patient procedure and can be executed during a routine consultation with Otolaryngologist. The cons are almost similar to Snoreplasty, and require numerous visits to the surgeon; once in every 6-8 weeks.

#4 Pillar procedure:
This is a comparatively advanced surgical method to treat snoring and involves the creation of artificial pillars within the nasal cavity. The basic function of any pillar is to offer support, and that is precisely what the artificial pillar implants offer to the soft palate. There are 3 pillar implants that are fixed within the nasal cavity and each one of them is around 18 mm in length.

Pros and Cons of Pillar procedure:
The best part about this method is that it is absolutely painless and trouble free. But the flip side is that it can only help stop snoring that is due to weakness of the soft tissues and offers no improvement in snoring due to other causes.

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What is the link between body weight and snoring?

These problems definitely signify that you are not getting adequate sleep. Even though you may be sleeping for 8- 10 hours, your snoring can drastically affect the quality of your sleep.

This means that you are not getting enough of REM sleep, which is the deepest phase of your sleep cycle. Interrupted sleep or inadequate sleep can not only create a chronic sense of fatigue and lack of energy, but it has also been proved to disrupt the normal hormonal secretions.

All these factors have been found to promote piling of fat and lead to a resultant gain in body weight. Research has confirmed that men with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) tend to pile on more fat in the abdominal area and are obese.

So your snoring could certainly be one of the contributing factors, in the creation of your love handles. Snoring and depression: If you thought that snoring could only affect your physical health, then you are definitely wrong. Snoring has been linked to depression, moodiness, grumpiness and a total lack of energy and vitality.

This is due to the fact that snoring disrupts your normal sleep and also undermines the quality of deep REM sleep. REM sleep is a major factor for the body, as it deals with a lot of intense activities during this phase. The body copes with stress, emotions and memories during this phase of the seep cycle. Now disruption of this crucial phase of sleep can not only cause a variety of physical disorders, but also leads to problems in emotional sphere too.

Are snoring problems dangerous enough to kill the snorer?

Yes, snoring could even cause death of the snorer. There are multiple issues that are created in the body, while a person is snoring.

In snorers who have apnea, there could be varying durations of irregular respiration, and many a times there is complete obstruction to breathing too. When the breathing tends to stop for a prolonged duration, it is comparable to being smothered with a pillow. If you are smothered with a pillow for a few minutes, you will definitely die, so the same goes with apnea in snorers.

Another slow way to death due to snoring is by the damage created on the arterial walls. When the snorer with apnea, battles for breath; the blood pressure shoots up and leads to minute lesions on the internal walls of the carotid arteries.

Calcium and cholesterol plaques begin to stick to these injury sites. After a long period of time, these plaques tend to accumulate and block the blood supply to the brain. This can lead to stroke and eventual death.

It is necessary to recognize the hidden dangers behind snoring, and get appropriate treatment for it.

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Significance of Snoring:

If you think that snoring is just a cause for disturbance of your partner’s sleep, or a reason to crack jokes about someone who snores, then you are absolutely mistaken. Snoring is a medical problem, and can both be a cause or effect of some huge medical problem. Now, that does not imply that every person who is snoring is suffering from some exceedingly serious health disorder. But statistics reveal that people tend to disregard the issue of snoring and do not care to find out the actual reason behind their problem. This happens because most of the people think of snoring as just a pestering habit, and see nothing more to it than that.

Medical causes of snoring:

Snoring is basically the noise created due to the inhaled and exhaled air getting obstructed while passing through the choked or blocked nasal cavity. The other internal structures that can obstruct the free flow of the air are the uvula and the soft palate.

This choking or block may be due to allergies, infections of the upper respiratory tract, or even due to certain anomalies in the internal structures.

Tonsillitis, weakness of the muscles of the throat, wrong positioning of the jaw, stiffness and tension of muscles of the jaw, swelling and enlargement of the adenoid glands, mouth breathing, sinusitis, goiter or enlargement of the thyroid gland, defects in the size or structure of uvula and soft palate or the base of the tongue can all lead to snoring.

Obesity or excessive weight is another commonest cause of snoring. This is especially true if there is excessive bulk around the neck and the throat area.

Certain prescription drugs which lead to relaxation of jaw muscles, intake of alcohol, and incorrect posture during sleep like sleeping on the back are all common causes of snoring.

