Question
I’m a 58 12 months old female and am ashamed to confess that I actually have a snoring problem. It’s annoying enough that it keeps my husband up at night. Snoring first began about 10 years ago. Could it’s related to menopause? Or perhaps one other medical problem?
Oh When you sleep, the small muscles that keep the neck open (the back of your throat) loosen up. This allows the tissue to flop into the airway, essentially narrowing the opening. When the airway becomes too narrow, it disrupts the airflow, making it turbulent. This causes the encircling tissue to vibrate, creating the noise we all know as snoring. The source of your snoring relies on where your airway is narrowed.
Women usually tend to snore after menopause, but this shouldn’t be on account of hormonal changes. As we (and that features men) age, most of us gain weight and lose muscle tone. Loss of muscle mass in and across the throat and weight gain contribute to snoring.
If you snore loudly and sleep lots in the course of the day, your snoring could also be greater than a nuisance. The problem may very well be insomnia, or one other variety of sleep problem.
In sleep apnea, the airway closes or the respiration muscles stop moving. Breathing temporarily stops or becomes lighter tons of of times each night. Signs that it’s possible you’ll be sleep deprived include:
- Loud snoring 4 or more times every week
- Someone is telling you that you simply periodically stop respiration or gasp during sleep.
- Daytime sleepiness, similar to daytime sleepiness if you find yourself not busy or energetic, or if you find yourself driving or stopped at a lightweight
- Morning headache
- A big neck (collar size): 16 inches or more in women, 17 inches or more in men
- History of hypertension.
People with untreated sleep apnea have trouble concentrating and usually tend to get into traffic accidents. Untreated sleep deprivation can result in an enlarged heart. If you think you might have sleep apnea, seek advice from your doctor. The usual test to verify the diagnosis is a special sleep study called a polysomnogram. Lifestyle changes, a machine that helps keep the airway open (called CPAP) and (for some people) surgery can all help improve sleep apnea.
Unlike sleep deprivation, snoring has no medical consequences. But it could actually disrupt the connection and make sleeping away from home awkward.
For some people, snoring will be temporary. For example, a chilly or allergies may cause the nasal passages to swell. Exposure to smoke and other fumes causes some people to snore.
Other causes of snoring include:
- An especially large uvula (the cone-shaped tissue that hangs in the back of your throat)
- A deviated septum
- Enlarged tonsils, adenoids (tissue near the tonsils) or tongue
- An extended taste bud (that is the roof of your mouth)
- A really small jaw
- Weakened muscle tone within the tissues surrounding the upper airway
- Excess fat within the neck area, which might reduce the width of the air passage and promote snoring.
There are a number of easy things you’ll be able to attempt to dial down the decibels.
- If you sleep in your back, switch to your side. You can try sewing a tennis ball into the back of your pajamas to forestall it from rolling onto your back.
- Limit alcohol consumption. Alcohol is a muscle relaxant, including the muscles around your throat. Sleeping pills sometimes have an identical effect.
- If you’re chubby, shedding kilos will help. Also, seek advice from your doctor about starting a GLP-1 agonist medication, similar to terceptide (Zipbound).
- Another option is to seek advice from your dentist whether a variety of mouth guard that accommodates the jaw and tongue can prevent snoring.
If none of those give you the results you want, there are some surgical options. If the issue is vibration contained in the nose, correcting a deviated septum will help stop snoring. Or you might have tonsils and adenoids which are too large to be removed. Other procedures, which will not be covered by medical health insurance, include laser therapy or high-frequency radio waves that shrink excess tissue contained in the throat.
Another possibility is palatal implantation, also often known as the pillar procedure. The pillar procedure is finished within the doctor’s office. It takes about quarter-hour and only requires an area anesthetic. The doctor inserts a plastic stent lower than an inch long into the taste bud. Over time, scar tissue forms across the implants. The tissues turn out to be stiffer and there’s less vibration, even when the throat muscles are relaxed during sleep.
Snoring together with your doctor could appear awkward, but it is best to. This is nothing to lie down on.
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