Why do you snore or have sleep apnea? And how can you detect it?
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Now I will show you five types of snoring. Please guess which kind of snoring is life-threatening.
1. Electric drill type
2. Cow call type
3. Vibration type
4. Whistle type
5. Expectoration type
In fact, they are all life-threatening, because they all have one thing in common, that is, the interval between two snoring sounds is too long. So how should such snoring be treated? If it is not treated, or if you have never heard yourself snoring, what should you do?
Let’s talk about obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.Except for the apnea-type snoring mentioned at the beginning of the article, which stops after a while, other snoring can’t really kill you directly, but different styles of snoring can indeed reflect what’s wrong with your body.
What Causes Sleep Apnea?
The culprit of snoring and even apnea is that when we sleep, we lie down and relax our bodies. The soft palate and tongue root in the mouth collapse, which compresses and narrows the airway. Although the airway is narrow, the total amount of air we inhale cannot change. If it changes, it will cause hypoxia in the body. You can’t say “My throat is a little small, I breathe less air” (just a joke).
In order to maintain the total amount of inhaled air, the air flow rate must increase. When it increases to a certain extent, turbulence with irregular speed and direction is formed. After inhaling turbulence, it runs around in the mouth, affecting the soft palate, tongue root, and other soft tissues, which form snoring.
How To Know If You Have Sleep Apnea？
(1) Under Family Members Observe
You can observe your snoring sounds with family members watching over you. If your snoring sound is this kind of pausing with an obvious panting sound, it must be respiratory arrest. Because when we need to pant violently, it must be when we are holding our breath to the point where we can’t stand it. The smaller the panting sound, the lower the degree of holding our breath.
At this time, losing weight, quitting smoking and drinking are all issues that need to be paid attention to later. You can buy an anti-snoring spray first, spray it on your nose and mouth respectively, which may have a certain relief effect. There will be some glycerin and polysorbate 80 in the anti-snoring spray, which are lubricants to reduce friction and vibration of soft tissues.
There are also some astringents such as sodium chloride and potassium sorbate that can tighten the soft palate, tongue root and other soft tissues to prevent excessive relaxation, so that the airway is opened, thereby playing a certain role in relieving snoring.
(2) Self-Observation
If we often wake up in the middle of the night in a daze, it is not the kind of situation where we suddenly sit up violently. After waking up, we immediately fall asleep again in a daze, waking up very lightly, sometimes you may not even know that you are awake.
When I was a kid, my dad stopped snoring suddenly. I was playing games by the bed, and he said something to me, and then he fell asleep again. My dad had no idea that he woke up in the middle. I thought it was sleep talking or sleepwalking at the time, but later I learned that it was because of apnea during sleep that caused the brain to be threatened by lack of oxygen, and then sent out an emergency signal to wake up the body.
Why didn’t he remember that he woke up in the middle? It is because the brain was lacking oxygen. Your brain is lacking oxygen, and the time you wake up is very short, so it is difficult for this information to be input into the brain’s memory system, so you can’t remember it.
At this time, daytime symptoms will appear. If you feel that you can’t wake up no matter how hard you sleep, and you have a severe headache when you wake up in the morning, especially in the forehead or the back of the head, because these two places are rich in blood vessels. If you have pain in these two places, it means that you had a respiratory arrest last night. Due to lack of oxygen, carbon dioxide accumulates and blood vessel pressure is high. Then your memory becomes worse and worse, your mood becomes more and more unstable, and you suffer from dry mouth, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, cerebral thrombosis, asthma, and all diseases related to lack of oxygen will appear.
But this is not the most terrifying thing. 13 studies have shown that the probability of erectile dysfunction in people with sleep apnea at night ranges from 40.9% to 80%. But this is also easy to understand. We are all lacking oxygen, and blood flow must have plummeted. The places that should be congested cannot be supplied with blood, which leads to the occurrence of the disease.
How To Treat Sleep Apnea?
