What causes snoring in females and men?
Everyone snores occasionally, but if snoring becomes a habit, it affects slip of your family members and roommates. Quality and quantity of your sleep gets disturbed. Poor sleep during night can cause daytime fatigue, irritability and health problems. Snoring can even create major relationship problems. But don’t worry; there are effective remedies to sleeping problems besides sleeping in separate bedrooms.
When air can’t move freely through your nose and throat during sleep, snoring takes place. While sleeping, throat and nasal tissues vibrate and produce snoring sound. Some people have too much of these tissues and snoring happens.
Causes of Snoring
There are many factors that cause snoring. You need to identify the cause first in order to stop snoring. You can take help of your sleeping partner to keep a slip diary. It will help you monitor your snoring pattern.
Being Overweight
Overweight people are more prone to snoring as fatty tissue and poor muscle tone leads to snoring. Even excess weight just around your throat can also cause it, though you are not overweight.
Age
With ageing, throat becomes narrower leading to decreased throat muscle tone. You can’t stop aging but to help you with snoring, you can make some lifestyle changes.
The way you are built
Usually men have narrow air passage in comparison to women. People with narrow air passage, a cleft palate and enlarged adenoids are more prone to snoring. You can’t change physical conditions, but some changes to life style as well as throat exercise can help.
Sleep Posture
Some of the sleeping positions also block your airways and causes snoring. Changing sleeping position can help.
Medications, Alcohol and Smoking
Certain medications such as tranquilizers like lorazepam (Ativan) and diazepam (Valium) increase your muscle relaxation that contributes to snoring. Alcohol or smoking is also responsible for it.
Nasal and Sinus Problem
When you have some nasal or sinus problem, it blocks your air passage and creates a vacuum in the throat that causes snoring.
How to Stop Snoring While Sleeping
Self Help Remedies to Stop Snoring: There are some self help cures you can follow that will help you stop snoring while sleeping.
Lose weight
If you are overweight, you should try to reduce weight. You can join gym or take some regular exercise that will help you lose weight. By reducing weight, fatty tissue in your throat will be reduced and it might help you stop snoring.
Establish sleep pattern
You should develop a healthy bedtime routine, it will minimize snoring.
Clear Nasal Passage
If your nose is stuffy, rinse sinuses with saline before you go to bed. You can make use of nasal decongestant or nasal strips that will help you breathe more easily. If you have allergic problem, you have to protect your room from dust mites and pet dander or you can use an allergy medication.
Quit smoking
Smoking irritates membranes in the nose and throat. If you have a habit of smoking, you must try to quit it.
Avoid Alcohol, sedatives
Any sedative relax muscles in the throat and can disturb your breathing. If you find it difficult to leave the habit, you can take help from a doctor.
Change your sleeping position
Change in your sleeping position can help you get rid of snoring. You should keep your head elevated four inches and it will ease breathing. You should sleep on your side rather than your back.
Throat Exercise
Throat exercise strengthens your throat muscle and is very effective in getting rid of snoring. You have to take following simple exercise regularly.
- Take the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth and slide it backwards for three minutes.
- Close your mouth and purse your lips for 30 seconds.
- Repeat the vowels a,e,i,o,u loudly for three minutes. Repeat this exercise few times a day.
- Keep your mouth open, move your jaw to the right and hold it for 30 seconds. Then take jaw to the left and hold it for 30 seconds. Repeat this exercise 5 times.
Change your pillow
Dust mites gather in pillows and it can cause allergic reactions. If you allowing pets to sleep on the bed, animal dander can also be an irritant. You should put your pillows in air fluff cycle at regular time interval. You should also change your pillow every six months; it will keep the allergens to minimum.
Medical Cure for Snoring
If self help remedies don’t help you stop snoring, you can seek medical help. You can consult your physician or an otolaryngologist. You might be recommended a medical device or suggested surgical procedure. Some of the known surgical procedures are discussed below.
Traditional surgery
This surgery increases the size of airways through removing tissues or correcting abnormalities if there is any. These surgeries include Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), Thermal Ablation Palatoplasty (TAP), tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy.
Laser-assisted uvulopalatoplasty (LAUP)
Laser technique is used to shorten the uvula (the hanging soft tissue at the back of the throat). Small cuts are made on the either side of the soft palate. As the cuts heal, the surrounding tissues gets stiff and it prevents vibrations causing snoring.
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
Here you wear a mask over your nose and a machine kept at your bedside blows that helps keep your airway open during sleep.
Palatal implants
It is also called Pillar procedure. In this procedure, small plastic implants are inserted into the soft palate. It helps prevent collapse of the soft palate which causes snoring.
Somnoplasty
In this method, low levels radiofrequency heat is used to remove tissues of the uvula and soft palate. This procedure requires local anaesthesia and usually takes about 30 minutes to perform it.
There are various devices also available to stop snoring.
To conclude, if you are suffering from snoring, you can apply some self help remedies which are simple and effective. If in case, it doesn’t get cured, you have many medical alternative to help you get rid of snoring.