Snoring is no joke
It’s a subject of jokes, a cause of marital arguments and usually seen as a nuisance, but it’s not funny at all, and much more than just a nuisance.
Apart from disrupting the household and pushing relationships to the limit, snoring can indicate a serious health condition. Untreated, persistent snoring caused by obstructive sleep apnea raises the risk of high blood pressure, stroke and heart failure.
In Australia, close on 20,000 men are hospitalised each year for snoring.
Why do they snore?
Snoring is vibrations – parts of the nose and throat vibrating as air is breathed. At night, the muscles that help keep airways open, relax and become floppy, causing the airways to narrow and vibrate more.
Factors which lead to snoring, include
• 1. * Tonsils & Adenoids. Having enlarged tonsils or adenoids.
• 2. * Being overweight – this puts pressure on the airways.
• 3. * Alcohol and Drugs. They act as a sedative on the throat muscles.
• 4. * Smoking – because the airways are constantly inflamed from the smoke.
• 5. Colds, allergies, nasal polyps, a damaged or crooked nose.
• 6. Sleep apnea.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea occurs more often in older adults and is twice as common in men as in women. In this serious condition, throat tissues obstruct the airway, preventing the sleeper from breathing.
Sleep apnea is characterised by loud snoring followed by silence that can last 10 seconds or more. Eventually, the lack of oxygen makes the sleeper wake up, forcing the airway open with a loud snort or gasping sound. This pattern repeats during the night.
Sleep apnoea mainly affects men who smoke, are overweight and middle-aged.
If you snore, or your partner snores, please seek medical advice as soon as possible.
Tell me, does a person who snores, keep on doing it on regular basis? I mean, a family friend of ours snores so heavy that everyone literally wakes up. But this happens sometimes. ……One or two months he snores heavy and again the next one or two months he does not snore at all. He is heavy weight, drinks and smokes also. We have, so many times, told him to get a check up but he avoids the issue and says that nothing is wrong with him. His wife and children are also suffering because of this.
Yes, men who snore ALWAYS say there is nothing wrong with them, they say it’s natural for men to snore a little bit (haha) .. or else they say that they don’t snore at all! That’s because they don’t hear themselves do it.
Look, any man who is overweight, drinks, smokes and snores is a candidate for a sudden death whether he snores every night of the month or changes his sleeping position and breathes in to the pillow.
One night of heavy snoring is warning enough to seek medical attention
My wife probably since she got heavier snores loudly that wakes me and I retreat to the spare room. Snoring is problem for health and for the relationship. Why doesn’t snoring wake the snorer?
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Yes, why is that? How can the Snorer sleep through? It’s beyond me.
I don’t know why snoring doesn’t ususally wake the snorer, though in my experience, it does on occasion.
What I do know is that sleep apnea is not to be ignored, nor merely laughed off as nothing out of hte ordinary.
I feel like there is an epidemic of sleep disorders arising — though maybe it’s merely that I now recognize the symptoms of sleep disorders in others with more ease: We both have sleep apnea — I was diagnosed with it six months ago after undergoing about 3 months of testing to rule out other problems; while doctors finally got my husband to agree to testing two years ago. (Prior to that, I’d been begging him to get tested for about 3 years, but he kept laughing it off, denying there was a problem and declaring that he’d rather die than wear a sleep mask to bed. Once he was tested, and the doctor explained the gravity of the disorder to him, as well as explained that he was totally cured as long as he used a C-PAP machine, the concerns over wearing a mask proved minimal.)
I urge anyone who has a family member who snores, or who’s been told that they snore, to see a doctor and spend a night in a sleep lab if so advised.
People who suffer with sleep apena are slowly killing themselves — and I’m here to say that my quality of life has vastly improved since I began my treatment.
By the way, my husband never complained about my snoring — I guess because he was busy sleeping — though my kids had. Turned out my case was more severe than my husband’s!
Don’t put it off any longer: Call your doctor and get tested! You’ll be saving your life.
Snoring is a health problem that afflict some people due to genetics, lifestyle and or as a result of some other health problems such as obesity or even just being overweight.
In some other cases snoring could result of the enlargement of the tissues surrounding the airways of the snorer, examples are Tonsils & Adenoids as was mentioned in the above post. But some people also lose control of their breathing after the drink a lot and sleep in wrong positions with necks twisted and narrowing their airways.
I think that lots of people are not even aware that they snore, so it is the duty of their partner to get them to see the doctor. This must be done in a lovely manner so as not produce defense against supposed taunting by you.
My partner’s snoring is the bane of my existence. He will not go to a doctor about it. I am now sick of nudging him in the ribs and sleep separately, but I can still hear it through the walls. And in the lounge while watching television.