“He is cute; he is responsible and takes care of all of my needs. He respects me and loves me with all his heart.” She sighed.
“So darling, what’s the problem?” her friend asked.
“He snorrresss!!” she exclaimed!
And there ends another love story. Some people are very particular about the snoring habits of their partner. Oh no no! I am not here to give you any advice regarding relationships or whatever. Rather I am to talk about something that all of you must have faced but might have never given a deep thought about it. It’s about the SNORING habit of some people.
What exactly is snoring? In simple words, snoring is a sort of harsh sound that is made when air gets obstructed while breathing of a person at the time when he/she sleeps. Nearly everyone would have snored while sleeping but, of course, haven’t noticed it by themselves. This is just what seems to happen at a superficial level but what happens deep inside can be caught by anatomical look.
When someone’s neck muscles relax a lot during the sleep of the person, the upper airway (nose and throat) closes partially making the airway narrower. Due to this, enough air couldn’t travel through the lungs and hence the person doesn’t get enough of the oxygen. This blockage of air causes a person to snore.
So why do some people snore and some not? While people develop many “home-made” general assumptions and theories regarding the causes of snoring habit but the actual ones may not have even been thought by them. Clearing the clouds of doubts and quoting some of the actual causes behind snoring as cited by scientists are:
1. Your mouth’s structure: As stated above snoring is caused when the airway becomes narrow. So, the reason why some people snore is because they may naturally, by the structure of their mouth, have a narrow airway. This can be naturally that way or maybe developed over time if the person gains weight or gets obese by time.
2. Elongated uvula: Uv… Uvu… What? The uvula is a drop-shaped soft organ or you can say tissue that is hanging from your soft palate at the back of your throat. If this tissue is elongated, it will occupy much of your airway space in your mouth and thus causing a blockage to the airway, making the person to snore.
3. Nasal logics: Nasal problems leading to cause of snoring of a person includes -Nasal congestion which means the nasal passage blockage. This blockage can be caused when the membrane of one’s nose gets swollen. There can be several reasons for that one of them can be inflammation of blood vessels of that membrane.
4. Mouth breathers: Many people breathe through their mouth instead of the nose while sleeping. This mouth breathing causing a lot of vibration and that seems to be snoring. Why a person breathes through his or her mouth? This happens because of nasal passage obstruction. It can be due to either various allergies or sinus infection or nasal septum.
5. Sleeping position: The person who typically is not a snorer may also snore at some nights because of his sleeping position. When you lie on your back, your uvula and the upper edge of your tongue may get collapsed because of gravity’s function. This collapse narrows down the airway and leading to snoring issues.
6. Heredity: As we go through the above causes of snoring it may seem that snoring problems can be developed by any person at any point in time, but, there can be a hereditary angle too. Having a history of the family which has snorers, your chances of developing a snoring habit is increased. This can be related in these ways:
(a.) Mouth structure: If your family is a snorer because of the structure of their mouths then it surely can be your reason too to be a snorer.
(b.) Obesity: As we all know that being obese depends on one’s genes too. If your family has had obese people since generations then your chances for being the same is higher. And hence, developing a snoring habit in later stages of your life persists.
(c.) Infections and allergies: If nasal infections and allergies get passed on to you through your parents, this can lead you to become a mouth breather that suffers a snoring problem.
The most common unknown fact about snoring remains to be that “snoring can be treated!”. No, I’m not talking of any surgeries, medical help, etc., rather I am going to mention here some of the home remedies for your snoring problem-
1. Avoid sedative: The medication that aims to relax your muscles as to causing them to collapse must not be taken at night time. This includes even alcohol. These depressants must be avoided at least 4-5 hours before your bedtime.
2. Curing those nasal problems: Various nasal problems like nasal septum deviation etc. above must be cured as soon as possible. One may visit the doctor for the help. Many of those troubles can be addressed through general medication only.
3. Change your sleeping position: Avoid adopting a sleeping position that may give a chance to gravity to collapse your soft palate and tongue together like sleeping on your back without a pillow. You may try sleeping on your side and sleeping using a pillow to avoid snoring at night.
4. Mind that weight: As stated earlier, increased weight narrows down the airway; so, you must try to maintain your facial fat by adopting the exercises that burn down that face fat. Chewing gum can prove helpful to you for that goal of yours.
5. Throat exercises: Apart from the face exercises, throat exercises can also be adopted to get rid of this issue. Loose muscles can collapse easily and throat exercises will give strength to not only your throat neck muscles as well as not letting them collapse.
Prima facia, snoring doesn’t seem to be any serious issue. But there can be instances where a person can develop SLEEP APNEA. What is that? Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder which is a serious one because in sleep apnea your breathing pattern gets disturbed. Your breathing, in this problem, stops and starts repeatedly. Along with loud snoring, if you notice any of the following symptoms, you need to consult your doctor immediately-
i. Pause in your breathing pattern
ii. You find difficulty in concentrating on something
iii. Headaches in early morning when you get up
iv. If you get any chocking feels at night
v. If you face a high blood pressure situation at night
Vi. If you often wake up due to your aching chest at night
Although snoring should not be worried about but if your snoring continues to grow aggressive along with these symptoms then that snoring must be taken as a warning alarm.
