Obstructive Sleep Apnea - Diagnosis & Treatment
Surgery - Sleep Apnea &
Snoring
Snoring and Pregnancy
FAQs
Snoring Myth
Snoring Celebrities
Your Snoring Experiences
Whether you snore or not and how loudly you snore
partly depends on your anatomy. Having a long soft palate and/or uvula
will cause greater obstruction and restrict airflow from the nose into the throat. Abnormal jaw structure and nasal
abnormalities such as deviation of the septum could give rise to snoring.
Surgery would be an option for such conditions.
Snoring is less common in children
compared to adults but more likely to occur in the pre-school years. A
prevalence rate of children suffering obstructive sleep apnea is quoted at
around 1 – 2 % in westernized countries¹.
The presence of enlarged adenoids or tonsils, obesity or cranio-facial
abnormalities are the classic causes in this group. But new research has
discovered that snoring is part of the spectrum of childhood allergic
diseases. So whilst snoring sounds similar in adults
and children it can have quite different causes ². If your child snores
get them checked out.
Treatment
Even if your snoring is "benign", seeking a
treatment strategy is worthwhile for the sake of marital and social harmony,
as well as improving the
quality of your sleep.
Lifestyle changes such as losing weight, reducing
alcohol consumption (particularly in the evening) and avoiding late meals
and cigarettes may be enough. If you take medication seek your doctor's
advice on whether it could be worsening the snoring.
Various oral devices are available that work by
moving your lower jaw forward, thereby improving airflow.
There is no evidence that stop snoring tablets,
hypnotherapy, aromatherapy or will power alone is going to help. There are
claims that anti-snoring mouth sprays can work but the action is short
lived, so this can become expensive. The type of nasal strips used by
sports people can improve breathing through your nose but they do not
alleviate your snoring.