We have all faced the ordeal of having spent an hour, a day or a night with someone who snores. Imagine, being stuck in a train compartment with someone whose snores keep you and at least a dozen others awake.
And while it may be a medical condition, and one should sympathise, a night of rude awakening, does tend to mellow the senses.
While many people actually do not know that they snore, it is absolutely frustrating to sleep alongside someone who does.
According to researchers, snoring happens when the soft palate and the tissue in the mouth, nose or throat vibrate. While sleeping, airways relax and narrow which affects the air pressure within airways and causes the tissue to vibrate.
Apart from the obvious tiredness and night-time arguments, snoring can actually cause some more serious health woes.
Here are a few things that one can do to combat snoring:
Avoid spicy food: If you love your spicy curry, this spells doom. According to Dr Yves Kamami, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Harley Street, who spoke to The Sun, “Spicy food can result in acid reflux from your stomach and in a number of studies this has proven to increase the likelihood of snoring.”
Get your position right: Sleeping in the wrong position can make a person snore more and their partners sleep less. According to Dr Kamami if someone snores, sleeping on one’s back is a bad idea. Sleeping on the sides is a better option.
Get the right bed: Making sure the sheets are clean. According to Kamami, this is to avoid excess dust and other particles from building up and blocking the nasal passages. Changing the sheets once a week is important.
Say no to drinking: It may be hard to avoid it on social occasions, but on the whole, stay away from booze. According to Dr Kamami, “We are much more likely to snore if we’ve had a tipple before we go to bed.” He says that this is because alcohol relaxes the muscles of the tongue which can lead to the narrowing of the airways, ultimately resulting in snoring.
Say no to cigarettes: Smoking makes one snore. Smoking can enlarge tissue in the nose, called the turbinates, which makes breathing more difficult, increasing chances of snoring.
Lose weight: People who are obsess snore more. Even losing a couple of pounds, if one is relatively thin, can have an impact on how often and how loudly they snore.
