Why does a person snore? This is a common question. We will understand it in more detail.
What is snoring, many people know, but only from the experience of relatives and relatives, and not by example. Very often, a loud snoring person does not allow others to relax, which can cause a neurotic disorder and insomnia. In addition, causing inconvenience to those nearby, a snoring person is a danger primarily for himself.
Snoring is a symptom of apnea syndrome, in which obstacles appear in the air flow. Snoring people do not receive enough oxygen during sleep, as a result of which all organs, especially the brain, begin to suffer. In some situations, such a syndrome can even lead to death. Therefore, it is so important to find out what a person snores from.
General information
As already noted, snoring is sleep apnea, which is respiratory arrest, and in addition, obstruction, that is, an obstruction that blocks the air flow. In this regard, we can say that snoring is a pathology, the symptoms of which can be observed in every fifth inhabitant of the planet over the age of thirty. In the process, when a person is resting, in addition to the specific sounds of snoring, there are cases of respiratory arrest for a short time. In some situations, the number of such stops per night can reach three hundred. This can, in turn, lead to a constant lack of oxygen at night, significantly increasing the risk of all kinds of severe disturbances in the heart rhythm. At the same time, the development of a stroke, myocardial infarction or sudden death, which can occur during sleep, is not excluded.
Why a person snores, interests many.
Symptoms of occurrence
The main symptom is the presence of snoring itself. The first who notes this phenomenon is a relative who is next to a snoring person who is not sleeping at this time. In snoring, thus, short breath stops can be noted. At the same time, the snoring suddenly stops, after which the sleeping one again sobs loudly, turning on the other side, and again begins to breathe. All these signs are symptoms of a disease that can lead to an excessive number of all kinds of complications that can reduce a person’s quality of life.
So what makes a person snore? Let's figure it out together.
Causes of snoring
As mentioned above, sleep apnea syndrome is a disease characterized by impaired airflow through the respiratory tract. At the moment when a person falls asleep, the muscles relax. As a result of all this, the movement of the air stream is blocked. Snoring is the result of vibration of the soft tissue of the pharynx when air is obstructed. After about half a minute, a forced breath occurs, due to which breathing returns to normal again. It turns out that a person snores in a dream. The reasons are listed below.
Mechanism
A similar mechanism is due to the specific structure of the soft tissue of the pharynx. A characteristic sound is formed by the vibrating tissues of the soft palate, which, as it were, are too overhanging. What kind of people snore? The severity of the pathology depends on a number of the following related causes:
- The narrow space of the nasal passages and pharynx from birth.
- Difficult nasal breathing in the presence of chronic rhinitis. In addition, this can occur due to the curvature of the nasal septum.
- The presence of polyps in the nose.
- The development of hypertrophy of the palatine and pharyngeal tonsils.
- Lower jaw displacement combined with malocclusion.
- Non-standard elongated palatine uvula.
- The presence of bad habits, such as smoking, along with the abuse of alcohol.
- The presence of excess weight.
The use of sedatives, sleeping pills and alcoholic beverages in combination with sleep on the back contributes to the development of the disease. That is why man snores.
Baby snoring
It should be emphasized that not only adults can snore, but also children. The most common cause of childhood snoring is an increase in tonsils and adenoids. In addition, snoring in children can be a consequence of nasal congestion, and it does not matter if it is acute or chronic. All sorts of abnormalities in the bone structure of the face can also contribute to this. Contributes to the occurrence of snoring in children and the curvature of the nasal septum, which is accompanied by a blockage of nasal breathing. How to cure snoring in a child, it is better to check with your doctor.
Sleep apnea
In especially difficult situations, babies may experience sleep apnea, that is, breathing stops for a short time. In this case, you must immediately consult a doctor to assess how seriously your breathing is broken. It is also important to determine the further methodology for the treatment of apnea syndrome. What to do if a person snores, not everyone knows.
Existing breathing problems during sleep can trigger the development of various symptoms that, if studied inappropriately, seem unrelated to apnea and snoring. Against this background, the behavior of children can change: they become naughty, capricious, they have complaints of fatigue, and school performance is falling. In addition, the child can sleep restlessly and wake up quite often. In some situations, nocturnal enuresis is not ruled out. In addition to this, growth retardation may occur due to a deficiency of growth hormone. This hormone is produced mainly at night and in many respects promotes the growth of children. Against the background of sleep disturbance, like the situation with snoring and apnea, its production is reduced.
What to do to prevent people snoring? About it further.
Snoring Prevention
For the prevention of snoring and apnea syndrome, the following rules must be observed:
- Regularly undergo an examination to identify pathologies of the upper respiratory tract, for example, chronic rhinitis, along with a curvature of the nasal septum, hypertrophy of the lingual, palatine, and pharyngeal tonsils, which is especially common in childhood. All this requires treatment. What else to do so that a person does not snore?
