Snoring can create a lot of stress in a relationship,” says Dr. Richard Schwab, director, the Pennsylvania Sleep Center. It’s an intermittent noise, so you can’t just get over it. People lose so much sleep, they can’t sleep in the same beds.
At what point do you have to go for any of the dozens of gadgets devised for snoring solution that crowd the market, just so you can get a good night sleep? Or, do you really have to consider any of the torturous devices to silence the thunderous snorts of your roommate?
Anti-snoring gadgets could only help open up your nose and decrease snoring, if you have a deviated septum or something like that, but they won’t help everyone because “most snoring appears in the back of your throat.” It is ideal you see a doctor, if this routinely disturbs people around you, you might have sleep apnea.
People with sleep apnea, a disorder characterized by loud snoring and interrupted breathing, are at greater risk for high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
If you treat the snoring and not the sleep apnea, you might never get evaluated, says Schwab.
According to Dr. Kim Hutchison, associate professor of sleep medicine in the department of neurology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Ore: some of them are torturous than others.
When you sleep, the back of your throat relaxes. That narrows your airway and, as you’re breathing in, it causes it to vibrate, Hutchinson said.
Sleeping on your back makes your tongue block your airway a little, sort of like the skinny part of a balloon, when you let air out of it.
Many anti-snoring gadgets only open up that airway. While others are only designed to force sleepers to turn on their sides – like devices with pillows that make sleeping on your back uncomfortable.
There are also some devices that help in the repositioning of the jaw in a way that opens the airway. But, according to Schwab, they become terrible if they cover the entire mouth – may lead to choking.
The stress of getting the best device (snoring solution) can be so cumbersome, thus approaching a doctor for treatment in case it’s sleep apnea is indispensable.