Introduction
Snoring is Not Only Annoying
Snoring is not just something people do, it is a symptom; snoring is a manifestation of damage caused by an underlying issue. Because snoring has been wrongly considered a part of many, if not most people’s sleeping habits, the damage that causes people to snore has gone unrecognized in most people, this is true even today.
What is The Damage?
Sleep is the recuperative process we must have to be healthy and sharp. Snoring is a disturbance that can interrupt our sleep, causing us to wake up from trouble snoring represents our ability to breathe well, and even from the noise snoring can generate. Snoring is just a problem the snoring person alone must deal with; this is something that can affect anyone within earshot, especially a partner sleeping in the same bed, or someone sharing the room. Another person snoring can keep a person from getting truly restful sleep; this can be absolute torture for a person who must share a bed or sleeping quarters with someone who snores.
Noise is the least of the problems snoring causes. In its ultimately damaging form, people die, not from snoring, but Sleep Apnea. Snoring is just the audible manifestation of Sleep Apnea, which is the term for when a person involuntarily stops breathing while asleep. It is the Sleep Apnea is that causes a snorer to breathe so heavily, not to mention loudly. Sleep Apnea is what causes a person to wake up gasping, or to adjust their sleeping position over and over throughout the night. A lack of deep rest has a cumulative degenerative effect on a person, affecting their mood, temperament, and ability to focus, concentrate and be a productive individual.
How Bad Can It Be?
Snoring is often depicted as being cute, or humorous in the sense of how ridiculous a person snoring can be, but let see how funny you think it would be if you were in that position. If you have never had to sleep with a person who snores, consider this a blessing in your life; now let us compare the often bombastic nature of a person's snore. The following examples should give you an idea of what so many people must endure when trying to get a good nights rest; each of these items registers at least the number of decibels as the average person who snores:
• A gas-powered lawn mower in use
• A shop vacuum in use
• A motorcycle in use
• A low flying airliner
• A chainsaw in use
• All of your kitchen appliances running at the same time
Snoring is a Constant Issue
The point to remember about these examples is that you are subject to them for the entire time you are trying to get rest; deep, uninterrupted, quality sleep. This is not blowing things out of proportion, talk to anyone who has slept with someone who snores what it is like and you will get an earful, so be prepared to listen. Snoring is not like the hiccups, it does not go away as suddenly as it appeared, snoring will be a persistent issue until something is done about it, or the snorer dies in their sleep.
Why Are You Reading This?
If you are reading this chances are either you, the person you spend your nights with or someone you care about snores and it is driving one of you, if not both of you absolutely crazy. Losing sleep is hugely detrimental. And it can make you feel a little crazy when you are faced with a wall of noise that stands between you and the sleep you so need and deserve, every night.
You are reading this because you are looking for a solution. You don’t want to keep snoring, or you definitely want your sleeping partner to stop snoring. Don’t get the impression that this is a brochure for snore resolving surgery, it is not. This article provides some very simple answers and solutions that can make all the difference in the world; these solutions have not only eradicated snoring but are actually lifesavers. These non-surgical solutions can get back the sleep you need as someone who snores, or as a person who sleeps with someone who snores; either way, the will be more sound sleep to go around.
Before proceeding, we need to take the time to understand snoring at its most basic level; the physical components involved in the process. Once we understand how snoring works we can delve deeper into looking at its problematic nature. At this point we will study the harmful process of snoring, the negative effects it has and what it represents in the human body.
Once we understand what snoring is and what it can mean, we can then proceed into how to remedy the snoring dilemma. When it comes to solutions to biological processes, understanding the surgical procedures first; to understand how and why this option to snore resolution is a risky decision and in many cases does not help at all.
By the end of all this reading, your perception of snoring will be drastically changed; snoring will not be funny or acceptable for you or anyone you care about.
