There’s a good chance you share a bed with someone who snores (maybe it’s you).
Snoring is a common sleep problem, and it can disrupt your night — whether you’re the one snoring or the one listening to it.
By age 60, about half of adults snore when they sleep. It’s more likely in older people, men or people who are overweight.
“Snoring can disrupt your sleep, and your partner’s sleep, causing both of you to wake up feeling tired and irritable,” said Camelia Musleh, MD, a sleep medicine specialist at Endeavor Health. “If someone regularly snores, it’s worth the effort to determine the cause so you can get back to restful sleep.”
Sometimes snoring can be a symptom of a serious problem: obstructive sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea causes lapses in breathing of more than 10 seconds at a time because of narrowed airways.
The narrow or obstructed airway happens when a person’s tongue slides back against their soft palate, which then falls back against their throat, covering the opening to their airway.
These lapses in breathing can prevent you from getting enough sleep, so you feel tired during the day. It can also result in headaches and depression, and, eventually, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke or diabetes.
Your primary care doctor can help determine whether your snoring is caused by obstructive sleep apnea.
How to find quiet
There are things you can do that may help to stop the snoring, including:
- See your doctor. Tell your primary care doctor about your snoring so they can rule out sleep apnea as a cause.
- Lose weight. If you’re overweight or obese, losing weight could reduce snoring as well as lower risk for obstructive sleep apnea.
- Don’t eat a heavy meal or drink alcohol right before bed.
- Try an anti-snoring nasal strip or a mouthpiece.
- Get enough sleep! Being sleep deprived can lead to snoring.
- Sleep on your side, not your back.
If your doctor suspects your snoring is caused by obstructive sleep apnea, they will likely ask you to complete a sleep study.
Sleep studies are simple and painless. A specially trained sleep technologist monitors your brainwaves, eye movement, breathing, blood oxygen levels, heart rate and muscle activity while you sleep comfortably in a private sleep study room at our Sleep Center.
If you are diagnosed with a sleep condition, your doctor will develop a treatment plan that works for you, which may include changes in daily habits, weight reduction, stress management, medications, surgery or other options.
Some doctors recommend sleep apnea patients:
- Use an oral appliance, something a dentist would have fitted to your mouth that would help keep your airway open.
- Use a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which is a mask that fits over your face while you sleep and provides a continuous flow of air to breathe while keeping your airway open.
- Undergo surgery. A surgeon would tighten up excess throat tissue so the airway remains clear. Sometimes a deviated septum can cause snoring, which can also be corrected with surgery.
Everyone needs a good night’s sleep to stay healthy. If you snore or have trouble breathing at night, tell your doctor.