What are the medical problems that snoring can conceal away?

Many a times it may happen that a person is suffering from a grave medical problem, and there are no outward clinical symptoms of this problem. Snoring may be the only symptom that may be exhibited outwards, in many such cases. Such snoring that hides away a more grave issue is tagged as problem snoring.

The most important amongst such hidden medical disorders are sleep apnea, insomnia, upper airway resistance and few other sleep disorders.

These hidden medical disorders can prove to be quite dangerous if not treated in time, as they have been linked to heart attacks, stroke, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases.

Problem snoring should never be taken for granted and ought to be investigated thoroughly and appropriate methods to be taken to treat it in an effective manner.

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Snoring can develop into a serious health issue if left untreated, and is disturbing the people around you at night, so even they end up having a terrible night sleep.

This has been known to cause serious relationship issues, especially marital relationships. It is very common among one third of the adult population, with males over fifty years old who from the majority of snorer’s.

However, snoring is now happening to people as young as 25 years. Though there are many anti snoring devices on the market being offered to snorer’s, many of them do not live up to an expectation and as a result some people have lost faith in these devices.

However, when setting out to buy some sort of anti snoring remedy it is very important to know just what is causing your snoring. Some snoring is caused because you have overweight, others can be caused from allergies, which inflame and enlarge the nasal membranes causing snoring.

There are many different causes for snoring. So in all fairness most of the devices on the market do work but only for a particular cause.

Snoring is not only a habit but a serious physiological abnormality resulting from the turbulent airflow through the windpipe which will cause a vibration in the back side of your nostrils and throat.

This forceful airflow may be caused by any number of reasons, including a thick low palate or tonsils of increased size as these can block your airway tract. It may also be due to elongation of the soft palate.

A deviated nasal septum or crooked nostrils can also lead to this condition. There are many methods used to control snoring, including anti snoring devices and other oral appliances.

Stop snoring surgery is done not only at inpatient hospitals, but also at outpatient departments. Some surgery may take a few hours while others take much longer especially when it is associated with another disease.

One of the simplest ways to control snoring is uvulopalatopharyngoplasty where you will be given an anaesthesia usually general anaesthesia and then the surgeon will trim off the excess of tissues hanging over your throat thus hindering your air tract.

Uvuloplasty is also done under laser assistance where the surgeon will make use of a surgical laser and thus shorten the portion of the soft palate and remove the extra tissue in your wind pipe to reduce the vibrancy.

Usually this is performed only if the snoring has become a serious health issue.

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Snoring refers to a vibration of respiratory structure during sleep. Throat weakness, fat gathering around the neck, wrong positioning of the jaw, obstruction in nasal passage, and improper sleeping styles are some of the main causes of snoring. Often, snoring is recognized by a friend or partner of a sleeping snorer.

Apart from its psychological and social damage to sufferers, snoring may cause sleep deprivation, daytime drowsiness, irritability, lack of focus, etc. therefore attention should be given to find ways to stop snoring. Following is some of the self-help techniques that can help snorer’s to overcome their problems and improve the quality of their sleep.

Exercise; Exercise in general can help an individual to reduce his/ her fat. Apart from overall smartness, it also helps to reduce fatty tissue in the throat which causes snoring.

Throat exercise like repeating each vowel (a-e-i-o-u) loud for 3 minutes throughout the day is a very effective technique but perhaps somewhat distracting to others. You can also place the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth.

Slide your tongue backwards for 3 minutes a day. Another exercise is done with the mouth open, move your jaw to the right and hold for 30 seconds and repeat it to both sides.

Nasal Passage; a stuffy nose leads to a vacuum in the throat which in turn leads to snoring. A nasal strip or a nose clip can help keep the nasal passage clear.

Quit Smoking; smoking weakens the respiratory (Sinus) structure by causing airways to be blocked. Smoking irritates the membranes in the nose and throat. Therefore, if you smoke, there’s a good chance that you snore.

Diet; one can also control his/ her snoring by avoiding large meals in dinner, excessive dairy products, alcohol, Caffeine sleeping pills and other relaxants.

Sleeping posture and atmosphere; elevating your head by four inches can help your jaw and tongue remain forward thereby opening the airway. Further, dry air from air-conditioning in the bedroom snoring by irritating membranes in the nose and throat. Using a humidifier in bedroom can be an effective remedy in this regard.

