What Causes Snoring, and What You Can Do to Stop

Snoring is disruptive and can sometimes wake up you or your partner. There are different reasons why people may snore. Snoring is common for many adults. Over 45% of adults occasionally snore without having any underlying health conditions.

While snoring may not be a cause for concern for some, it can indicate severe health conditions for others. The most common reasons are body anatomy, weight, and sleep disorders.

Depending on the cause, there are a few things you can do to put an end to your snoring. First, let’s talk about some leading causes of chronic snoring.

Why do people snore?

The sound of snoring occurs when air doesn’t move freely through the nose and throat while sleeping. Snoring can sometimes be nothing to worry about, but it is still essential to understand where it derives from. As you drift off to sleep, the soft palate, tongue, and throat all relax. Once the tissues become relaxed, they can block part of the airway. The tissues in the mouth then vibrate when air tries to find its way through, creating a snore.

Snoring can keep you and those around you awake at night, ruining the quality of rest you receive. This can lead to fatigue throughout the day, irritability, and a higher risk for other health problems.

There are many reasons for what may cause snoring, but here are a few of the most common:

Congestion

A stuffed, blocked, or congested nose is one of the most common causes of snoring. Some people may not be able to realize that they snore because they are in a deep sleep. You may be able to gauge whether or not you snore by your ability to breathe while you’re awake but in a relaxed state. If you cannot breathe through your nose and can only breathe through your mouth, you most likely will snore throughout the night because your nasal passages are blocked.

If congestion is the cause of your snoring, you can do a few things to alleviate the nasal congestion. You may realize nasal congestion worsens when you lie down because when you’re sitting up throughout the day, gravity helps drain the nasal cavity. Once you lay down, the drainage stops.

You can try positioning your pillows so that your head remains elevated. This will allow gravity to work and help you get a good night’s rest.

Some people may have a saline nose spray they use to open up their blocked airways. You can also try home remedies to help with a stuffy nose. Placing a damp, warm cloth over your face as you sleep is an excellent option for people with nasal and sinus problems. The relief may be temporary, but it is handy for situations where the congestion is unbearable.

Using steam

Steam is an excellent option for congestion. Another home remedy that many people use is breathing in steam from a shower or pot of warm water. Steam helps decrease congestion by thinning out the mucus so it can drain quickly. If you have more inflammation than mucus, steam can help soothe the passageways.

Humidifiers

Using a humidifier in your sleep environment may also help. Dry air is known to cause congestion for a lot of people. A humidifier will help add moisture to the atmosphere, open up nasal airways, and help you relax.

Personal Anatomy

Sometimes, snoring is simply a matter of anatomy—features of the head and neck and how they may cause snoring vary. If you have a soft palate that is low and thick, it is more likely that it will block the airway when you sleep. As mentioned, the deeper you sleep, the more relaxed your mouth becomes. This can cause you to snore.

Another reason for snoring based on personal anatomy is a deviated septum. This condition is when the wall between the nostrils is crooked or bent towards one side. This can cause chronic snoring for many people.

Other anatomical reasons for snoring include, but are not limited to:

• Nasal polyps
• Jaw structure
• Enlarged tongue

If anatomy is the case for you, the only way to fix your snoring problem is with surgical treatments or dental devices. A mouthguard may help open up the jaw and increase airflow as you sleep. A mouthguard will provide the same result for surgery, which is more of a permanent fix.

Weight

Weight can also be a significant cause of snoring. Excess weight and snoring can both feed off of each other. In other words, obesity can cause snoring, and snoring can cause obesity. If you snore, the quality of sleep you get can be decreased. This inadvertently leads to heightened cravings throughout the day and lower metabolism. Hormones like ghrelin and leptin may also be thrown off balance. These hormones cause you to still feel hungry, even after eating a good amount of food.

People who are overweight may have extra tissue in the throat, creating a long, soft palate. When lying down or even sitting up, they can have problems with breathing. Laying down relaxes and softens the excess throat tissue.

Obesity is one of the leading causes for people with obstructive sleep apnea (more on this later). Neck fat compresses the airway and makes it almost impossible for snoring not to develop.

While neck fat can regularly block the airway for obese people, other areas of fat can cause sleep apnea and snoring. Fat in the midriff and chest can make matters worse. This is because the belly and midriff fat presses up against the diaphragm. The fat on the chest also begins to compress the ribcage. When these two occur, it can shrink the volume of the lungs. This causes the airflow to decrease because not enough air is passing through the lungs to prevent them from collapsing.

