What Causes Snoring?

Substances such as drugs or alcohol will promote relaxation of the muscles in the throat, thus narrowing your air passageway and causing the tongue to relax. As the tongue relaxes, it falls back and blocks off part of your airways, causing snoring.

Snoring can be brought on by a stuffy nose due to a cold or sinusitis. When one’s nose becomes stuffy, less air can go through the nasal passages so the body pulls in more air via the mouth with a greater force, hence causing snoring.

Also if one has a long uvula and/or soft palate, this will also cause a narrower air passage and an increased likelihood of snoring. Other physical characteristics which may bring about snoring include large adenoids and large tonsils, a long tongue, a small lower jaw or a deviated nasal septum. This can be diagnosed by your doctor. However, I strongly recommend you try some of the more cost effective methods you can find on this site, as I personally overcame my problem without turning to surgery amounting to thousands of dollars.

Here is an extensive list of the causes of snoring, though the most common ones are listed above.

Overeating and/or Lack of Exercise

Overeating and/or lack of exercise lead to an increase in fat around the throat. If you have a collar size of 16½ inches or greater, you may not have the muscle tone needed to keep the airway open sufficiently at night to allow normal breathing, and the narrow airway is more likely to vibrate. A person with a short fat neck is at an increased risk of snoring. Excess body fat seems to be more of a problem for men than women. Men tend to get fat around their necks and waists, whereas women seem to put on weight around the thighs. In women, the cross sectional area of the upper airway is greater and the airway walls may be more rigid and therefore less prone to yield to pressure. As a result, collapse of the airway is resisted when muscle tone falls during sleep. This means that women are less likely to snore than men. However, this situation very often changes for women following the menopause. Like men, as women get older their muscle tone tends to diminish and they put on more weight. By the time women have reached the age of 70 they are just as likely to be snorers as men of the same age.

Being overweight by just a few kilograms can be the cause of your snoring. If you have fatty tissue around your neck you will find that during sleep it squeezes the airway and prevents air from flowing in and out freely.

Weight loss with accompanying fat reduction will certainly help to alleviate snoring. However, weight loss cannot be achieved by diet alone; it must be accompanied by a sensible exercise program.

Alcohol and Sleeping Pills

Alcohol travels to all areas of the body and slows the brain’s responses, causing the muscles to relax even more than during a normal night’s sleep. Alcohol also acts as a depressant. The added relaxation of the musculature causes the throat flaps to collapse more readily causing further snoring. Additionally alcohol can induce obstructive sleep apnea (where breathing stops for short periods during sleep) in individuals who are otherwise just snorers. This does not mean that you have ‘clinically recognized sleep apnea’ but, when you have been drinking alcohol and your sleep is interrupted by periods of not breathing, you should be aware that if you do not modify your lifestyle, this condition will worsen.

Alcohol also causes nasal airway irritation and congestion that increases the airway resistance when breathing. The consumption of alcohol affects every organ and system in the body. It can damage heart tissue and elevate blood pressure. It also has high caloric content, and people who are heavy drinkers are often overweight.

If you cannot stop drinking you can modify the effects by having your last drink at least 4 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body sufficient time to metabolize the alcohol and help you to sleep without snoring.

Smoking

Cigarette smoke irritates the lining of the nasal cavity and throat causing swelling. If the nasal passages become congested it is difficult to breathe through your nose because the airflow is decreased. The likelihood of snoring increases as more cigarettes are smoked per day because the congestion increases with each cigarette. Even passive smoking can cause inflammation of the nose and throat passages, thus increasing the risk of snoring. Children of parents who smoke are more likely to be affected by snoring than children of non smoking parents. If you cannot stop smoking you can modify the effects by having your last cigarette at least 4 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body sufficient time to reduce the effects of the cigarette smoke and help you to sleep without snoring.

Sleeping Position

While sleeping on your back, your tongue, your chin and any excess fatty tissue under your chin will probably relax back and squash your airway. Sleeping on your side prevents this.

Allergy
Allergies and in particular allergic rhinitis are increasing in prevalence and currently affect between 10-25% of the population. The most common symptoms include: nasal congestion and sneezing.

Congestion in the nasal airway can lead to sleep disordered breathing and snoring. From a questionnaire based study of 5000 subjects who frequently suffered rhinitis symptoms, it was found that they were significantly more likely to be snorers, have non-restorative sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness. The study also found that subjects with nasal congestion were almost twice as likely to have moderate to severe sleep disordered breathing as normal subjects. Statistical findings similar to the previous study found that both nasal congestion and rhinitis were significant factors in sleep disruption, especially when sleeping on the back, with all symptoms being worse in the early morning hours.

Respiratory allergy is the result of nasal hypersensitivity or hyperactivity. The lining of the nose and throat swells which prevents correct breathing through the nasal airway and is often worse at night. Symptoms are typically the same as those of allergic rhinitis and can have similar devastating effects on quality of life.

Known causes of respiratory allergy include: dust particles, tobacco smoke (including passive smoking), feather pillows & bedding, dung of house dust mite, pet hair, indoor plants & flowers, perfumes, some household cleaners and paint smells.

Nasal Stuffiness

Nasal stuffiness is another common reason for mouth breathing, because we tend to breathe with our mouths open to compensate for not being able to breathe through our noses. It is essential that you find out what is causing the nasal stuffiness and treat it.

You may also like to try steam inhalation. This traditional remedy is very worthwhile. Alternatively, if your nasal stuffiness persists you may find antihistamines can be very useful. Ask your GP or pharmacist for advice.

Mouth Breather

If you are a ‘mouth breather’ and sleep with your mouth open you will probably snore. When we breathe in through the nose the air passes over the curved part of the soft palate in a gentle flow into the throat without creating unnecessary turbulence. When we breathe in through the mouth however, the air hits the back of the throat ‘head on’ and can create enormous vibrations in the soft tissue.

We probably do not think about ‘how’ we breathe as it is a natural function and happens anyway. However, how we breathe is important especially at night.

During sleep we are designed to breathe through the nose. If for any reason nasal breathing is not possible our body’s self-preservation mechanism forces us to breathe through the mouth. There are several reasons as to why some people find it difficult to breathe through the nose during sleep. Some factors include:

Size of nostrils
Nasal collapse
Nocturnal nasal congestion (rhinitis)
Nasal obstruction (anatomic abnormalities)
These features increase nasal resistance, commonly known simply as ‘nasal resistance’. Nasal resistance may be a contributing factor in the occurrence of sleep disordered breathing and upper airway resistance syndrome.