- You should give up smoking, trying, in addition, to maintain a normal weight.
- In the event that the symptoms of the pathology have already manifested, it is recommended to stop taking sedatives and sedatives, alcoholic beverages, especially before bedtime.
- People should sleep in a position on their side. In this case, the head should always be in a position above the body.
It is important to find out in advance how to cure snoring. Indeed, ignoring the problem can be fraught with consequences.
Snoring and its complications
If an insufficient amount of oxygen enters the lungs and blood of a person at the time of sleep, the person may become irritable during the day, he will experience drowsiness, as well as a decrease in memory, and headaches may bother in the morning. In the event that snoring will continue for a long time, a person may develop arterial hypertension along with impaired hormone production, which will lead to a decrease in libido, and in addition to obesity. A more serious complication can be myocardial infarction along with a violation of the heart rhythm and stroke, right up to the onset of a sudden death directly during sleep.
Hypoxia
One of the main mechanisms is the lack of oxygen with hypoxia. The mechanism is elementary: against the background of respiratory arrest, the supply of oxygen to the lungs ceases, but, despite this, the body still needs it. This means that the level of oxygen in the blood is slowly decreasing. In some situations, the indicator of air availability drops to such a limit that in a hospital setting, doctors decide on the need for resuscitation. In some cases, this condition can be observed by relatives of a snoring person, when with them he begins to turn blue before his eyes.
The brain instantly reacts to a drop in the level of oxygen in the blood and sends a signal to wake up, while the mechanism of fragmentation of sleep starts. Ideally, a dream in each person has a certain structure. It is divided into several phases. In the event that a person wakes up often, the brain will not be able to move into deeper phases. It is as a result of muscle relaxation and lowering blood pressure that the majority of hormones are produced that are necessary for the quality functioning of the entire human body.
With frequent awakening, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. The heart rate immediately increases, and blood pressure, in turn, rises. In this case, the appearance of various cardiac arrhythmias is possible. That is why a person snores while lying on his back.
Another mechanism that increases blood pressure is a sharp drop in intrathoracic pressure. Given that there is a blockage of the airways at the level of the larynx, and the chest is trying more and more to somehow take a breath of air, an area of discharged pressure appears. The process of sucking blood into a kind of vacuum trap starts. Blood flowing from the periphery and extremities accumulates mainly in the chest, which causes an excessive load on the heart.
Snoring Diagnosis
To make a diagnosis, you need to talk with the patient, as well as talk with his immediate environment. In addition, there is a rather complicated, but objective study - polysomnography. This study tracks several indicators:
- Nasal air flow.
- Blood saturation with hemoglobin.
- The movement of the chest.
- Heart rate.
They also record the amount of apnea along with their maximum and average duration. Based on the obtained data, we can conclude about the patient's condition and build a competent treatment for this disease.
What to do when a person snores heavily in a dream?
Snoring Treatment
As a rule, surgical intervention produces a significant effect. If there is snoring, it is necessary to normalize nasal breathing, so if necessary, an operation is performed to eliminate the cause of chronic rhinitis or curvature of the nasal septum. In the event that such measures do not help, plastic surgery is performed on a soft palate. This operation is called uvulopalatopharyngoplasty.
There are several options for its execution: it is made using an electrocoagulator along with a scalpel and a laser. In the event that the palatine curtain is lowered, a small part of it is removed in the area of the tongue, due to this, the airway clearance is slightly increased. Then, by means of an electrocoagulator with a laser, a burn of the sky is made so that in the future it heals and wrinkles. As a result, the palatine curtain, which previously hung down, is pulled up, due to which there is an increase in the clearance for the flow of the air stream.
What to do if a person snores, but does not agree to an operation? You can turn to traditional medicine.
Alternative treatment for snoring
Traditional medicine recommends the following methods.
- In the morning and evening, thirty times you need to pronounce the sound "and." During this exercise, the muscles of the soft palate, pharynx, and neck must be tensed.
- You can also conduct an exercise to strengthen the palatine curtain: the mouth is closed, breathing through the nose, the back wall of the tongue is strained and it is pulled to the throat with effort. Touching at this moment with your fingers to the point under the chin, you can feel the muscle tension. The number of movements of the tongue is about ten to fifteen. As a result, snoring disappears.
- Another recipe: take a tablespoon of oak bark and half the amount of calendula flowers for half a liter of boiling water. Then cover and insist for two hours. It is necessary to rinse a throat after food, and also before going to bed.
Just understanding why a person snores is not enough. This is a serious violation that must be fought.