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What Causes Snoring?

Snoring is an annoying problem, both for the afflicted person and any partner they happen to have – indeed, some married couples are forced to sleep in separate rooms. It’s a condition that can range from benign in nature to potentially very dangerous in its implications. Not only can snoring reveal underlying problems of lung capacity and neuromuscular activation, but recent research has indicated that snoring causes the formation of atherosclerotic plaques, the first step down the road that leads to stroke and life-changing brain damage.

The primary cause of snoring is the vibration of structures in the mouth and throat, which in turn is brought about by the obstruction of airways during sleep. If someone has weak throat muscles, or weak, easily collapsible tissues in their soft palate, the throat can close up, occluding the airway and bringing about snoring as air struggles to squeeze by.

The problem can also come from obstruction in the nasal passageway, having bent or deformed nasal passageways (due to injury or some congenital disorder), or nasal tissue swelling due to allergic rhinitis. This tends to be more of an irritation than a real hazard to your health. Unlike most snoring causes, nasal problems can typically be corrected either by simple nasal sprays of relatively risk-free surgical operations.

Being overweight is high on the list of snoring causes, for several reasons. One is that there can be an increase in the quantity of soft tissue at the back of the throat, so that tissues at the top of the airways touch each other, causing vibrations. Another is the formation of fat deposits in and around the throat, which place pressure on the airways during sleep.

Seemingly far less dire and easier to fix, one of the leading snoring causes is sleeping on one’s back, a position that can cause the tongue to be forced to the back of the mouth. Other aggravators include alcohol and relaxant drugs, which essentially tranquilize the muscles in the throat, making them more susceptible to giving way. Alcohol been known to cause snoring even in normally healthy individuals.

In more sinister cases, snoring may be an indication of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). While mild, occasional sleep apnea is common and may not indicate anything untoward, severe and chronic sleep apnea can cause hypoxemia, a condition of low blood oxygen due to frequently missed breaths.

The obstruction in OSA occurs despite the efforts of the person to breath. However, loudness of snoring is not necessarily an indication of sleep apnea. In bad cases of apnea, the obstruction can be so severe that not much noise can escape at all. The most telling sign is if the snoring stops, while the snorer keeps trying to breathe. When breathing resumes, there’s usually a heavy gasp, followed by continued snoring.

There have been estimations that about one in every fifteen Americans is afflicted with OSA, making it not just one of the leading snoring causes, but also among the most common lifestyle disorders. It’s just as common as diabetes or asthma, with over 20 million sufferers in the continental US, most of whom remain undiagnosed and untreated. One study found that an average of 24 percent of men and 9 percent of women have sleep apnea. Due to the fatigue and hypoxemia that the disorder can bring about, such individuals usually require far more money for health care purposes – over a thousand dollars more than the average person without it.

If you suffer from snoring and wish to know if the problem constitutes a threat to your health, visit your nearest sleep clinic. By placing you under overnight observation, sleep specialists will be best able to determine the cause of your problem.