Why do we snore?
There are many contributing factors to why you may snore. Some of the most common are weight, age, nasal congestion and anatomical factors. These lead to a narrowing of the airway, which causes the vibration known as snoring.
You can see a list of the top causes of snoring which goes into more detail here.
What are the health risks of snoring?
- Low oxygen levels in blood
- If you're not breathing regularly your body isn't getting the levels of oxygen in the blood stream that it needs. This can cause constricted blood vessels in the lungs, which may lead to pulmonary hypertension if left untreated.
- Stroke
- If your snores resemble the rumbles of a stock car engine every night, check what’s really happening under the hood. Snoring puts you at a 26 percent greater risk of stroke, finds a recent Chinese study.
- Researchers believe plaque buildup in the arteries may play a role in the development of both heavy snoring and stroke. What’s more, people who snore also tend to carry more extra pounds than sound sleepers—and obesity may raise your risk of stroke, too.
- Memory issues
- Researchers believe plaque buildup in the arteries may play a role in the development of both heavy snoring and stroke. What’s more, people who snore also tend to carry more extra pounds than sound sleepers—and obesity may raise your risk of stroke, too.
- Researchers believe plaque buildup in the arteries may play a role in the development of both heavy snoring and stroke. What’s more, people who snore also tend to carry more extra pounds than sound sleepers—and obesity may raise your risk of stroke, too.
- Heart strain
- Untreated obstructed sleep apnea often results in high blood pressure, which can lead to an increase in heart size creating a higher risk for heart attacks and strokes.
- Irregular heart beat
- People with long-term snoring or sleep apnea risk developing an irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia. Researchers have found that people with sleep apnea are more likely to have episodes of atrial fibrillation, the most common type of arrhythmia, than people without it or people whose apnea is treated with CPAP. Apnea may affect the conductive system of the heart, says Doghramji. Or it might be more common because obstructive sleep apnea appears to enlarge the left atrium over a long period of time.
- People with sleep apnea run the risk of a higher chance of having cardiac arrhythmias, most commonly of which is atrial fibrilation. These are fluctuations in the hearts natural rhythm in which the heart may beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. While arrhythmias are common and often nonthreatening, when they are coupled with sleep apnea they can be cause for serious cardiac concern.
- GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease)
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is very common in people with sleep apnea, Doghramji says. People who have sleep apnea also may have GERD because of the disordered way in which their throat closes while air moves in and out during sleep, causing pressure changes that can suck the contents of their stomach back up into the esophagus. Both GERD and sleep apnea are related to being overweight and both seem to ease as people return to a normal weight.
- Injury resulting from sleep deprivation
- This is one of the more serious dangers of sleep deprivation caused by snoring or sleep apnea. Daytime sleepiness can be so intense that it puts you and the people around you at risk, says Doghramji. If snoring or sleep apnea is leaving you exhausted, you run the risk of falling asleep, perhaps while driving. An analysis of health information and driving data for 618 adults over 10 years showed that the sleepier people felt during the day, the greater their risk for a car accident. The risk was also greater if people were driving alone.
- Mental health issues
- Sleep apnea can affect your mental well-being, leading to issues from crankiness from a lack of sleep to serious depression, Doghramji says. In fact, the link between sleep apnea, snoring, and depression is well established. A recent study of 74 snorers showed that the more daytime sleepiness people report, the greater their chances of also having mild depression or anxiety symptoms. Researchers are still untangling this relationship, but treating sleep apnea does seem to help ease depression.
- About 50 percent of people who snore report symptoms of depression, finds an Australian study.
- Headache
- Do you often wake up with a headache? It’s not just from your spouse complaining about your snoring. According to a recently published study of 268 people who were habitual snorers, researchers found a connection between frequent morning headaches and sleep disorders including insomnia and sleep apnea. Not surprisingly, snorers with frequent headaches reported a lower quality of life than those whose heads do not hurt.
- Snorers often report frequent morning headaches, which are due to the alterations in the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.
- Waking up to use the bathroom
- Getting up to use the bathroom two or more times a night is a condition called nocturia. For some people, this includes a loss of bladder control. It is also linked with snoring in both men and women. Research suggests that men over the age of 55 who wake up often to urinate may have both benign prostate enlargement and obstructive sleep apnea. Another study showed a strong link between the two conditions.
- If you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea and have frequent interruptions in breathing, you may not even realize that you frequently wake from sleep as your body is startled by the lack of oxygen causing you to wake and thus disrupting your sleeping cycles.
- Less sexual satisfaction
- A study of 827 older men found that the more and the louder they snored, the more likely they were to report lower levels of sexual satisfaction, even though a clinical analysis of their health did not show physiological signs of reduced sexual response. Many people are so affected by their snoring that they don’t have the desire for intimate relations with their spouse, explains Doghramji. Treatment for sleep disorders can usually get you back into the game.
- Bad breathing can knock the wind out of your sails. Sleep apnea is strongly associated with erectile dysfunction, according to a study from the University of Rome.
- Guys who snore heavily are two times more likely to have lower sexual satisfaction compared to those who sleep quietly, finds a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
- Fetal complications
- Snoring during the last trimester of pregnancy is usually due to weight gain. Of greater concern, says Doghramji, is that this snoring is also accompanied by an increased risk for fetal complications. The connection isn’t clear yet, but it might not be surprising given the way that interrupted sleep appears to negatively affect almost every aspect of health. Women who snore loudly during pregnancy should talk to their family doctor or ob-gyn.
How does snoring impact blood flow?
According to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, snoring may put you at a greater risk than those who are overweight, smoke or have high cholesterol to have thickening or abnormalities in the carotid artery, according to researchers at.
There are two common carotid arteries, located on each side of the neck, that divide into the internal and external carotid arteries. The external carotid artery provides blood supply to the scalp, face, and neck while the internal carotid artery supplies blood to the brain. (source)