Chapter One
Understanding Snoring
Snoring is understood to be any kind of resonant sound that emanates from breathing while sleeping. The crux of the snore is where the mouth and nasal passages meet; this is the point where breathing during sleep causes vibration; otherwise known as snoring. This vibration is due to constricted breathing passages. As tight breathing passages are responsible for snoring, it should also be understood that the more pinched these passages are, the louder and more disruptive the snoring will be.
The reason snoring only occurs while slumbering is because the body is in a prone position in a relaxed state. The airway consists of tissues that operate in a similar method to muscles. When a person sleeps, these tissues become somewhat flaccid; so when lying down this tissue literally blocks the breathing passage causing the sleeper to breathe with difficulty, resulting in more forceful breathing which then equates to snoring.
What Factors into How Loud a Person Snores?
Every person is unique in their composition and physical make-up. This affects why some people snore at a very loud volume. Included as part of snoring the tone and pitch; basically, we all have the same parts yet we all have our own uniquely identifiable voice, this is true for snoring as well.
How loud an individual may snore depends on the various factors involved in the process. Because there is basically a flap of tissue closing off the airway we need to breathe, breathing becomes more laboured and aggressive to supply our lungs, body and brain with oxygen; snoring is an audible sign that the body is fighting for air. This is an issue that can affect just about anyone, even babies.
The smaller the passages involved with breathing are during sleep, the more forceful the body will become to get the air it needs, thusly the tissue blocking the airway will vibrate in proportion to the force needed to get the vital oxygen our body is being deprived of. This is how a snore becomes so loud.
Men Snore the Most
Generally speaking, men do most of the snoring that goes on in the world. This has to do again, with the physical composition of the male body; in this case, the typically thicker neck. Because the male neck is more often fleshier in nature, there is more tissue substance found within. Obviously, the more tissue there is in the neck and surrounding the breathing passages, the greater the likelihood of bombastic snoring.
Women have a natural defence to snoring in the form of Progesterone. Granted, some women snore just a loud and violently as men, and even more so in some cases, but it is simply not as common as it is with males. Progesterone is used as a form of therapy for men who suffer from snoring.
Snoring: Causes and Amplifiers
As we have already discussed, snoring is a symptom of something else. This symptom manifests in the form of a sound that comes from the inability to breathe easily during sleep. So what causes this trouble? The tissues involved with breathing are not the sole culprit for this bothersome problem. These factors are not gender-specific; these are issues that affect men and women, although there are roughly twice as many male snorers as there are females who snore. Snoring factors have to do with our health and our lifestyle; these factors come in many combinations and include the following:
• Allergies commonly affect breathing
• Allergy medicines dehydrate the normally moist sinus passages
• Illness such as a cold or influenza also cause laboured breathing
• Tissue scarring from surgery on the nasal passage
• General thickness of tissues found within the sinuses
• Nasal spray abuse agitates the sinuses and airway
• Snorting controlled substances
• Oversized tonsils and/or adenoids
• Goiter, a swollen thyroid gland
• Oversized tongue
• Obesity results in the thickness of the neck and soft tissues
• Oversized stomach
• Consumption of alcohol
• Smoking
• Ageing
Some of these issues affect men more than women, like the excessive girth of the stomach region. This is believed to be part of the reason men in general experience more issues with snoring than women.
Also, controlled substances; prescribed, available over the counter, or illegal are associated with side effects that lead to snoring such as drying the sinuses and relaxing the tissues at the back of the throat and air passages.
We have looked over that snoring is and broken down the physical process. We have also gone over the many issues that can affect and cause snoring, so we must now look deeper into the issue to discover the truly deleterious effect snoring can have on a person’s wellbeing.
What is so Bad About Snoring?
The whole concept of snoring is somewhat subversive; this is where the largest danger with snoring lies, how innocuous it is perceived by the majority of people. Snoring is the word that seems harmless enough, and this is a problem. The connotation of the word does not convey the true meaning of the action; when a person snores, their body is in a state where it is being deprived of oxygen and must therefore breathe much harder to force open the airway. Simply put snoring is a cry for help in the dark that says “I am not breathing!”
