Snoring And Why It May Be Harmful to Your Health

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Everyone snores at some point in life due to drinking before bed, allergies, or colds. This ends up relaxing the throat muscles, palate, and tongue. As a result, you force air past the soft tissues and start snoring. This snoring is usually normal and goes away, but severe snoring could signify an underlying issue. It could be a concern when snoring is raucous and loud or interrupted by pauses while you breathe. Around 45% of people occasionally snore, but 25% of people regularly snore, disturbing their own and their partner's sleep. Frequent snoring could be a sign of serious health issues or could lead to severe health problems. Understanding more about your snoring and sleeping pattern is essential to get the help you may need.

What is Snoring?

Snoring occurs when air flow through your nose or mouth is disrupted. The soft tissues in the throat, nose, and mouth bump into one another and vibrate when the air is forcefully entered through any obstructed area. This vibration creates a grumbling, snoring, or rattling sound.

The chances of snoring keep increasing as you grow older. Chronic snoring might indicate obstructive sleep apnea or other severe disorder. Aside from age, the snoring risk factors include:

● Abnormal structures blocking airflow

● Being postmenopausal

● Family history

● Obesity

● Ongoing or chronic nasal blockage or congestion

● Pregnancy

● Taking sedatives or alcohol before bed.

Causes of Snoring

Snoring could be caused due to multiple reasons, including:

Structural changes

Your chances of snoring increase because of conditions that may lead to structural issues in the airway, including:

● Deviated nasal septum

● Enlarged lateral pharyngeal wall or soft palate

● Macroglossia (enlarged tongue)

● Nasal polyps

● Obesity

● Rhinitis

● Smaller than normal lower jaw (micrognathia) or a jaw with a severe and obvious overbite (retrognathia)

Position

In some cases, the sleeping position could also cause snoring. Some people snore while sleeping on their stomachs, sides, or back. This happens when there is a gravity pull that results in the narrowing of the airway.

Illness

Seasonal allergies, flu, and colds can result in tissue swelling and nasal congestion. This makes it challenging to breathe, resulting in snoring.

Dehydration

The nasal passages and mouth dry out when you are dehydrated, causing a narrowing of airways, which results in snoring.

Medications and Alcohol

Sleep aids, sedatives, and alcohol relax the muscles of your throat that block the airway and cause snoring.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Persistent and loud snoring is one of the major signs of obstructive sleep apnea. This is a sleep disorder in which the airways become fully or partially blocked while you sleep. This is the most common sleep disorder, affecting around 30% of men, 15% of women, and 3% of children.

How can Snoring Lead to Health Problems?

Snoring happens when your airflow gets restricted as you sleep. Long-term or loud snoring increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, and other health issues. As mentioned, snoring is usually a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, which enhances your risk of severe conditions like heart attacks, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.

Those experiencing obstructive sleep apnea often stop breathing for ten to twenty seconds when they are sleeping. This could happen a few times or even hundreds of times throughout the night. It blocks the airways and makes it difficult for you to breathe. While not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, it is essential to consult a professional to get the right diagnosis.

If your snoring problem is due to obstructive sleep apnea, you need immediate treatment. Here are some of the major signs of obstructive sleep apnea:

● Concentration problems

● Depression or mood swings

● Headache as soon as you wake up

● Insomnia

● Memory issues

● Sleepiness throughout the day

● Strange dreams

● Unexplained fatigue

● Waking up throughout the night

Health Risks of Snoring

Here are some of the most common ways snoring can harm your health:

Poor Sleep Quality

Those who snore frequently wake up throughout the night without even realizing it. As a result, their sleep quality gets affected, particularly for heavy snorers. When your sleep gets disrupted, it impacts your emotional and physical well-being.

It greatly affects the way you process your emotions and negatively impacts your mental health in the long run.

Heart Abnormalities

The snoring vibrations cause inflammation, resulting in abnormalities and thickening in the carotid artery. This can increase the risk of heart irregularities and vascular diseases.

