Aging Begins at 30

Jackhammer Nighttime Noise

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone. Does everyone complain about your snoring? Does it disturb your rest? Snoring is raspy, noisy, breathing during sleep produced by vibration of the soft palate caused primarily by obstruction of smooth air flow in the in the nose or throat. About 20% of people snore (perhaps 45% occasionally), men more than women, but as many as 40% of elderly husbands and 50% of older wives snore. The problem does worsen with age.

The obstruction to breathing may only be an obstructed nose caused by the common cold, hay fever, or the flabby nasal openings of old age or deviated septum of youth. More commonly it is a narrow throat which gets even smaller with sleep relaxation. The tissues at the back of the throat may be bulky or the uvula be too long.

The noisy snorer needs a thorough examination of the nose and throat.

Snoring is associated with an increase in high blood pressure and possibly nighttime lack of oxygen that may increase the chance of heart attack. It also may cause estrangement from your roommate. The main acute complication that can occur is sleep apnea (want of breath), resulting in stopped breathing which lasts more than 10 seconds and occurs 10 or more times each hour. People can have hundreds of obstructions nightly. Disturbed nights can lead to daytime sleepiness, morning headache, lethargy, weight gain, and difficulty concentrating. Sleep apnea affects 5-10% of the population and can lead to the danger of serious heart disease as well as falling asleep while driving to work or operating machinery. These problems can occur in people who appear to breathe normally when awake.

Medical management includes careful examination and a sleep study. Treatment options include adopting regular sleep habits, discontinuing pre-sleep alcohol, no smoking, dieting to lose weight, avoiding large meals in the 3 hour period before sleep, using no sleeping pills, and re-examination of all medications. Sleeping sideways can be encouraged by a tennis ball in a sock pinned to your pajamas between your shoulder blades. You can put bricks under the head-end bed legs. You can help your roommate by letting the non-snorer go to sleep first. Continuous insufflation of air, sometimes under pressure from a face mask,is the treatment of choice for sleep apnea. In a few patients, surgery or outpatient laser surgery may be helpful in enlarging the airway through the nose and throat. There are mouth and nose devices to prevent collapse of the air passages. There are also over 300 patents for various alarms and devices so you can be sure that none work very well.

Sleep is not just time out. It is a programmed restoration of physical strength and mental stamina. Are you an unwelcome roommate? If your snoring can be heard rooms away, you owe yourself a thorough examination. Snoring is not funny, but also it is not hopeless. Snoring can hurt the snorer not just the listener.

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See related Patient Topics Ear, Nose and Throat, Lungs and Breathing or Snoring.

See related Provider Topics Ear, Nose and Throat or Lungs and Breathing.

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