What Causes Snoring

When we say that snoring is one of the most irritating aspect of sleep, we take into consideration the condition of the person who snores as well as the person who has to sleep with the person who snores. Even you must have come across a person whose snoring can be heard across the rooms. The tragedy here is that the 'concerned' person at times doesn't even realize that his loud snoring tends to disturb other people, and if you are one of those 'other people' who get disturbed you can't help but keep wondering what causes snoring and how to stop it. Before we move on to the details about the various causes of snoring, let's scan through some general facts about this annoying sleep disorder.

Lesser Known Facts about Snoring

Snoring can be broadly classified into two categories - occasional snoring and habitual snoring. Going by the statistics, approximately 45 percent of the people snore occasionally, while as many as 25 percent are habitual snorers. That being said, the chances of you making it to one of these groups can't be overruled, and you won't even realize that you snore unless someone makes it a point to tell you to stop snoring. Even though age or gender are no bar when it comes to snoring, trends suggest that a person's tendency to snore increases with age. Similarly, overweight people are more likely to suffer from this health problem as opposed to healthy people. In several cases, snoring is a symptom of some underlying health problem and therefore, it shouldn't be taken lightly.

What Causes Snoring?

The annoying sound that we refer to as snoring is produced as a result of the vibrations of soft tissues located at the back of our throat. Generally, when we sleep the muscles in the roof of our mouth, tongue and throat relax. As a result of relaxation, these muscles become more susceptible to vibration, which in turn obstructs the airways. If the person has narrow airways the force at which the air flows increases, and this in turn increases the vibration and results in loud snoring. Even though men are more prone to snoring than women it is very difficult to differentiate between what causes snoring in men and what causes snoring in women. Simply put, obstruction of the airways is the main cause when it comes to snoring. This obstruction of airways can be attributed to various factors, the most prominent among which are given below.

Poor Muscle Tone which Causes Vibration
As we mentioned earlier, the muscles in our mouth relax when we are in deep sleep. In some people they tend to relax to such an extent that they start vibrating and result in snoring. The relaxation of muscles to the extent of causing snoring can also be attributed to poor muscle tone in the throat and tongue, and the person's tendency to snore as he starts aging hints at this very fact. This, however, doesn't mean that poor muscle tone is only caused due to aging, as it can be also attributed to consumption of alcohol before sleeping.

Medical Conditions which Obstruct Airways
There exist some medical conditions which can trigger the annoying habit of snoring. These medical conditions may range from simple cold, which results in stuffy nose, to relatively serious conditions such as sleep apnea, i.e. suspension of external breathing during sleep. The fact that many people tend to face the problem of snoring only during allergy season also means that certain allergies can obstruct airways and cause snoring. Similar condition is also observed in people suffering from sinus infection. All being said, the most common health problem which is known to cause snoring is obesity. In overweight people, accumulation of excess fat near the throat contributes to obstruction of airways and results in snoring.

Anatomical Features which Cause Snoring
If you are not able to relate to any of the aforementioned causes of snoring, the problem may be lying with the anatomical features of the person itself. Some of these features include relatively larger tongue or palate, thick neck, weak glossopharyngeal nerve etc. There also exist some deformities of the nose, such as deviated septum and nasal polyps which have the tendency of obstructing the airways and cause nasal snoring.

Going through this information about what causes snoring must have made you realize that snoring is quite a serious issue, which has to be handled properly. Snoring remedies depend on the underlying causes of this sleeping problem. For instance, some people start snoring when they sleep on their back. For such people the best way to stop snoring is to avoid sleeping on their back. More serious measures of snoring treatment include use of oral appliances, palatal implants, CPAP mask etc. In some cases, the person may be left with no option but to opt for a surgery. This, however, is considered to be the last resort as snoring tends to affect the day-to-day life of the person and the other measures of tackling this problem don't yield any positive results.