Common Causes for Snoring and Possible Solutions

Snoring is a malady that afflicts most everyone at some time or other in their lifetime. Children can suffer from it – some chronically and adults certainly snore for a variety of reasons. Some snore for a short period of time such as a woman during pregnancy because of weight gain, while others are subjected to its disturbance of their sleep and others throughout their life.

Snoring in children often occurs when a tonsil or adenoids are enlarged thereby causing a blockage in their air passages. It is therefore quite common to have surgeries performed to remove the adenoids and/or the tonsils to alleviate the symptoms of snoring and very often it does remedy the situation.

The cause of snoring for most people is breathing through their mouth when they are sleeping. The muscles in your throat relax and often your tongue drops down into the air passage causing blockage. This can result in a noise because the narrower passages make it more difficult to breathe and the muscles begin to vibrate.

Each person’s snore is different in tone, pitch and loudness as it is all based on the size of the individual, their weight and medical or health factors that might affect their breathing. Other things that affect your breathing and cause snoring can be medications or a cold or allergy that causes you to breathe through your mouth instead of your nose.

Cures for snoring can range from something as simple as changing to sleeping on your side instead of your back or raising your head with a pillow to more serious remedies that involve surgeries but there are many options in between with over the counter remedies and those that are not that costly. Snoring does not have to ruin your marriage but it takes time and effort to seek solutions.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Parents and partners are often the ones who notice the dramatic symptoms associated with sleep apnea first. The most obnoxious symptom associated with the sleep disorder is loud, pronounced snoring interspersed with gasping for air. When the throat collapses during an episode, the body will go without air for a second or two until it rouses and forces the throat open to breath. This gasping sound increases the level of snoring. Illness, such as a head cold or flu, can increase the frequency of episodes. A person may suffer from dozens of episodes a night, but only remember waking once or twice, even though their natural sleep patterns and rhythms are disturbed.

Upon waking in the morning, a person with sleep apnea will often feel tired and disoriented. They will have a headache and a sore throat. It may take them longer than usual to get started on their day and the feeling of drowsiness will persist through the daylight hours. This happens because the body goes through five stages of sleep. The body needs those five different stages, but sleep apnea episodes will reduce their duration, preventing the deeper stages of sleep because of constant arousal to breathe.

A person with sleep apnea never gets a solid night’s rest and will begin to show symptoms of sleep deprivation. In some cases, where the apnea goes untreated for years at a time, the constant sleep deprivation can impair job performance, social interactions, weight loss efforts and more. While sleep apnea can be treated, knowing whether the problem is physical (obstructive) or neurological (central) or a combination (mixed) can help a physician diagnose and treat the root causes as well as the actual apnea.

If you or someone you care about suspect that you are suffering from sleep apnea, you should see your physician for an accurate diagnosis and treatment.