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Causes of Snoring

What is the Mechanism of Snoring?


What are the causes of snoring and how can you treat snoring in a very simple way?

Knowing the causes of snoring is an important information which can be very useful to effective treat your sleep problem.

If your car has broken, how can you expect to repair it if you don't know the cause of the multifunction?

If you just find out that you snore in your sleep, you are not alone.

Over 80% of adults had at least one symptom of a sleep problem, such as snoring or waking a lot during the night.

One of the first cause of snoring is gender. As you probably know men are more likely to snore than women. This difference may be due to the protective role played by the hormones (estrogen and progesterone).

The mechanism which cause snoring is based on the physical forms of your airways. Why you sleep, the muscles of your throat relax, and your throat becomes narrower and floppy. This process is normal even for a healthy person.

However, if the airway narrows too much, airflow becomes turbulent. This airflow current makes the walls of the throat begin to vibrate when you breathe in or when you breathe out.

These vibrations represent the characteristic sound of snoring. In other words, the narrower your airway becomes, the greater the vibration and the louder the snoring.

Maybe in this video you will understand better why do we snore:



If you want to know people's opinion about the product discussed in this video, you can find out more on Asonor page.

Why your throat becomes narrower? What are the causes of snoring?

  • obesity - Is one of the most common causes of snoring, since excess fat in the neck area reduces the space of the air passage.

    Many obese patients show crowded tissues inside the airway, but few doctors pay attention to these airway structures.


  • Hypotonia or muscle weakness - may appear due to aging, allowing the size of the throat to close together and the tongue to fall backward into the airway.

  • the abnormal anatomy of your airway can lead to snoring. If your nose suffered a trauma during an accident, and that wound still exists, your passageway of the nose may be narrower than normal, making it hard for the air to pass by.

    In this video you can see a 3D view of an obstructed posterior nasal airway:



    Other anatomical abnormalities may exist in your mouth and throat. For example, the tongue, the tonsils, uvula and adenoids may become enlarged and narrow the airway.

    Another anatomical cause can be the soft palate, the muscular membrane between the nose and mouth that direct food and air during speaking or swallowing. This muscular flap may become elongated, narrowing the opening from the nose into the throat.

    Also, if you have a very small or narrow jaw, it also may contribute to snoring.

  • Here are the most common causes of snoring from anatomical point of view:

    • deviated septum
    • sinus blockage or polyps
    • traumatic injuries to head, face, or neck
    • nasal or oral surgeries

  • alcohol and medicine - Certain drugs such as sedatives and muscle relaxants can cause the muscles of the throat to relax more than usual. When this happens, you are airway narrows causing snoring.

As you can see, many causes of snoring begin with airway anatomy. Some snorers know they have a problem with the airway, because they notice:

  • occasionally choking on food
  • accidentally biting their cheeks or the sides of the tongue
  • they breathe with difficulty while awake
  • they have problems swallowing the pills

You can find important clues about your breathing if you spend a couple of minutes looking at your face, nose and airway. Just stand in front of the mirror, and using the flashlight, begin to examine your airway anatomy.

Search for excessive soft palate tissue which may cover up the top of the airway opening. When you examine the soft palate, take a closer look at uvula. If you have an elongated or red uvula, it proves that you snore or your breathing encounters powerful friction along these passages.

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