How your sex determines weight distribution:

The way that fat is distributed throughout the body depends on your sex. Men tend to carry more fat in their stomach, chest, and neck areas. On the other hand, women see more weight in the buttocks, hips, and thighs. This makes men more likely to snore due to weight and fat distribution.

What you can do about weight and snoring:

Of course, weight loss may help improve your snoring problem. Some studies show that weight loss can affect snoring, depending on the person. You may lose weight in your body, and the tissue structure in your mouth still obstructs your airway.

If this is the case for you, performing mouth exercises can be a great addition:

Oropharyngeal and tongue exercises

• Oropharyngeal exercises are non-invasive exercises that people with sleep apnea can perform to alleviate their condition.
• Tongue exercises use a similar technique. The body comprises muscles, and you should try working each muscle as much as possible. Exercising the tongue muscle not only helps with snoring but speech

Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine can improve poor muscle tone and bulky throat tissue.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder or condition in which breathing pauses and starts while you sleep. This is a serious sleep disorder, and health conditions can appear in people of all ages, including children. Some factors increase the risk of sleep apnea:

• A narrowed airway
• Neck structure
• Weight
• Age
• Medical conditions and more

There are different types of sleep apnea. Sometimes, diagnosing the correct type may be difficult, as they can share the same symptoms. To better understand them, here is a breakdown:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is the most common form of sleep apnea. This is a condition in which the muscles in the back of the throat relax too much to allow you to breathe normally. These muscles support mouth areas like the tongue, tonsils, and soft palate. The airways may become narrow, decreasing the supply of oxygen.

When this happens, your brain senses your inability to breathe and stops sleeping briefly. This stoppage can be so quick that you don’t even notice or remember waking up. People with this condition may wake up feeling unable to breathe.

Treatment

The only way to treat OSA is to fix the obstruction blocking the airway. Some people may notice a difference just by changing their sleep position. Others found that losing weight and being more physically active helped reduce symptoms.

There are also options like sleep medicine, devices for the mouth, and neck surgery. You should seek advice from your doctor on which treatment option is best for you.

Central Sleep Apnea

This type of Sleep Apnea disrupts breathing while sleeping. The difference is that the cause of the breathing disruptions differs from obstructive sleep apnea. With OSA, there is an obstruction blocking the airways. With central sleep apnea, the cause is neurological.

In this case, the brain and nervous system don’t send consistent signals to remind you to breathe. People with central sleep apnea may realize they wake up with shortness of breath and the addition of other sleep disorders, like insomnia and sleep deprivation.

Central sleep apnea may be complex for doctors to determine the cause. Some of the most common causes are:

• Congestive heart failure
• Drugs (sedatives)
• Sleeping at high altitudes

Family history

Treatment

The treatments are similar to those for OSA. People with this condition may also consider using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. This machine uses a mask to deliver air pressure so the airway passages remain open as you sleep.

Complex Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Complex sleep apnea syndrome is a combination of the first two types of this sleeping condition. This condition may not be as easy to diagnose. Most times, it’s caught after no improvement is seen from using the CPAP machine or other treatments.

Some of the symptoms are similar to OSA symptoms:

• Waking up from sleep
• Fatigue during the day
• Insomnia or poor sleep quality

Other common reasons for snoring:

Alcohol intake

Drinking alcohol before bed can trigger snoring because it contributes to the relaxation of the throat muscles. These muscles close faster when you are intoxicated rather than sober.

Sleeping position

If you sleep on your back, the force of gravity makes it more likely that tissue will obstruct your airway. If this is the case for you, try elevating your head at least four inches. You can do this with a wedge pillow or by adequately positioning yourself while resting.

Hypothyroidism

This is a condition where the thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough of the thyroid hormone. This can lead to a swollen face, a hoarse voice, slow speech, and, sometimes, snoring. Luckily, hypothyroidism can be cured with medications that stop thyroid deficiency.

Conclusion

Snoring can take away from you and your partner’s sleep, but it doesn’t have to. Creating a proper routine and seeking advice from a professional can grant you quiet nights and help you stop snoring.

Getting more and better quality sleep can also prevent snoring. If you struggle with falling asleep at a reasonable time, try some of the meditations on BetterSleep. Regular meditation will relax and prepare you for a better night’s sleep.