Because of this common perception of snoring, people become incredulous at the idea that snoring is a serious problem that gives rise to health risks and emotional issues. This portion of the post addresses the severity of snoring and the many issues associated with it. Most people are ignorant to the fact that snoring, although common, is not normal, healthy or acceptable.
The Physical Aspects of Snoring
What needs to happen for people to understand what snoring truly represents is a change of perception; a dynamic shift of what snoring means. The gravity of the dangers of snoring cannot be stressed enough. What follows is an abridged list of physical health issues that are related to snoring.
• Sleep apnea
• Heart Disease
• Stroke
• Headaches
• Night sweats
• Heartburn
• Swollen limbs
• Weakened immune system
• Loss of hearing
Remember, this is only an abridged list; there are many more physical issues that are part of snoring. These issues are not exclusive to adults, and neither is snoring. Snoring is encompassed all ages and genders making anyone susceptible to the many dangerous effects snoring can have. Let’s take a closer look at one of the more serious issues related to snoring.
Sleep Apnea in Depth
Sleep Apnea is a silent killer that strikes in the dark when a person is at their most vulnerable; when a person is asleep. This alone should be enough to make anyone who snores, or even cares about a person who snores seek out some resolution; find some way to provide relief when sleeping so as not to stop breathing altogether. The term apnea is taken from the ancient Greek use of the word meaning: absence of breathing. Sleep Apnea is merely a precursor to asphyxiation.
The correlation between snoring and Sleep Apnea is direct: really snoring is just another word for Sleep Apnea. If snoring is caused by tissue blocking the air passage; this is an absence of breath. The sound associated with snoring is the vibration of the obstructive tissue is being vibrated by the body sensing this blockage and breathing with a sense of urgency. Sleep Apnea is when breathing stops; snoring is when the body forces itself to breathe hard enough to open the blockage. The correlation is simple.
Sleep Apnea does not have to be fatal to hurt a person’s health. Breathing provides the body with oxygen, it goes into the lungs and then into the bloodstream from where the oxygen is taken to all parts of the body. Sleep Apnea translates to not breathing; if we are not breathing, our body is starved of the oxygen it needs to survive and operate to its full capacity. A lack of oxygen causes an imbalance in the bloodstream leading to an excess of carbon dioxide. Too much Carbon dioxide in the body creates a toxic state that can result in brain damage, heart disease or a stroke.
The Emotional Aspects of Snoring
Snoring does not affect the person who is actually snoring alone. Anyone close to a person who snores with any degree of severity understands this fact. How snoring affects the people around a person who snores is just as serious as the health risks involved. A person, who snores loudly; meaning as loud as a running motorcycle or some other internal combustion device, can keep their partner from sleeping. A loud snorer can disrupt the whole house through the course of the night, every night.
This should begin to expose the vast area of problems that can arise due to snoring. A person who sleeps with someone who snores, or maybe shares the same room, or shares a wall between rooms, even so far as to be in the same building knows that trying to get a full night of deep, restful sleep is an exercise in futility. There is a lot of frustration involved with situations like these because the person snoring may be unaware of it, or believe there is nothing that can be done for it. Snoring can come with a costly emotional price tag; the following are few examples of emotional disturbances resulting from snoring:
• Loss of sleep can cause depression or anxiety
• Break up of relationships, including marriages
• Eviction from dwelling for bothering tenants
• Clashing living partners or neighbours due to sleep disruption
• Poor performance at work leading to unemployment due to lack of sleep
• Short term and long term memory issues from lack of sleep
• Lack of compassion from those affected by snoring
These are but a few of the many emotional problems that are part and parcel of snoring. The effects of snoring are very far-reaching and destructive to those subject to them. Beneath the surface of each of these emotional states are the mental states associated with the person who snores and the person who has to deal with it. A few of the emotional states caused by snoring follow:
• Exhaustion
• Frustration
• Resentment
• Anger
• Helplessness
• Anguish
• Desperation
• Low self-esteem
• Confusion
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