by admin on February 10, 2010
Snoring is a fairly common affliction. In fact, it’s so common that many have learned to disregard it. Unfortunately many are those who do not know the causes for snoring and how to prevent these causes.
Snoring is normally caused by loose hanging tissues that prevent the normal air passage in the throat. This happens when the body and the muscles surrounding the throat are at their most restful positions. This explains why though we literally breathe the whole day, only during sleep do we experience snores.
The tongue, for example, would fall back into the throat when the jaw drops. Thus, narrowing the air passage. The pressure then passing through the throat would be doubled (or tripled depending on the speed of the wind that runs through it). Thus, vibration is created. We often hack this problem by creating states wherein the muscles would not fall back to create blockages.
To prevent snoring, patients are often advised not to sleep on their sides. This is because there is constraint of air passage when one sleeps on his back. Coupled with gravity, the tongue and other loose muscles will fall back to the throat, which then creates much less space. This is why the first device created to keep a person from snoring is the sock that covers a tennis ball stitched at the center of the snorer’s pajama shirt. If this is worn, the snorer will be kept from sleeping on his back due to discomfort.
Among the many advert effects of carrying too much pounds, overweight individuals are also more likely to be victims of snoring. Since their necks are a bit more fleshy, there could be more loose muscles that would hamper the normal passage of air. Thus, the heavier one gets, the more prone he is to have louder and deeper resonating snores.
Obviously, the best solution to prevent the development of too fleshy throats is not to raise the bar in the weighing scale. You would not only be saved from a number of coronary diseases, personal impairments and lack of self confidence, you would also get away from the loud noises your throat creates at night time.
There are various methods of loosing weight. From yoga to dieting, find one that would suit you best. Be patient in waiting for the effects of weight loss to come though. Remember that you did not gain weight overnight so you wont lose it overnight either. It takes much painful effort when you are hastening things to come to you. Work on it and never cease on following your diet or exercise plan. You know that it’s all worth it.
Substances that induce relaxation can also trigger snores. Therefore, you must refrain from drinking alcohol or drugs that has this very effect right before bedtime. Additionally, these substances can make your breathing slow. Be careful also not to get too tired during the day so that you wont get too relaxed during sleep.
Moreover, see to it that you go to bed at the same time each night. Creating an established sleep plan is known to induce better sleep. Thus, even when snoring can awaken your bed partner, you are mush less likely to wake up due to your own grunts.
Avoid breathing using your mouth. This often is the issue when it comes to snoring. Those who breathe through their mouths often have more aggravated problems since their dropped jaws encourage the tongue to drop back towards the throat. You can practice nasal breathing as early as you detect that you are beginning to get used to mouth breathing. After all, treatment for snoring often requires you to switch from mouth to nasal breathing. Indeed, another proof that prevention is much better than finding ways of treating the condition.
by admin on February 10, 2010
Occasional snoring may be normal to children. Recent studies show that 3 to 12 percent of children between the age of 1 and 9 snore. But frequency doesn’t mean normality. The question is: “Can snoring in children be dangerous?” The unfortunate truth is that habitual snoring can be a cause of a more serious medical condition called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) or simply, sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a condition characterized by loud snoring with periods of breathing interruptions. Interruptions may be short or prolonged, usually between 5 to 30 seconds. During this period, the child’s could not get straight sleep. He rouses and moves to another sleeping position, then resumes sleep. After a while he will once again begin snoring. This activity often happens several times during the night, each night. Although this condition rarely appears on children, it is very important that parents should watch out for symptoms that come along with it.
Symptoms of sleep apnea include:
- Poor speech habits – Talking that sounds like words over a mouthful of hot potato.
- Reduced growth rate – Children suffering from sleep apnea use more energy in breathing during the night. During meals, they tend to eat slowly since it is hard for them to breathe and chew at the same time. The result is, they have insufficient nutrients to support their growth.
- Hyperactivity – Lack of sleep can cause drowsiness on children during the day. To stay awake, children act frantically.
- Poor performance in school – Since children do not get the right sleep during the night, they tend to appear tired and lack the concentration to focus at school, thus, having a poor performance.
When these symptoms are visible, it is imperative for parents to bring their child to a pediatrician and have him examined. A child can be happy and smiling when he is brought to the doctor and therefore, it is difficult to diagnose if he really has sleep apnea. Parents are advised to record their child’s snoring so that the doctor can analyze the situation in actually.
Meanwhile, sleep apnea is not the sole reason why children snore. Other reasons include allergy attack, obesity, asthma, and enlargement of adenoids and/or tonsils caused by cold or tonsillitis.
Some allergy attacks can cause swelling on the linings of the nose that can direct to the enlargement of adenoids. This keeps the child from breathing normally. This causes the child to snore. After the allergy attack, the snoring stops.
Obesity can also lead to snoring. In fact, 20% and 40% of the obese children snore. This is because fats can form around the throat that can cause constriction and makes the limited airways. Also, fats in the stomach can cause the diaphragm to function irregularly
Asthma is said to be another cause why children snore. A study revealed that 40% of the children diagnosed with asthma snore.
Enlargement of adenoids and/or tonsils caused by cold or tonsillitis also results to snoring. While cold or tonsillitis can be cured by decongestant and antibiotics, adenoid enlargement is treated by surgical procedure to remove adenoids and tonsils.
