The Sound of Snoring

Dec 27, 2006

Almost everyone snores. Even if you don't snore on a regular basis, chances are, you snore occasionally. More guys snore, especially men, than girls. Middle aged men who like to smoke and drink are usually the chronic snorers. Overweight people are also frequent snorers.

Why Do We Snore?

The sound of snoring is caused when floppy tissues in the upper airway relax and then vibrate. When you sleep all the muscles in your body relax. Your throat is lined with muscles that keep the airway open. These muscles also relax when you sleep. The relaxed muscles cause your throat to narrow. For some people, the narrow opening blocks airflow, which can cause problems.

Instead of breathing air smoothly into the lungs, air is inhaled quickly and with more pressure. As air travels down the air passage, picking up speed, it gets whipped around in every direction. As the air bounces around it hits the relaxed, floppy tissues lining the throat. When the tissues are hit by air they vibrate - that's the sound of snoring. People don't snore when they're awake cuz the muscles in the throat hold the airway open wide enough for air to smoothly flow into the lungs.

Snoring Cures and Remedies

There are several different devices that are supposed to cure snoring - over 300 in fact. Some are variations of sewing a sock with a tennis ball in it onto the back of someone's pj's so the snorer is forced to sleep on their side. Although, sleeping on your side will produce a quieter sound, it does not prevent snoring. Some cures cause unpleasant sensations when snoring happens, so a person is trained or conditioned not to snore. Regardless, if you snore, the fact is you have no control over the matter. If snoring devices work it is more than likely because they keep you awake.

Do you have any horror snoring stories? Are you a loud snorer or have the perfect solution to stop snoring? Kidzworld wants to hear about it so