The Science of Snoring

What has dark circles, bloodshot eyes and cringes at the morning light? Not a zombie or vampire. Me.

I am married to a snorer, and it was a rough night. Not only does snoring increase spousal crabbiness and cause excessive drowsiness, but a snorer’s bedmate may develoup permanent hearing loss from unrelenting exposure to the loud noise.

What causes this nocturnal transformation, making normally unmonstrous citizens emit snorts, growls and other loud, scary noises as they sleep? 

Experts agree that snoring is mostly the result of tissue in the mouth and throat relaxing while we sleep. Air can’t flow smoothly through the resulting smaller passageway and soft tissue (like tonsils and uvula) vibrates, causing noise, especially during inhalation.

Many people are habitual snorers, and some experts think that about ten percent of these have a more serious disorder, called obstructive sleep apnea, which causes sufferers to stop breathing a number of times each night, for around 15 seconds. The resulting oxygen deprivation puts people with obstructive sleep apnea at increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.

Researches aren’t sure why these short bouts of apnea are so destructive, but they think they may be on their way to figuring it out.

Age, weight gain, alcohol consumption, allergies, nasal obstruction, use of muscle relaxants or sedatives and smoking are all risk factors that increase the likeliness that you will snore.

Sadly, poking and prodding a snorer is only a temporary solution.

Non-invasive solutions recommended to prevent snoring include attaching a tennis ball to your back, which forces you to sleep on your side, wearing Breathe-Right strips to open nasal passages, losing weight and managing allergies. Chronic snorers may also turn to surgery or nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) devices, which prevent the tongue and soft palate from collapsing back into the upper airway.

If those treatments aren't appealing, you can always learn to play the digeridoo, which teaches circular breathing and appears to strengthen muscles and "stiffen the airway." Of course, then you have to listen to a digeridoo, which I'm guessing is an aquired taste.

Here in Edina, Fairview has a Sleep Center where snoring-sufferers can seek assistance.

In Scientific American, one author quoted novelist Anthony Burgess as saying, "Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore and you sleep alone."