The Effects Of Snoring

In most cases, snoring does not pose a health risk for the snorer or the people around the snorer. We tend to treat it more as a social issue than a medical one; which is what it is in most cases. However, though snoring has its lighter side, it is not necessarily always just about being a source of embarrassment or annoyance.

Research has shown that snoring can be the primary symptom of something much more serious and dangerous; serious enough to warrant medical diagnosis and treatment after consultation with a sleep specialist. Let us first look at the social effects of snoring. After that, we will go into the medical implications of snoring.

Snoring affects snorers as well as the people around them. Snoring basically has a disturbing influence on the persons subjected to listening to a person snoring. A snore has different attributes based on the loudness, frequency, tone and other related criteria, none of which are appealing to a listener. Snoring can have a disturbing impact on family life. It causes disturbance to the person sleeping near the snorer, and over a period of time can impact the health of that person as well. Imagine having to stay awake for nights on end because the person sleeping next to you or in the next room has a snoring problem!

Besides the disturbance or annoyance factor, snoring has been found to have a direct impact on sexual activity. Studies have shown that snoring is inversely proportional to sexual activity, i.e. the frequency of sexual activity is less if one of the partners has a snoring problem. From all this it becomes clear that there is much more to snoring than just disturbance due to loud noise.

Types of Snoring

Snoring can primarily be of two types:

• Primary snoring
• Snoring Indicative of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

It is possible to determine which type of snoring a person has by undergoing a polysomnogram, commonly called a sleep study.

Primary snoring is generally harmless, and is also called simple snoring. It is characterized by noisy breathing during sleep, and is due to some form of blockage of the nasal passage. The noise level can of different intensities. The snoring in such cases is continuous and usually rhythmic. Besides, a person having primary snoring will not lose out on sleep as a result of snoring.

The other type of snoring, indicative of obstructive sleep apnoea, is something more serious, more so because it can cause even death due to lack of air. Generally, snorers suffer from an incomplete blockage of the air passage. Sometimes, a person can suffer from complete blockage of the air passage due to snoring, for as long as 10 seconds. This type of snoring is an indicator of obstructive sleep apnoea. A person having this kind of snoring will often feel sleepy during the day, gasp for breath while sleeping, as the air supply gets momentarily cut off, and have low oxygen levels in the blood.

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