If the anti-snoring spray or other tricks are not very effective, you can use a CPAP. By continuously supplying oxygen to your airway, the soft tissue in the throat is propped up, the soft palate and the root of the tongue in the mouth are propped up, the airway is unobstructed, the airflow is not turbulent, the snoring is gone, and the risk of apnea is gone.
The CPAP is indeed useful, but the key is that it is uncomfortable to wear and you are not used to it, so it can only provide temporary relief. If you want to completely improve the problem of snoring, you can refer to the following suggestions.
(1) Weight Control
The first suggestion is to lose weight because if you are overweight, you usually have more fat on your neck. Once you lie down, the airway will be flattened under the influence of gravity. And it’s not just the fat around your neck. Obesity is often accompanied by hypertrophy of the soft tissue in the throat. The hypertrophy of the soft tissue causes the airway space to be squeezed and narrowed.
(2) Exercise Throat Muscles
You can try to exercise the muscles of the soft palate and throat by dry gargling and sweeping the gums with your tongue. When the muscles in these areas become stronger, they are less likely to collapse, and the airway is less likely to narrow.
Steps for dry gargling
- Close your lips, inhale forcefully, and puff up your cheeks to fill your mouth with air.
- Exhale forcefully while simulating the action of gargling.
- After repeating this several times, you may feel a small amount of saliva secreted in your mouth.
(3) Lifestyle Changes
Finally, quit smoking and drinking, because they can cause inflammation, paralyze muscles, cause airway narrowing, and cause snoring or even apnea.
Here is a table of other things to note about relieving snoring.
| Tips for Relieving Snoring | Details |
|---|---|
| Weight Control | Overweight and obese individuals should actively manage their weight through diet and exercise to reduce snoring. |
| Lifestyle Improvement | Quit alcohol and smoking as they can relax the muscles of the airway and exacerbate snoring. Be cautious with hypnotic products that induce sleep, as they may worsen snoring. |
| Body Position Adjustment | Try sleeping on your side instead of your back to prevent your tongue from blocking your airway. Elevate the head of the bed slightly to improve airflow and reduce snoring. |
| Work and Rest Balance | Avoid excessive fatigue during the day. Ensure proper rest and maintain regular sleep patterns to reduce the risk of snoring. |
| Sleep Observation | Self: Track any daytime sleepiness, as fatigue can worsen snoring. Family: Monitor snoring patterns, especially breath holding or intermittent snoring, which may indicate sleep apnea. |
| Medical Consultation | Consult a doctor if snoring persists to check for any upper airway issues, such as oral orthopedics, nasal treatments, or tonsil problems. |
Snoring is not a sign of a good sleep, but rather an over-relaxation of your soft tissues. This type of relaxation will not only fail to help you rest better, but will make you less energetic during the day. It may even be life-threatening. I hope everyone can realize this point sooner.
References
【1】 Jordan A S, Mcsharry D G, Malhotra A. Adult obstructive sleep apnoea【J】. Lancet, 2014, 383(9918): 736-747.
【2】 Levy P, Kohler M, Mcnicholas W T, et al. Obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome【J】. Nat Rev Dis Primers, 2015, 1: 15015.
【3】 Greenstone M, Hack M. Obstructive sleep apnoea【J】. BMJ, 2014, 348: g3745.
【4】 Gu Y, Wu C, Qin F, et al. Erectile Dysfunction and Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Review【J】. Front Psychiatry, 2022, 13: 766639.
【5】 Szymanski F M, Filipiak K J, Hrynkiewicz-Szymanska A, et al. The high risk of obstructive sleep apnea–an independent risk factor of erectile dysfunction in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction patients【J】. J Sex Med, 2011, 8(5): 1434-1438.
【6】 Teloken P E, Smith E B, Lodowsky C, et al. Defining association between sleep apnea syndrome and erectile dysfunction【J】. Urology, 2006, 67(5): 1033-1037.
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