If the self-help tips aren’t working well to control your snoring, various medical treatments could make all the difference. Following is some of the widely used medical cures for the treatment of snoring.

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP); since snoring is caused due to irregular airflow through a respiratory (Sinus) structure, a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine is used to pump a controlled stream of air through a flexible hose to a mask that a snorer can wear on the nose, mouth or both.

Dental Appliances; these appliances are increasingly becoming a popular technique for controlling the snoring problem immediately and cheaply. These appliances mainly function through opening the airway by marginally advancing the lower jaw and thereby keeping your tongue somewhat forward.

Surgery; It attempts to widen the airway by removing tissues in the back of the throat that cause the snoring problems. However, there are certain side effects of surgeries. Some patients complain about sleep apnea (repeated stoppage of breathing during sleep) after surgery. Thus, the decision of going through surgery requires extensive medical tests and frequent visits to surgeons.

Surgery is indeed the very last resort in finding ways to stop snoring and should only be done for the most serious cases.

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Snoring is a very common sleep disorder and almost everybody (no matter what age is) snores occasionally and no doubt the chances of snoring get greater with age. Occasional snoring is not a serious issue, but habitual snoring can cause serious health implications. As Snoring not only disturbs the sleeping pattern of the people sleeping near to the snorer but also disturbs your own sleep.

Snoring affects the quantity and quality of sleep and this can lead to fatigue, irritability, and increased health problems.

Snoring can be described as a harsh sound which is caused by the narrowing of air passages (either from poor sleep posture or abnormality of soft tissues in the throat) when you are sleeping.

Vibration of soft tissues in the throat, nose and mouth put extra effort on the lungs to pull in air. This is the reason which causes the snoring sound. This sound ranges from mild to loud or extremely loud. The snorer obviously doesn’t observe themself snoring as they are asleep, rather family members or your partner is the victim of it.

Snoring is not an alarming issue, most of the time because tiredness, blocked nose or an incorrect posture is usually considered the of snoring. Snoring rarely is a sign of any serious issue such as sleep apnea, any other sleeping problem or sleep related breathing problem. However, if a person a snoring problem and get sleep and breath then the snoring problem is an issue for your partner because, if you leave it unresolved it could cause relationship damage.

One should first try to stop the snoring habit by using natural techniques. First way is to create an environment conducive to sleep. This conducive environment comprises of presence of moist air in the room (nasal membranes get irritated with dry air, which leads to snoring).

The second natural way to stop snoring is to check the quality of sleeping equipment such as pillows and mattress and also the posture during sleep. Sleeping on the side, adding several pillows under your head, avoiding heavy drinking and hot milk right before sleep and trying to relief stress without medicines are some of the ways to get rid of snoring naturally.

A healthy and happy lifestyle keeps you healthy and will help you to eliminate snoring problems. Unhealthy living such as smoking, drinking alcohol, being overweight combined with other bad habits are causes for snoring.

To stop snoring and to avoid other diseases, one has to get rid of these bad habits. Other than this certain medication such as antihistamines, caffeine and sleeping pills can also be a reason of snoring. So you should consult your doctor which ones you can stop using to get rid of snoring.

Other than these natural ways many products are also available in drug stores or supermarkets to help you get rid of snoring. Nasal strips, sprays or anti snoring pills are very helpful in opening air passage by removing congestion. Throat exercise is another way to get rid of snoring in a cost effective manner.

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Upon visiting a snoring clinic, a doctor will first try to establish the cause of your snoring.

Such causes can be:

• Overweight – Being overweight contributes to snoring.
• Narrow airway – Having a narrow airway is a major cause of snoring. Narrowing of the airway can be caused by tonsils being large. A long soft palate also contributes to snoring.
• Alcohol – Drinking alcohol leads to relaxation of throat muscles, which in turn leads to snoring.
• Nasal blockage – Defects in the nasal cavity can lead to snoring. a major cause of snoring. Narrowing of the airway can be caused by tonsils being large. A long soft palate also contributes to snoring.

Generally, men are at a higher risk of snoring compared with women and children. It is common for those who snore to experience other medical problems. Such include sleepiness during the day (resulting from inadequate sleep at night), lack of concentration, irregular heartbeats and high blood pressure.

