Why do people snore? This is a common question. Let's look into it in more detail.
What is snoring, many people know, but only from the experience of loved ones and relatives, and not by their own example. Very often, a loud snorer does not allow others to rest, which can cause a neurotic disorder and insomnia. In addition, by causing inconvenience to those nearby, a snorer is a danger primarily to himself.
Snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea, in which obstacles appear in the path of air flow. Snoring people do not get enough oxygen during sleep, as a result of which all organs begin to suffer, especially the brain. In some situations, this syndrome can even lead to death. Therefore, it is so important to find out what causes a person to snore.
General information
As already noted, snoring is sleep apnea, which is a cessation of breathing, and in addition,obstruction, that is, an obstacle blocking 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 stopping breathing 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, greatly increasing the risk of all kinds of severe heart rhythm disturbances. In this case, the development of a stroke, myocardial infarction or sudden death, which can occur during sleep, cannot be ruled out.
Why a person snores is of interest to many.
Symptoms of appearance
The main symptom is the presence of snoring itself. The first to note this phenomenon is a relative who is next to the snoring person and who does not sleep at this time. The snorer may thus experience brief pauses in breathing. At the same time, the snoring suddenly stops, after which the sleeper sobs loudly again, turning to the other side, and again starting to breathe. All these signs serve as symptoms of a disease that can lead to an excessive number of various 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 is a diseasecharacterized by a violation of the passage of air flows through the respiratory tract. 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 the soft tissue of the throat vibrating when the passage of air is obstructed. After about half a minute, a forced breath occurs, due to which breathing returns to normal. So it turns out that a person snores in a dream. The reasons are listed below.
Mechanism
Such a mechanism is determined by the specific structure of the soft tissue of the pharynx. A characteristic sound is formed by means of vibrating tissues of the soft palate, which, as it were, hangs too much. What kind of people snore? The severity of the pathology directly depends on a number of the following concomitant causes:
- Narrow space of nasal passages and pharynx from birth.
- Difficult nasal breathing due to chronic rhinitis. In addition, this may occur due to the curvature of the nasal septum.
- Presence of nasal polyps.
- Development of hypertrophy of palatine and pharyngeal tonsils.
- Displacement of the lower jaw in combination with malocclusion.
- Irregularly elongated uvula.
- Having bad habits such as smoking along with alcohol abuse.
- Being overweight.
The use of sedatives, sleeping pills and alcoholic beverages in combination with sleeping on the back contributes to the development of the disease. That's why a person snores.
Baby snoring
It should be emphasized that not only adults can snore, but also children. The most common cause of children's snoring is the enlargement of the tonsils and adenoids. In addition, snoring in children may be the result of nasal congestion, and it does not matter whether it is acute or chronic. All sorts of anomalies 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 a doctor.
Sleep Apnea
In especially difficult situations, babies can experience sleep apnea, that is, breathing stops for a while. In this case, you need to immediately consult a doctor to assess how seriously your breathing is disturbed. It is also important to determine the further method of therapy for sleep apnea. What to do if a person snores, not everyone knows.
Existing disturbances in breathing during sleep can trigger the development of various symptoms that, if not carefully studied, seem unrelated to sleep apnea and snoring. Against this background, the behavior of children may change: they become naughty, capricious, they have complaints of fatigue, and school performance falls. In addition, the child may sleep restlessly and wake up quite often. In some situations, nocturnal enuresis is possible. In addition to this, growth retardation may occur, which occurs due to growth hormone deficiency. This hormone is produced mainly at night and duringgreatly contributes to the growth of children. Against the background of sleep disturbance, like the situation with snoring and sleep apnea, its production is reduced.
What to do so that a person does not snore? More on that later.
Snoring Prevention
To prevent snoring and sleep apnea, the following rules must be observed:
- Regularly screen for upper respiratory pathologies such as chronic rhinitis, along with deviated septum, lingual, palatine, and pharyngeal tonsil hypertrophy, especially common in childhood. All this requires treatment. What else can you do to prevent a person from snoring?
- You should stop smoking, while also trying 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 at bedtime.
- People should sleep 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. After all, ignoring the problem can be fraught with consequences.
Snoring and its complications
If at the time of sleep an insufficient amount of oxygen enters the lungs and blood of a person, during the day a person may become irritable, he will experience drowsiness, and there will also be a decrease in memory, and headaches may bother you in the morning. In the event that snoring iscontinue for a long time, a person may develop arterial hypertension along with a violation of the production of hormones, which will lead to a decrease in libido, and in addition, to obesity. A more serious complication can be myocardial infarction along with heart rhythm disturbance and stroke, up to the onset of a sudden death directly during sleep.
Hypoxia
One of the main mechanisms is lack of oxygen with hypoxia. The mechanism is elementary: against the background of respiratory arrest, the supply of oxygen to the lungs stops, 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 the presence of air drops to such a limit that in a hospital, doctors decide on the need for resuscitation. In some cases, such a condition can be observed by relatives of a snoring person, when in front of them he begins to turn blue.
The brain instantly reacts to the drop in oxygen levels in the blood and sends a signal to wake up, thus starting the mechanism of sleep fragmentation. Ideally, each person's sleep 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 a decrease in blood pressure that most of the hormones necessary for the quality functioning of the entire human body are produced.organism.
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. This is why a person snores when lying on his back.
Another mechanism that increases blood pressure is a sharp drop in intrathoracic pressure. Considering that the airways are blocked at the level of the laryngopharynx, and the chest is trying harder and harder to somehow capture a breath of air, an area of discharged pressure appears. The process of sucking blood into a kind of vacuum trap starts. Blood coming from the periphery and extremities accumulates mainly in the chest, which causes an excessive load on the heart.
Diagnosis of snoring
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:
- Oral airflow.
- Hemoglobin saturation in blood.
- Chest movement.
- Heart rate.
The number of apneas is also recorded along with their maximum and average duration. Based on the data obtained, it is possible to draw a conclusion about the patient's condition and build a competent treatment for this.diseases.
What to do when a person snores heavily in his sleep?
Snoring treatment
As a rule, surgical intervention produces a significant effect. In the presence of snoring, it is necessary to normalize nasal breathing, therefore, 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 the 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 region of the tongue, due to which the airway lumen slightly increases. Then, by means of an electrocoagulator with a laser, a burn is made to the sky, so that in the future it will heal and wrinkle. As a result, the palatal 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 the operation? You can turn to traditional medicine.
Folk treatment for snoring
Traditional medicine recommends the following methods.
- In the morning and in the evening, you need to pronounce the sound “and” thirty times. During this exercise, the muscles of the soft palate, pharynx and neck must be tensed.
- You can also do an exercise to strengthen the veil of the palate: close your mouth, breathe through your nose, tighten your backthe wall of the tongue and forcefully pull it towards the throat. Touching at this moment with your fingers to the point under the chin, you can feel muscle tension. The number of tongue movements is about ten to fifteen. As a result, snoring disappears.
- Another recipe: for half a liter of boiling water take a tablespoon of oak bark and the same amount of calendula flowers. Then cover with a lid and insist for two hours. You need to rinse your throat after eating, as well as before going to bed.
Just understanding why a person snores is not enough. This is a serious violation that must be de alt with.
