A medical journal defines snoring as noisy breathing that comes through the mouth and nose during sleep. It occurs when air does not flow smoothly through the air passages, or when soft tissues or muscles in the air passage vibrate.
As one falls into a deep sleep, the muscles in your tongue, throat and roof of you mouth relax. This muscle relaxation causes your throat tissues to sag.
Snoring is a mild annoyance for most people but for those who snore habitually, it can cause serious social and marital discord. Socially, snoring is disruptive to family life causing other family members sleepless nights and often resentfulness. Snorers become unwelcome roommates on holidays or business trips.
Kebasadi, a hawker whose husband, a security guard, snores said, “during the day I torture my ears with the noises at the bus rank and at night I have to listen to him snoring endlessly. When I tell him that he had been snoring he denies it.”
According to research, loss of sleep due to snoring causes major problems in many relationships. Like Kebasadi, for her to get a good sleep she has to be the first to go to bed, which isn’t always possible because she spends time with her children at night.
“I only get enough sleep when he is on duty.”
A couple in their thirties confessed that they both snore but cannot stand other people in their home who do the same.
“It’s bad enough that I have to put up with her noise at night. She makes three different sounds, one like a whistle another like a pig’s wail then finally a combination of the two. Snoring does not bother me but I know I would never be hired as a wildlife officer,” said the husband.
Sometimes snoring can indicate a more serious problem. If you snore loudly with occasional pauses in breathing and you wake up frequently during the night. You might be suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnoea Syndrome (OSAS).
According to an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) Consultant at Polani Clinic, Doctor Jubuate Mallya, Sleep Apnoea is a more serious condition that can cause severe chronic illness if left untreated.
“This condition could be fatal if these episodes last over ten seconds and occur more than seven times an hour. The accumulative effect of these obstructed breathing episodes is reduced blood oxygen levels to the brain, forcing the snore to stall in a lighter sleep stage so that breathing passage muscles are kept tighter.
This prevents the snorer from obtaining the rest benefit achieved only during deep sleep and can lead to a tendency of falling asleep during daytime hours, on the job or worse at the wheel of a car.” he said.
According to Mallaya adults are likely to suffer from heart failure, stroke, morning headaches and tiredness, high blood pressure, depression, irritation and impotence.
He ruled out the possibility of people dying in their sleep due to OSAS but said sufferers may die due to heart failure because it deprives the sufferer of adequate levels of oxygen making the heart work harder than normal.
According to researchers, one out of every four people is a habitual snorer. The problem is more frequent in males and the overweights and worsens with age. The older you get the weaker your throat muscles become causing the tissues to sag and vibrate.
Explaining why overweight people are likely to suffer from the effects of snoring, Mallya said, “If you are overweight your throat tissues are less firm and more inclined to vibrate when you breath. A low set, thin soft palate or enlarged tonsils or adenoids (the spongy tissue between the back of the nose and throat) can narrow you airway. A longer than normal uvula (the triangle piece of skin that hangs from your soft palate) can limit air flow and increase vibration as you breath. Nasal blockages caused by allergies or a deviated septum common in Caucasians and Asians can limit airflow through your nose.
This forces you to breath through your mouth where more flabby tissue is located. Alcohol and certain drugs such as tranquillisers affect the nervous system. For those who sleep on their backs their tongues fall backwards into the throat narrowing the airway and partly blocking airflow.
