What Is Snoring?

Snoring is when your mouth hangs open at night and makes loud funny noises right?

It’s actually a lot more than that. Did you know that snoring has been linked to strokes and blood vessel problems?

Some cases are more serious than others. However, you may actually be suffocating in your sleep if you have sleep apnea. This can be a very dangerous condition. We’ll get to that soon enough.

In a nutshell, snoring is the sound made by your throat during sleep when your airways are not completely open. The sound is made by the vibration of tissues and structures caused by less than optimal airflow.

The first structure involved in this is the soft palate, which is just a fancy term for the very back of the roof of your mouth. The other structure involved is the uvula, that little dangling bit of tissue that hangs from the roof of your mouth. It’s often been spotted in cartoons in one silly situation or another.

How It Happens

When those two structures lie against your throat more air crosses them than is necessary for breathing due to the lack of space. This creates the vibration that results in the well-known sound of snoring.

Sometimes your tonsils and their partners, the adenoids, can also cause you to snore. The problem remains the same though. A blocked or partly blocked airway during sleep is still the cause.

Most sounds are harmless. In this case the actual sound of snoring almost is too, except to those around you. Snoring can be a real pain to your partner and keep them from getting the good sleep that they deserve. It is a commonly known fact that the partners of those that snore get less sleep.

The catch is that while the sound itself is nearly harmless to you, the reason it is happening is not. No matter what you are doing, asleep or awake, a constricted airway is not a good thing.

Hazards of Snoring

Essentially, snoring is dangerous. It can cause sleep deprivation, which is really just common sense and you are probably all too familiar with. Snoring has been linked to heart problems as well. Not to mention that a lack of quality sleep for both members of a couple causes problems of its own when things would otherwise be great.

It is important to avoid mixing up snoring and sleep apnea though. They are two totally different conditions, but some of the symptoms are similar. That is why I wrote an article about the differences between the two and how to tell. Sleep apnea is much more serious.

Effects

What snoring really is though is a problem. With dangerous causes and equally risky effects, there is no other way to say it. Sleep deprivation, fatigue, lack of libido, irritability, and health problems to boot? I’ll pass.

The causes of snoring and what it can do to your body and your life are much more drastic than many people realize. If snoring has become a problem for you already, don’t let it continue. Learn as much as you can and stop this problem in its tracks.

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