Snoring is more than a bedtime annoyance: it’s a serious health concern. Complications from snoring include chronic fatigue, gaining weight, high blood pressure, heart failure and stroke.
The jaw opens during sleep, which makes the tongue move towards the back of the throat. This obstructs the airway and limits the space air can flow through. The air that does make it through the partially blocked airway makes the noisy vibration we all know as snoring.
The complex interaction of body parts that creates snoring is a recipe for disaster. A lot of people are not even aware of the fact that they are snoring or that this affects their quality of sleep. It also worsens as we age, meaning that one day you don’t have a problem and the next day you do. Snoring can even develop into full-on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which can cause anxiety and depression and lead to poor performance at work.
The air blockage caused by snoring also keeps air out of the lungs, and can send your body into suffocation mode. This panicked state releases endorphins and other chemicals that actually damage the body on a nightly basis.
The non-sleep you get with OSA makes you suffer all day long. You start feeling like a zombie (and you may look like one too.) You won’t realize your snoring was keeping you up, but you will feel like you aren’t quite there, you aren’t 100%.
The most helpful prevention method to stop snoring and curtail these complications has recently been shown to involve nightly use of a jaw supporter. A Japanese study by the Kochi medical center recently found that the use of a jaw supporter had a marked improvement in rest rates for patients with obstructive sleep apnea and snoring.
Credits : TheGuardian
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