What is Snoring? How to Treat Snoring?
Snoring is one of the most common health problems in daily life. Snoring is observed in 45% of adults from time to time and in 25% constantly. Snoring, which should be considered as a sign of serious health problems, is a condition whose frequency increases with age. Snoring may not be just about sound. In other words, snoring can affect one’s own health and the health of other people sleeping in the same environment. It can cause many problems, from insomnia to fatigue, from dizziness to inability to focus.
What is Snoring?
Snoring is the sound created by the air passing through the respiratory tract due to narrowing in the throat. It can also be defined as the sound produced by vibrations caused by tissues rubbing against each other when the airway is partially blocked. Snoring and the sound of snoring have become a part of daily life for many people. Snoring is more common in men than in women. The incidence of snoring may increase due to some reasons such as age and weight. This muffled sound, which attracts attention while sleeping, can seriously reduce sleep efficiency. The most common causes of snoring are pathologies that narrow the airway, such as adenoid enlargement in children, long palate in adults, nasal concha enlargement, and nasal curvature (deviation). Weakness in the muscles due to reasons such as excess weight and alcohol consumption aggravates the situation.
Individuals may not even be aware that there is snoring in their own lives. For this reason, snoring can be disturbing to individuals around you, even if you are not aware of it. If the snoring problem is not accompanied by problems such as sleep interruption at night and/or temporary cessation of breathing, that is, sleep apnea, this situation is called simple snoring. The severity of simple snoring may vary depending on sleeping position and weight. Simple snoring may not be noticed by the individual. However, it may cause individuals living in the same house with the snorer to wake up from their sleep and not be able to maintain their sleep hygiene. Although the severity of snoring changes with the sleeping position, smoking, alcohol and the use of some medications can also affect the severity of snoring. Individuals who cannot get enough and necessary oxygen as a result of snoring may encounter problems that negatively affect daily life, such as weakness, fatigue, headache and distraction.
How Do We Know If We Snor?
If you live alone, it may be more difficult to understand whether you snore or not. Nowadays, various phone applications have been developed to detect whether there is snoring. Snoring is often characterized by symptoms such as chest pain, feeling of restlessness, drowsiness, weakness, fatigue, high blood pressure, headache and throat pain, inability to focus on daily tasks, and waking up exhausted. Apart from this, if the person has symptoms such as short-term cessation of breathing while sleeping, difficulty breathing at night and a feeling of suffocation, this may not be simple snoring but sleep apnea. All the reasons listed above can also be given as examples of symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, which causes serious health problems. It is important to treat these problems because they can cause serious health problems in daily life and have a negative impact on the individual’s life.
Is It Possible to Prevent Snoring?
There are some preventive methods to prevent snoring. By applying these in your daily life, the severity of snoring can decrease or disappear completely. To prevent snoring, smoking and alcohol consumption should first be limited or stopped. You can calculate your ideal weight by measuring your body mass index. Since excess weight may cause more fat, the severity of snoring will also increase. You can prevent snoring by making exercise a part of life and maintaining your ideal weight. You can stop eating a few hours before going to sleep. In this way, both the intensity of snoring and the interruptions in your sleep decrease. If you know the positions that are not good or uncomfortable for you while sleeping, you can try sleeping in different positions. You can also be more comfortable if you use a pillow that is slightly higher than your head level while sleeping.
Do Pillows, Apparatus or Alternative Solutions Prevent Snoring?
When individuals who do not experience respiratory apnea during sleep, that is, those who have simple snoring complaints, take precautions such as ensuring an appropriate sleeping position and/or choosing a higher pillow, the severity of snoring may decrease. The oils of some plants such as thyme, mint and cedar, which you can find in many places, can also help relieve air flow in the respiratory tract by preventing excess mucus and phlegm. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome along with snoring can cause serious problems. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome may not be observed in every individual who snores. Operations to relax the airway are performed in simple snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. These methods can be listed as uvuloplasty, nasal reduction, septum deviation, tonsil and adenoid surgery. An alternative method of preventing sleep apnea is the use of a “CPAP” device. You should use this device at intervals determined by your doctor. This device, which is also easy to carry, consists of three apparatus in the form of a compressor, a hose and a mask worn on the nose. This device relaxes the tissues and prevents the airway from narrowing. In this way, individuals can breathe easily.
Can Snoring Be Prevented After Adenoid Surgery?
Adenoid, whose medical name is adenoid, is the tissue located behind the nasal cavity. This tissue protects the person against infections by cleaning the breath. If the adenoid grows larger than its required size, nasal congestion occurs and breathing may be negatively affected. As a result of nasal congestion, many health problems such as snoring and sleep apnea may occur. Medication may be used in cases that interfere with your daily life, disrupt your sleep, make breathing difficult and cause speech disorders. In cases where drug treatment does not respond, the adenoid can be removed with the help of surgery. Adenoid surgery is performed under general anesthesia and the operation takes approximately 20 minutes. Since the main source of the problem is eliminated with the adenoid surgery, the snoring problem also disappears.
Which branch should be consulted for snoring?
Information on the branch to go to for snoring varies. First of all, if your snoring level is mild, you can consult an ENT, that is, an ear, nose and throat specialist. If the cause of snoring is sleep apnea syndrome or if you experience symptoms such as high blood pressure, heart compression, and weakness in addition to snoring, you can consult the neurology and chest diseases departments. After your doctor performs the tests necessary for diagnosis, he may direct you to the departments he deems necessary. As a result of the examinations, the focal disease that causes snoring is diagnosed.
How to Treat Snoring?
Simple snoring can also be treated by paying attention to sleep patterns, restricting smoking and alcohol use, using high pillows, keeping your weight at an ideal level and sleeping in the right position. When you go to the doctor, diagnostic tests will help you understand whether the source of your complaints is simple snoring or more serious reasons such as sleep apnea. Polysomnography, a multi-parametric test, is used in the diagnosis of sleep apnea and evaluation of sleep disorders. Based on the results of this test, your doctor will determine the cause of your complaint. Snoring treatment is planned in different ways depending on the diagnosis and the person’s general health condition.
If you or a relative has a snoring problem, you can go to the nearest health institution and have it checked. We wish you healthy days.