At a snoring clinic, a doctor will try to find out if a patient suffers from these conditions and recommends an appropriate treatment.

Various diagnostic tests are usually undertaken to diagnose snoring.

Some of the tests include:

• Physical examination – A doctor at a snoring clinic will carry out a physical examination to check the presence of visible causative factors. For adults, it is important to visit a snoring clinic with a partner who will be able to answer some of the questions a doctor may ask.
• Imaging – Imaging tests enables a doctor to see the internal structure of a patient’s airway. Such information can be obtained from X-ray, CT scans or magnetic resonance imaging.
• Sensors test – This involves several sensors being placed on the head and other parts of the body. The sensors transmit recordings on a polysomnograph machine. Brain waves, breathing rate, heartbeat rate, and blood oxygen level and body movements are the things that are recorded. This test may require a patient to spend the night at a snoring clinic.

Treating snoring depends on the established cause. A doctor can recommend a patient to change his/her lifestyle, prescribe medications or recommend surgery. Lifestyle changes that a doctor can recommend include losing weight (in case a patient is overweight), avoiding alcohol just before retiring to bed (for those who drink) and change in sleeping position.

The change of lifestyle is the first line of treatment that a patient will receive at a clinic. If a change of lifestyle does not solve the snoring problem, a doctor may prescribe medication. However, certain established causes may not be simply addressed by a change in lifestyle and medication.

A doctor may recommend surgery straight away. Various types of surgery are available that can benefit a snoring patient. Apart from lifestyle change, medications and surgery, a doctor may also recommend other treatment therapies. These are mainly exercising that help to train throat muscles.

For parents with snoring children, it is highly recommended that they pay a visit to a clinic to arrest the problem in good time. This is because other medical conditions associated with snoring may come in and complicate the situation.

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One look at the snoring diagram from Mayo Clinic.com, given below can make you understand the relation between your sleep posture and your snoring.

Snoring diagram

So now it should be clearer how an illustration is more useful and will better explain how to prevent snoring by positioning your head and throat appropriately.

Better Understanding through Illustration:

The illustration given above shows the snorer breathing through his nose and mouth. When the head falls forward or when the chin touches the chest during sleep, the airway gets extremely constricted or narrowed. This is due to a combined effect of the base of the tongue, the soft palate and the other soft tissues in this area (like the uvula) getting squeezed on to the airway opening below; owing to the falling forward of the chin.

What happens after airways get constricted?

Simply because the opening is constricted, it does not mean that the person will stop breathing. The air that is waiting to be exhaled is under high pressure due to the pumping of the heart and subsequent pressure upon the thorax and lungs. So this air will definitely find its way out, regardless of the fact that the opening has narrowed down to almost ¼ th or lesser of its original diameter.

How are the sound vibrations created?

When this high pressure forces its way out, it creates a considerable vibration of the squeezed soft tissues and the uvula; which guards the opening of the pharynx. These vibrations and flapping of the soft tissues creates a loud sound, and it is audible outside as snoring sounds. These snoring sounds can be quite loud, and the decibel value of snoring sounds varies with the extent of constriction of the airway and subsequent pressure of the exhaled air.

Comparison between snoring sounds during inhalation and exhalation:

The inhaled air is also pulled in to the airways and from there in to the lungs under a fair amount of pressure, due to the vacuum generated by the high pressure exhaled air. So that means that even though the snoring sounds during inhalation may be slightly softer than those created during exhalation, yet the snoring does not entirely pause during this phase of inhalation.

What are the factors that can cause constriction of the airways?

The snoring diagram above has clearly depicted the mechanism of creation of snoring sounds, which is the direct result of constriction and narrowing down of the airways. But now another logical question arises. How does this constriction occur in the first place? Well, as described in the earlier part of this article, one of the commonest causes of airway constriction is, incorrect positioning of the head and chin during sleep.

Can the constriction be genetic?

Many a times, the airway constriction could be genetic, due to developmental defects within the nasal canal or in the throat or in the soft tissues that surround the opening of the airway. The commonest examples of genetically inherited defects are elongated uvula, deviated nasal septum etc.

What are the other factors that contribute towards constriction of the airways?

Several other factors like consumption of alcohol, use of mediations like sedatives and anti histamines, infections like tonsillitis, sinusitis and disorders like goiter are a few of the other factors that contribute towards the narrowing down of the airways.

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