What is Snoring?
Snoring is usually projected as humor in our everyday lives. As a result, you must be familiar with the occasional jibes from your friends and family for snoring. Unfortunately, there’s very little you can do instead of embarrassingly hide your face and smile sheepishly.
Snoring occurs due to blockage in the airways that help pass air through nasal passages throughout sleeping. This tiny air that manages to maneuver into the throat makes the tissues vibrate, producing the snoring sounds.
However, it is essential for you to differentiate sleep apnea from snoring. Sleep apnea is a life-threatening condition, while snoring leaves you tired and irritable throughout the day.
Having understood what snoring is, you will be curious to find out what causes snoring? Of course, like everything, there’s a sound reason why you snore, and a few folks merely don’t. We know the problems snoring might be causing you; therefore, this article makes your job easier by giving you the reasons behind why you snore and provide you with solutions that might cure your sleeping disorder.
What are the Causes behind Snoring?
Gender
Believe it or not, your gender plays a vital role in your snoring tendencies.
Men have air passages that are much narrower than women and even have the propensity to participate in an exceedingly unhealthy lifestyle crammed with smoking and consumption of alcohol, so the possibilities of men being snorers are much more than ladies.
Lifestyle
Frequent smoking and alcohol intake can irritate your throat, which can cause it to narrow. As a result, the free flow of air is blocked, which causes snoring.
Sleep posture
When you sleep flat on your back, your throat muscles are relaxed, resulting in snoring because of the blockage of the airway.
Obesity
People who are overweight or suffer from obesity tend to hold plenty of fat around their throat and have remarkably poor tonus, which causes snoring.
Age
As you age, your tonus keeps decreasing, and your throat becomes significantly narrower, which makes the resonation of air in your throat a lot easier.
Nasal issues or Sinus
If you frequently suffer from Sinus or an infection like sinusitis, you might notice that inhalation becomes troublesome throughout the sleep when you are sick. Thus, a vacuum gets fashioned in your throat, and you end up snoring.
Medications
The muscle relaxation caused by tranquilizers like diazepam and benzodiazepine could be one of the explanations for your snoring.
What is the Natural Solution for Snoring?
Before you resort to surgical procedures to get rid of snoring, here are some natural solutions to control your snores:
Exercise
Not only it offers you a body to die for, but it is also a tried and tested method that can help to stop snoring. Once you start losing weight, the fat tissue around your throat tends to decrease, allowing the neck diameter to expand, which helps with easy breathing while sleeping.
Change your Lifestyle
There are no thanks to saying this: If you need to eliminate snoring, you have to start by ditching smoking and alcohol from your lifestyle altogether. Once airway irritation is over, you may be ready to breathe freely.
Changing your sleep position
Change your sleep position– As a natural remedy for snoring, this is the most sought method.
When going to sleep, try to elevate your head with special pillows for snorers to make breathing easier. Also, try to sleep on your face rather than your back since it helps liberate your airway much more.
Change the Bedroom
No, we aren’t advising you to shift to a unique space altogether; However instead, try to keep the air in your room damp with a humidifier as dry air may cause your throat to shut up, which contributes to snoring.
Also, dust your ceiling fans every week to keep the potential allergens away. Changing your pillows on alternate days will help too.
Clear your Nasal Passage
Nasal decongestants, H2O rinses, and nasal strips help in clearing your nasal passage, especially when you suffer from a sinus, an airway infection, or from the common cold. Once your nose is unclogged, snoring will eventually go away.
Mouthpiece
There are various anti-snoring mouth appliances TSD’s that bring your tongue and jaw forward. These will prevent the tongue (rear part) from falling back into the throat and keep your airway open during sleep.
Sleep Pattern
Keep a consistent sleeping schedule. There are many days where we compromise our sleep to complete watching a whole season of Netflix series then go to bed tired, which results in our muscles becoming all loose and floppy. So by aiming to sleep at the same time every day, you’ll be able to minimize snoring.
Measure your Medication
Try to measure the amount of medication you are taking for sleep. If possible, eliminate the use of sedatives and sleeping pills so the conventional tonus in your throat is maintained.
Drink Water and Alternative fluids
When you are dehydrated, the secretions in your tongue and nose become sticky and abrasive, preventing air from coming in freely.
Bottom Line
Now that you are familiar with the methods to combat snoring use them in daily life, and you will find relief. If it still doesn’t get better, consult your physician, and they will find the root problem and provide solutions with some painless surgical procedures.
After all, sleep disorders like snoring can choose you as their victim. However, it depends on how you take necessary measures and do not let it take over your life!