Snoring: concern for the family or an illness?

Over the snoring made jokes - as long as you do not go to sleep in the same room with someone who snores. This problem does not often come to the doctor, because "snorer" itself is often not aware of it, and the victim has lost all hope, or moved to sleep in the next room. In most cases, there is heard a gentle purr, which simply prevents you from falling asleep, or shaking the glass, so that they hear neighbors snoring is not a manifestation of the disease. But it can be to them, and that's why this symptom requires special consideration.

First of all, why do people snore? And why, for example, we do not snore during the day, doing the work? Imagine that you are standing and snore, waiting for the bus or in line at the bank or waiting for a free table in the restaurant. In the end, if it's just kind of normal breathing, and all we breathe 24 hours a day - why it only happens during sleep? You might think that this is due to the lying position, which causes snoring, but it is not. Then have each time, lying on the couch to watch TV or read, you began to "saw wood". No, the key component of snoring - sleep.

When you breathe deeply, the air, which is designed for light, first passes through the airways of the head and throat. These air passages are opened as a result of the muscles surrounding them so that the air flows through them unhindered. During deep sleep, especially after drinking or sleeping pills, muscle supporting passages, relax, and air passages to subside. Now, because of the obstacles you have to breathe with more effort to make the air move. This increased pressure causes the breath to vibrate the tissue surrounding the air passages; vibration and creates snoring. Its intensity, volume, timbre and resonance depend on how narrowed air passages and relaxed tissue. The more relaxed they are, the stronger the "flutter in the breeze" and the louder the snoring.

But all previous explains just noise. What about the disease? If the airways are so narrow that reduce the amount of air flowing in a dream, you are vulnerable to the state, called the plug stop breathing movements, apnea. This means that you do not get enough oxygen to the lungs, and therefore, it is less than in the blood. As a result, almost every tissue in your body somewhat undergoes oxygen deficiency. Young and healthy people can usually tolerate a temporary reduction in the incoming oxygen, but with age, heart and brain do not respond well to it.

Apnea means "respiratory failure." If snoring next to you people listen to his breathing at the peak of snoring. (Bung apnea twenty times more likely to bother men than women.) If your neighbor apnea room, you will hear the characteristic breathing. First is the familiar rhythmic snoring, as the air is "under pressure" through constricted passages, making vibrate the surrounding tissue. At some point the blockage becomes so strong that the air can not pass through the passages. Chest continues to surge, as if the man was still breathing, but in fact the air does not go into the lungs, or of them - and there is no sound. This period of silence and respiratory "stop" lasts from a few seconds to two minutes. During this interval, the oxygen content in blood decreases. When it reaches a low level, a chemical signal is sent to the respiratory centers of the brain, which stimulate the breathing mechanism. The air is again pushed through tight passages. The period of apnea, "stop breathing", ends with particularly loud sound, followed by a gentle snoring. Cycle - snoring, silent, loud sharp snore, a series of short roulades, snoring and silence - then repeated. If you have the plug apnea, you may be sleepy and tired during the day, because at the end of each cycle, while loud snoring, you wake up for a short time, without knowing or remembering it. As it happens every few minutes, you are deprived of a long, deep sleep. Result overtakes you on the next day, so that you fall asleep in the car or at your desk.

Sudden death - a possible consequence of the plug stop breathing. This is unlikely in healthy young people, but the people in whose heart is already deprived of oxygen due to illness venochnyh arteries, are particularly vulnerable to carotid apnea. Bung apnea often occurs in people with high blood pressure and stroke. Since high blood pressure often does not cause symptoms, anyone with a respiratory disorder during sleep, especially middle-aged men and older should check their blood pressure. The probability of one to three, it will be improved, if you snore heavily in his sleep.

Apnea bung also accompanies chronic lung disease, central nervous system disorders (such as a brain tumor or an infection), impotence and obesity.

We love to laugh at the snoring, but remember that it can point to important medical consequences. If someone you know is much snore, and especially if the cycle is observed, as described above, - advise him to consult a sleep specialist. Sleep apnea can be treated, and reduce or eliminate the danger.

Symptom: snoring