NORTHERN NIGHTS
SLEEP DISORDER CENTRE
Snoring and Sleep Apnea
How snoring happens:
We all breathe by sucking air in through our mouth or nose, through the back our throats, down the main airway (the trachea), and then to the lungs. Because we move the air by suction, all of the piping has to be stiff enough to withstand the suction during a breath - otherwise it will collapse.
However, the back of our throats has to be soft and flexible when we swallow. To be soft when we swallow, and stiff when we breathe, the backs of our throats are made of muscle. Our brains tell the muscle to tighten just as we start to suck air in. If the muscles don't get the signal to keep the walls of your throat tight, the walls start to loosen and vibrate: snoring.
We don't understand why the signal from the brain to the upper airway muscles sometimes fades during sleep, but we know that half of all adult men and over a third of adult women snore. At the moment we don't think snoring by itself is dangerous to your health. However, snoring makes it hard for someone to sleep with you, and many people who snore have a more serious problem, though they are often not be aware that anything is wrong.
How sleep apnea happens:
If the muscles in your throat really don't get the message to tighten, it won't just vibrate, it will collapse. When your airway collapses, you stop breathing. The part of your brain watching over things notices something wrong, and interrupts your sleep to get you breathing again. We call this problem "sleep apnea".
Over time sleep apnea causes irritability, drowsiness, decreased energy, poor memory and lower sex drive. People with sleep apnea are more likely to have high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and accidents. Most people are not aware there is a problem until their airways are collapsing more than 15 times per hour through the night. Your partner may notice only a few of the events. Sleep apnea is more common in men and in people that are overweight, but we often see it in women and in people who are thin.