health&FAMILY DID YOU KNOW?
Around 30% of women regularly snore, compared with 40% of men.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SNORING IS DISRUPTING YOUR SILENT NIGHTS
LOSING sleep? S
Sleeping on your side can help prevent snoring.
noring – it’s the night-time behaviour no-one likes to admit they do even though it really isn’t that unusual. “Nearly everyone snores occasionally,” says sleep expert Dr Carmel Harrington, “and the older we get the more we snore.” This is especially true for women, who are more likely to start snoring after menopause, when lower levels of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone reduce your ability to breathe during sleep. You may not even know you do it. “While some women snore like troopers, others go undiagnosed because they snore so quietly,” Carmel says. But even the sweetest of snores can disrupt your sleep. And a regular lack of sleep can lead to weight gain, heart disease and metabolic disease. “Snoring truly is a sleep
disorder because we’re meant to have enough sleep to wake up feeling energised.” And yes, your sleep can be equally “disordered” when it’s your partner’s snoring that keeps you from getting the rest you need. Either way, here’s what you need to know about snoring and when to seek help for the sake of your health. UNDERSTANDING SNORING “Whether or not you snore comes down to a combination of things including the muscle tone and structure of your upper airways,” Carmel says. As your body relaxes during sleep, so too do the muscles in the roof of your mouth, tongue and throat, which form your upper airways (also called the upper respiratory tract). “When your airways aren’t open enough, air can’t pass through smoothly.”
This results in laboured breathing, which causes the surrounding tissue to vibrate and make that dreaded sound. Men have a much louder and deeper snore because of the shape of the upper airway around their larynx [or Adam’s apple]. But other physiological factors don’t discriminate by gender – you might just have narrow internal passages in your face. Having narrow upper airways means your muscles have to work much harder so you’re more likely to snore. It’s exactly the same reason why you snore when you have a cold or a sinus infection, when inflammation can make the airways smaller. The first sign that snoring might be affecting your health is if you feel fatigued when you wake up. If you’re getting eight to nine hours’ sleep a night but