Underdevelopment of the jaw inside the womb can cause snoring as well. There is also the possibility that the nerves and the muscles cannot control the airway properly and cause that child to snore.
by admin on January 31, 2010
The sounds of snoring are possible since there are collapsible parts at the back of our mouth that relax while we sleep. Once these are at their relaxed states, the air flow will drive them to flip since they are dangling loose nearest to the throat. These structures will then strike each other as air passes which then cause them to vibrate and create sounds.
Persons bothered by this condition are affected by one of the following posible causes for snoring:
- Excess fleshy structure in the throat – With more tissues that collide, it is more likely that snoring can occur. This explains why people snore when they have abnormal tonsils or adenoids. Overweight individuals, on the other hand, have larger necks that narrow the air passage while adding more obstructions due to the presence of excess tissues. Although rare, cysts and tumors can also directly cause snoring.
- Some people have extra long uvula and soft palate. These muscles can dangle as a person breathes. These act as flutter valves that impede the normal air passage through the throat.
- Obstruction in the nasal passage can also inhibit the movement of air from nose to lungs. If the person has stuffy nose, he is encouraged to breathe extra hard which then creates the vacuum in the throat. The parts that dangle loosely in this section of the respiratory tract are then subject to excessive movements. While a person doesn’t normally snore, the possibility that he would during hay fever season is high. Thus, many reports of snoring only when they have colds.
- Problems with the nose construction – The nasal septum, the underlying bone of the nosal bridge that separates one nostril from the other, can also have deformities that may cause obstruction in the air flow.
- Mouth breathing can also directly result to snores – Once the jaws drop during our sleep, a space will be created that would allow the tongue to fall back towards the throat. Again, this would create the obstruction that will encourage vibration, thus creating snores.
Having said this, we suggest that common snoring cures be initiated when any of these results are directly counter acted. Say for the excess tissues in the throat, the best possible cure is to remove the tissues that cause the blockage. This can be done through surgeries or through loosing weight.
There are many techniques used to surgically eliminate unwanted tissues. Some actually scrape these tissues while other allow electrically-induced disintegration of such muscles which will then be reabsorbed by the body. As for weight loss, there are also various methods of loosing pounds. Only, the person has to follow a comprehensive exercise or diet plan that will best fit his condition. Surgery is also used when the main cause of snoring is deviated nasal septum. This choice of cure will of course require careful examination and determined decision.
Mouth breathing, on the other hand, is best cured by shifting to nasal breathing. Many exercises had been devised to actualize this as much as there are a number of stop snoring devices that encourage the shift of breathing.
Problems on nasal passage are a bit less complicated to resolve. There are various stop snoring aids that aim to maximize the size of the nostrils through the use of clips and straps to facilitate better breathing.
by admin on January 16, 2010
So what are truly the main causes of snoring. This may be quite a hard-to-answer question when were talking of only one cause. For in fact, there are many basic contributors that all funnel into the greater source of the problem.

Medically, snoring is defined as a noise caused by vibration from the airways of the respiratory tract that only appears during sleep. The big question here is that, why, of all state, do we only experience snoring during restful moments?
Well, while we breathe 24/7, the likelihood that one snores during waking hours is very slim. This is due to the factor that only relaxed muscles can result to snoring. During sleep, all our voluntary muscles are relaxed. The throat, in the same way as the triceps are relaxed is also resting while we sleep. The fact that tissues in the throat are soft, adds to the eventual output of vibrating sounds.
Once this tissue eases out, the passage of air will turn into a narrower passage. As you can see, narrowed passages causes louder noise because there is more room for friction, thus the vibration. These same factors are also pointed as the reasons why there are differences in the loudness, pitch and tone of snores.
The loudness of snore is affected by the force of the wind that comes through the air passages. Therefore, when the speed of wind is faster, the snore, in general, is louder and more resonant. This answers why babies are capable of snoring too. However, theirs is not typically considered as snoring but only as mild noises created by the respiratory tract. This must never be ignored though since it may be the early sign that something is jammed in your child’s respiration tunnel.
But while it may appear to both genders at any age, men are more often affected by this condition than women and middle-aged men are most likely to be the victims. This is due to the reason that men have more fleshy necks since theirs are a bit wider than women’s. This factor combined with the speed of air, the result is most likely to be snoring.
Meanwhile, women by nature produce progesterone hormones. This is known to inhibit snoring, thus they are less susceptible towards the irritable sounds. Because this actual hormone helps in relieving a person from this nighttime dilemma, some anti-snoring devices are known to use progesterone as their basic ingredient.
Lifestyle and health factors are also thought of as culprits of snoring. These include:
- Allergies that cause clogs in the air paths.
- Drying of the nasal cavities due to several elements including allergy medications.
- Cold and flu, this explains why some people only experience snoring when they are sick.
- Excessive intake of alcohol.
- Thickening of the tissues along the nasal passage. Often, surgeries done on conditions not directly related to snoring can also contribute to the frequency and intensity of the snores.
- Abnormally large belly or guts.
- Irritation of the air passages due to overuse of nasal sprays.
- Abnormal enlargement of the tonsils or the adenoids.
- Smoking which causes inflammation in the air passages.
- Swelling of the thyroid gland or goiter.
- Blockage of the airflow due to large tongue.
- Medications that initiate relaxation
- Obesity
- Inefficient neural control on the nasal membranes.