Falling asleep while your partner is already cutting up trees in bed? Difficult to impossible. That’s why many women from notorious snorers regularly move to the sofa at night. But women snorers have long since conquered the supposed male domain: Although almost 50 percent of the male population snores by the age of 30, 20 to 30 percent of women of the same age can easily keep up. After the menopause, almost 40 percent of women join in the sawing.
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First step: change the sleeping position
The reason for the nerve-wracking, rattling snoring noise is often found to be too slack throat muscles that vibrate in the air flow when inhaling. The snorer does not notice this, but the sleep quality of the other sleeper in the same bed suffers considerably. A slight change in sleeping position – from lying on your back to lying on your side – is often enough to stop this simple snoring.
Small pauses in breathing and their big consequences
But around 800,000 Germans close their throats completely. You suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS): The airflow into the lungs is interrupted, which leads to frequent apnea – up to 100 per hour. In severe cases, breathing stops for three quarters of the entire duration of sleep. If the lack of oxygen becomes too great, the body registers the emergency and causes the sleeper to wake up briefly. Then the flow of air makes its way back down the throat with a snapping snoring sound. It goes without saying that the snorer wakes up anything but rested after a night like this. Other consequences of OSAS: The lack of oxygen causes the heart to increase its pumping capacity, and being startled releases stress hormones. Both promote high blood pressure.Diabetes and depression are associated with sleep apnea.
But now definitely go to the doctor!
“Therefore, anyone who suffers from nocturnal breathing pauses should be treated urgently,” warns Prof. Andrea Rodenbeck, sleep doctor at the Charité Berlin. Being overweight is a possible trigger: Too much body fat in the neck and chin area can squeeze the airway. In this case, a diet comes first. A ventilation mask is recommended for moderate to severe OSAS: the small device blows room air into the upper respiratory tract via a connecting tube and a mask. A slight overpressure builds up in the throat, which prevents the tongue from falling back and the upper airways from collapsing. Disadvantage of the tried-and-tested method: the mask has to be worn every night, but every third person finds it annoying and lets it go.
Sometimes the dentist can help. “A so-called lower jaw protrusion splint is one of the therapy guidelines of sleep medicine,” explains Dr. Susanne Schwarting, Chairwoman of the German Society for Dental Sleep Medicine. “The individually fitted dental splint pushes the lower jaw forward by a few millimetres. This tightens the pharynx, which prevents the tongue from falling back. We achieve the best results in patients with mild sleep apnea.”
Did you know that women react differently to snoring than men? Men aren’t very gentle with a snoring partner: they wake you up. “Women, on the other hand, tend to put their partner’s sleep ahead of their own,” British sociologist Susann Venn found out.
Surgical methods at a glance
If you don’t want to wear a breathing mask or a dental splint, you can consider surgery. Here, for example, the so-called soft palate is tightened or palate tissue is sclerosed, or blocked nasal passages are widened. However, no doctor can guarantee that any of these surgical procedures will stop the respiratory arrest; the success rates are around 50 percent. However, a new procedure raises hope: At the Charité, a tongue pacemaker was implanted for the first time in Europe, which stops breathing during sleepand stop snoring. During sleep, the system monitors the rhythm of breathing and, if necessary, sends a gentle electrical impulse to the nerve that controls the muscles of the tongue. This stimulation moves the tongue slightly forward. Airway obstruction is prevented without waking the patient. “A major advance in the treatment of sleep apnea,” says the Berlin sleep researcher Dr. Alexander Blue. “In contrast to therapy using a ventilation mask, the person concerned’s freedom of movement at night is no longer restricted.”
In the case of simple snoring disorders (without breathing pauses), you can often help yourself:
- If a slightly narrowed nasal entrance area leads to nocturnal nasal noises, an internal nasal expander can enable freer breathing (e.g. “Nasanita nasal butterfly”).
- A ring (e.g. “AntiSnor”) that snorers should wear on their little finger at night stimulates two acupressure points that regulate the flow of energy and reduce the risk of snoring.
- People who have the flu and have a stuffy nose also make wheezing noises. Then a cold syrup with doxylamine and ephedrine helps: It clears the nose and also has a slightly sleep-inducing effect (e.g. “Wick MediNait”).
- Exotic: A didgeridoo, the wind instrument of the Australian Aborigines, requires certain tongue and throat exercises to play – and these tighten the soft palate. This is how mild sleep apnea is alleviated, found Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho, a sleep researcher at the University of São Paulo.
