Ways To Help Manage Snoring

My Weekly's favourite GP Dr Sarah Jarvis from TV and radio writes for you

- Dr Sarah Jarvis

My husband thinks it's hilarious that I snore - or so he says, and I can't contradict him because of course I don't know! With snoring, it's often your partner who flags it up.

However, there are times when snoring carries health risks. It can disrupt your sleep (even if you don't remember it) and it can be linked to a condition called obstructive sleep apnoea, which carries health risks in its own right.

Snoring happens because of vibrations in the soft, movable tissues around your throat. When you're asleep, these tissues relax and partly block your airways. This means air is trying to get through a narrowed tube. With asthma, if the airways in your lungs are narrowed, this can lead to wheezing as air flows in. If your upper airways (around your throat) are narrowed, the result is snoring.

As you progress from dozing off into deep sleep, the muscles relax further - and the more they flop back and narrow your airways, the more these airways vibrate and the louder your snoring. If they relax so much that they block your airway completely, you can stop breathing for several seconds. After this, your brain recognises you're short of oxygen and jerks you awake.

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