Snoring is obnoxious and irritating, besides being harmful to a person’s health.
Don’t you often wonder, “Why do I snore?”
Well, snoring is curable, but if you do not take the proper measures, it can lead to many other fatal problems.
What causes snoring?
Generally, snoring occurs as a result of the airflow past the relaxed tissues in the throat. This causes the tissues to vibrate during normal breathing.As far as the causes for snoring are concerned, there are plenty. From unhealthy lifestyle, routine to wrong sleeping posture and carrying excess body weight.
In addition, the anatomy of your mouth and sinuses, alcohol consumption, and allergies are also causative factors.As you progress through your sleep at night, the muscles in the soft palate of your mouth, tongue, and throat begin to relax.
When these tissues relax more than normal, they tend to partially block the airway and thus, begin to vibrate as you inhale air.As you can imagine, a narrowed airway makes more noise due to tissue vibration in the airflow passage.
What can affect the airway and produce loud snoring?
Mouth Anatomy: A low, thick soft palate (the roof of your mouth) can make the airway passage narrower. Usually, this is seen among overweight or obese who suffer from extra tissue growth in the back of their throat. These narrow airway passages tend to constrict the normal airflow, thus producing excessive noise.
Additionally, if the triangular piece of tissue hanging from the roof of your mouth, also known as Uvula, is elongated, then it can also cause obstruction in the airflow and ultimately increase the vibration.
Alcohol consumption before sleep: Alcohol relaxes the throat muscles and decreases their natural defense mechanism, which is to prevent a strong airway obstruction.
When alcohol is consumed before sleep, snoring is not only louder but also more life-threatening than under normal circumstances. Not only is consuming alcohol bad for general well-being, when it leads to snoring or obstructive sleep apnea, a heart stroke is also most feared among individuals.
Nasal Problems: Deviated Nasal Septum is pretty common among people and this can be a birth defect. The most common remedy is through surgical means. On the other hand, chronic nasal congestion can be dealt with by using a nasal spray. A nasal spray from Asonor is found to be effective and comes highly recommended by medical professionals.
Sleep deprivation: Contrarily, not getting the right amount of sleep can, in turn, lead to obstructive sleep apnea or snoring. Those who put in more than 12 hours per day at work are depriving their body of necessary sleep and are more prone to snoring.
Sleeping posture: As mentioned before, sleeping posture determines the state of your snoring. When you sleep on your back, the gravity pulls down on your throat muscles and hence, leads to the loudest snoring. This is easily remedied by sleeping on your either side and using therapeutic pillows that keep your head elevated and your spinal cord aligned.
Summary: Snoring is very common, not just among adults but it occurs even in children. Although hereditary snoring is one of the known causes of snoring, unhealthy lifestyle habits contribute towards this problem even more. So, let’s discuss what causes snoring in some detail.