Headaches

There is a connection between chronic snoring and persistent headaches. Individuals suffering from chronic headaches are 2.5 times more likely to snore than those without daily headaches. Additionally, sleep deprivation can also trigger migraines.

Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)

Long-term snoring can cause changes in the air pressure, resulting in either exacerbating or causing GERD. This disease occurs when the acids in the stomach reenter the esophagus.

Mental Health Problems

Aside from physical side effects, snoring can greatly impact your mental health. Sleep disturbance and lack of sleep increase the chances of anxiety and depression.

Arrhythmias

The consequences of snoring on your overall health could be severe. One of the most dangerous implications includes arrhythmia, in which your normal heart rhythm gets too slow, fast, or irregular. This condition is common and may also occur among individuals who are not frequent snorers. However, the combination of sleep apnea or interrupted breathing and arrhythmia could be dangerous.

Partner Issues

No one enjoys getting their sleep disturbed by a partner who is consistently snoring. While this might not be a health problem, it could cause strain in a relationship that could impact the mental health of both partners. Moreover, your partner could experience the same physical symptoms that are caused due to lack of sleep or low-quality sleep.

Health Problems due to Sleep Apnea

If your snoring is caused due to sleep apnea, then it could cause multiple issues, including:

● Insufficient or low quality of sleep, even when you don't realize it

● Waking up frequently and disrupting your sleep pattern that leads to a light sleep instead of the deeper, restorative sleep

● Long-term sleep apnea can increase the risk of high blood pressure and might increase the size of your heart, creating a risk of stroke and heart attack.

● Low mood and sleepiness throughout the day, impacting your daily activities and quality of life.

What are the Best Ways to Stop Snoring?

There are multiple ways to stop snoring, including getting medical treatments or making lifestyle changes.

Medical Treatments

If the snoring is severe, your doctor will conduct a thorough assessment, including a physical exam and a medical history, to determine the root cause of long-term snoring. You might also have to undergo a few tests, including:

● Sleep Study: A machine monitors your sleep to measure your brain activity, breathing, and heart rate.

● Imaging Tests: A CT scan, MRI scan, or X-ray is conducted to identify issues in the airways.

After the relevant tests and assessments, the doctor will find the best way to stop your snoring. These treatments might include:

● Oral Appliances: You might have to wear a plastic mouth device while sleeping to keep your airways open.

● Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Machine: It blows air into your airways to help you breathe as you sleep and eliminate snoring.

● Surgery: Multiple procedures can be done to help you stop snoring, like shrinking or removing tissues in the throat or making the soft palate firmer.

Lifestyle Changes

There are multiple other ways you can try to prevent snoring, including:

● Using nasal congestion medications by consulting your healthcare provider

● Rising your head off the bed to enhance airflow

● Trying a snore-reducing pillow that ensures your neck and head stay in the right position

● Sleeping on the side to regulate airflow and avoiding sleeping on your stomach or back as it restricts the airflow

● Reducing weight since excessive weight places more pressure on your throat’s internal diameter, increasing the possibility of a collapse that causes snoring

● Cutting back or completely eliminating smoking, sedatives, and alcohol as it can significantly impact the muscles of your throat and worsen the snoring.

● Drinking more water and restricting the consumption of inflammatory foods

● Using a mouth guard, anti-snoring mouthpieces, and tongue-retaining devices to make it easy for you to breathe as you sleep

● Decongestion or clearing sinuses by using a humidifier, taking a decongestant, or eliminating any allergens from your room

Wrapping Up

While occasional snoring is not a major cause of concern, frequent, loud snoring can result in severe health issues. Snoring can cause side effects that are more than just embarrassing and annoying. People with sleep apnea can experience a higher risk of multiple physical and mental health issues, from depression to heart disease. You need to consult a professional to get an evaluation and find the right treatment to stop snoring.