Causes Of Snoring
For people who snore too much, the question usually comes to what is the cause? The answer is about as elusive as the cause, simply because there are so many factors involved in contributing to the bigger problem.
Snoring, as defined by medical practitioners, is the noise caused by vibration from the airways of the respiratory tract. Furthermore, this only occurs during sleep.
With this definition, another question arises--and that is, why does snoring happen only during restful moments?
The likelihood that one snores during waking hours is practically nil, due to the factor that only relaxed muscles can result to snoring.
Our voluntary muscles are relaxed during sleep, and this includes the throat. The fact that tissues in the throat are soft, adds to the eventual output of vibrating sounds.
Once this tissues ease, the passage of air will become narrower. If you notice during a typhoon or hurricane, the little cracks under your windows cause a loud howling sound from the strong winds outside. In the same manner, the narrowed passage caused by the relaxed tissues make louder noise.
It may come as no surprise then that these same factors are the reasons why there are differences in the loudness, pitch and tone of snores.
Similar to the example of the typhoon above, the loudness of snore is affected by the force of the wind that comes through the air passages. Therefore, when the speed of wind is faster, the snore, in general, is louder and more resonant. This is also the reason why babies to snore too. However, theirs is not typically considered snoring but only as mild noises created by the respiratory tract. This must not be ignored though since it may be the early sign that something is jammed in your child's respiration tunnel.
While it may appear to that both genders of any age snore, men are more often affected by this condition than women. Middle-aged men are most likely to be the victims due to the reason that men have more fleshy necks since theirs are a bit wider than women's. This factor combined with the speed of air results in more snoring.
Women by nature produce progesterone hormones which is known to inhibit snoring. Thus women are less susceptible towards snoring. Because this actual hormone helps in relieving a person from these nocturnal wind-driven noises, some anti-snoring devices are known to use progesterone as their basic ingredient.
Lifestyle and health factors also contribute to snoring. These include:
- Allergies that cause clogs in the air paths.
- Drying of the nasal cavities due to several elements including allergy medications.
- Cold and flu, this explains why some people only experience snoring when they are sick.
- Excessive intake of alcohol.
- Thickening of the tissues along the nasal passage. Often, surgeries done on conditions not directly related to snoring can also contribute to the frequency and intensity of the snores.
- Abnormally large belly or guts.
- Irritation of the air passages due to overuse of nasal sprays.
- Abnormal enlargement of the tonsils or the adenoids.
- Smoking which causes inflammation in the air passages.
- Swelling of the thyroid gland or goiter.
- Blockage of the airflow due to large tongue.
- Medications that initiate relaxation
- Obesity
- Inefficient neural control on the nasal membranes.
