Snoring
Everyone is familiar with the loud and disrupting snorting sound that comes from a snorer – but what is snoring, is it dangerous and what can be done to stop it?
What is snoring?
Snoring is the sound of the soft tissues in your airway vibrating as you breathe during sleep. As you breathe air passes through your nose and mouth, past your throat and down your windpipe into your lungs. The nose, mouth and throat are called the upper airway, and they are made of hard structures and soft structures. The soft structures, mainly at the back of the throat, are held in place by muscles. As you fall asleep, these muscles relax and your airway becomes slightly narrower. This causes the airflow to become more turbulent, which makes the soft structures vibrate and make a snorting or rumbling sound.
Is snoring dangerous?
The most typical injury a snorer will suffer is bruised ribs from being elbowed by a bed partner. But sometimes it can be more serious. If you hear a snorer stopping breathing while they sleep, then after a pause of a few seconds suddenly restart, often with a loud snort or gasp, it is likely that they have another condition called obstructive sleep apnea.
This is a serious condition where the airway narrows during sleep to the point where it actually closes and the person cannot breathe. People with obstructive sleep apnea do not sleep well, they often feel very tired during the day and are at risk of developing a lot of other serious physical health problems. We discuss obstructive sleep apnea here. Below are the common symptoms:
Episodes of stopping breathing
Loud snoring
Gasping, choking or gagging during sleep
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Morning headaches
Poor concentration or memory problems
If you think you (or someone you regularly hear snoring) has obstructive sleep apnea, then they should speak to one of our specialist sleep doctors and carry out our home sleep test for diagnosis and treatment.
What causes snoring?
For some people it is just due to the shape of their upper airway, though there are a few factors that can cause snoring, or make it worse.
Allergies like hay fever or pet allergies cause general inflammation and swelling of the upper airway, making them narrow. This is why people often find they snore when they have a cold, or during a bout of hay fever. Smoking can cause similar inflammation.
Alcohol and sedating medicines cause the muscles which hold the soft airway in place to be more relaxed and this narrow the airway.
Having more weight pressing in around your neck will narrow your airway, as can having a very heavy, muscular neck.
Are there different types of snoring?
All snorers seem to produce different sounds, which reflects how unique our upper airways are. Generally speaking, people are either nose snorers, mouth snorers or tongue base snorers.
A simple way to check is to close your mouth and try to reproduce your snoring sound (you may need the help of someone who hears your snore!). If you can make the sound well, try again with your mouth open. If you cannot now make the sound, it is likely that you are a nose snorer. Other things that indicate that your nose might be the source is by closing one nostril by (pressing the side in) and see if you can breathe perfectly through the other, then repeat for the other side. If you consistently struggle to breath through one, or both nostrils then there is likely to be some obstruction here.
Obstructions of the nose can occur with congestion from a cold, with allergies or from a deviated nasal septum.
Other people snore from their mouth. To check, open your mouth and make your snoring noise. Then close your mouth and see if it can still be done. If not, you are most likely to be a mouth snorer. Commonly mouth snorers wake with very dry mouths.
To see if you are a tongue base snorer, recreate your snoring sound, then stick your tongue out as far as it will go and hold it between your teeth. If you now struggle to make the sound then you are likely to be a tongue base snorer
How can I stop snoring?
General measures that widen your airway will help with snoring, such as
Stopping smoking
Diagnosing and treating hay fever
Reducing alcohol
Reducing sedating medications where possible
Sleeping on your side rather than your back keeps your airway wider and can prevent snoring – sewing a tennis ball into the back of your pyjamas can help, or using a triangular pillow
In addition, there are a number of measures for more specific kinds of snoring:
Mouth snorers can find improvement with the use of an elasticated chin strap that gently holds the mouth closed during sleep
Tongue base snorers can use something called a mandibular advancement device. This is similar to a plastic gumshield but with a section for the lower teeth that gently brings the lower jaw, or mandible, forwards. These can be self-moulded or made by a specialist dentist.
Can surgery improve my snoring?
A number of surgical treatments are available, though some procedures are quite intense and have variable success rates. Improvement in symptoms is more likely if a thorough surgical assessment is carried out and an operation only performed if your throat anatomy and type of snoring is of the right kind.