Causes Of Snoring

For the lazy snoring people they can find a summary of snoring causes at the end of the page

Introduction to snoring causes:

Snoring is a sound produced from the vibration of the walls of the air passages during sleep.

Air passes from your nose through the pharynx, larynx and trachea to reach your lungs silently without producing any sounds because the passages are patent and the air flow is not so fast, however when the air flow increases or the air passages are narrowed; the air starts to cause vibrations of the walls leading to sound production. This explains why you can hear the sound of the air entry when you do physical exercises {because the air velocity increases}

The throat and the back of the mouth are muscular structures {not bone or cartilage} and the muscle tone of these muscles keeps them patent.

During the day time the muscle tone is good keeping them patent because you are awake so you don't snore

So what makes you snore while sleeping?

When you are sleeping specially during the REM {rapid eye movement} your muscle tone normally decreases and as your air passage walls are muscles controlled by the muscle tone so they start to relax causing narrowing of the air passage.
However in the normal people it is still patent enough for the air to move freely and silently.

But if there are other factors that causes more narrowing added to that normally occurring during the REM sleep ,this dual effect will be adequate enough to make the passage very narrow to the air flow causing turbulence of the air flow leading to vibration of the walls and producing SNORING.

The causes which lead to that more narrowing are so many including:

A-Structural causes of snoring:

Obstruction originating from the nose:

1- Nasal septum deviation: it may lead to disruption of the air flow in the nose and sometimes causes nasal obstruction

2- Inflammation of the nasal tissues: may be due to allergy as allergic rhinitis or infection as common cold and other upper respiratory tract infections

3- Nasal polyps

Obstruction coming from the throat and the back of the mouth:

1- Enlargement of the tissues of the back of the mouth which are the soft palate, the uvula and the tonsils

2- Presence of excess fatty tissues around the throat in overweight and obese patients.

3- Sleeping posture: some people snore only when thy sleep on their backs but they don't snore while sleeping on their side; it is because when you sleep on your back the effect of the gravity on your body will make your tongue to fall back to the back of the mouth narrowing the air passage but this will not happen when you sleep on your side as the effect of gravity will be towards another direction.

4- Other causes as hereditary disorders like cleft palate.

You can try some Simple Tests for diagnosis the origin of your of snoring

B- Functional causes of snoring:

the causes that relaxes the muscles of the throat

1- Smoking and passive smoking: not only leads to relaxation of the throat muscles but it also will lead to congestion of the nose increasing the air passage obstruction.

2- Alcohol near the time you goes to bed will lead to decrease in the muscle tone and loss of the air passage patency

3- Some medications like sedatives will inhibit the brain centers and let you fall into deep sleep with less muscle tone so throat relaxation and causes snoring.

4- Also some food like milk and diary products if eaten near bed time will work like those medications. {It is not to eat diary products of coarse but only to make it a way from the bed time if you are suffering from snoring}

Snoring causes summary and conclusion: the risk factors of snoring

• Being obese or over weight "Your BMI is more than 25"
• Being smoker or passive smoker
• Sleeping on your back or turning to your back while sleeping
• Drinking alcohol before going to bed

• The usage of some medications like sedatives, tranquilizers and sleep pills
• Some foods like milk and dairy products near bed time will increase snoring
• Allergy or infection of the nasal mucosa
• Weak muscle tone in the throat muscle which become weaker with the progress in age so old aged are more prone to snoring
• Hereditary narrow throat or cleft palate
• Men usually snore more than women and their snoring is more severe

Now shift to How to stop snoring to learn how to control the snoring causes