What Makes People Snore?

For most people snoring is just one of those irritating facts of life; something that happens if we are unwell or sleep in a different position from usual perhaps. However, there are many people for whom snoring seriously affects many aspects of their life in that it impairs sleep for both the snorer and their partner. In fact snoring is a fact that quoted in very high number of divorces. So whilst it may be quite a trivial matter for some, for others it not only makes lives a misery and wreck relationships.

The causes of snoring are based, perhaps nor surprisingly, on how people breathe when they are sleeping. When we are awake the muscles in the wind pipe and nasal passages stay taut keeping them clear and minimizes vibrations. When we are asleep there are number of things that occur. The muscles in the wind pipe lose their tension and can cause vibrations. For some people, their mouth can fall open causing them to breathe through their mouth meaning that the air will hit the back of the throat full on increasing the chances of snoring.

There are a number of factors that can increase the chances of snoring. These include being overweight, alcohol consumption, smoking and use of sleeping pills. In these instances the obvious way of reducing the chances of snoring is reduce these factors. Another factor is sleeping position; sleeping on the back particularly decreases gap in the windpipe and therefore increases vibrations in the soft tissues. For those people who are particularly prone to roll onto their back while sleeping the traditional remedy is simply to sew a tennis ball into the back of the pyjamas to prevent this.

There are number of remedies available for snoring, most of which focus their attention on changing the way in which people snore. Chin straps, for example, are designed for those people who tend to breathe through their mouth while asleep. They work on the simple principle of holding the mouth shut while asleep thereby forcing the individual to breathe through their nose. Similarly there are other devices that fit inside the mouth which aim to change the position of the jaw while asleep.

An alternative approach is hypnotherapy which can be administered by a trained hypnotherapist or self-administered. There are also CDs and MP3 downloads which use the principles of hypnosis. The principle here is pretty much the same as other snoring remedies in that it is concerned with changing the way in which people breathe when they are asleep. However, in this instance it is more concerned with actually training people to breathe differently, so no actual physical aids are required. Unlike other snoring remedies, hypnosis can also help non-snoring partners by training them to block out the sound of snoring and thereby finally getting a good night's sleep.