Surprisingly, most people who snore think that snoring is common. In fact, it is a health problem for both snorers and their partner. If left untreated, snoring can affect your health in the long run, especially if coupled with sleep apnea. Therefore, if you are a snorer, you should get a sleep test to find out if there’s a hidden health problem.
Anyone Can Snore
People of any age can snore when the upper airway is narrowed causing vibration and sound in every breath. Snoring can be soft or loud and infrequent. It can be silent due to airway obstruction which causes sleep apnea and restlessness. This makes your heart work harder and increases risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, cerebrovascular disease, hormonal imbalance, daytime sleepiness, mood swings and many other health problems. Snoring in children will affect their physical, cognitive and emotional development. Therefore, you should not ignore the problem and immediately seek medical attention.
Types of Snoring
- Very loud snore which affects your partner or roommate
- Snoring alternates with breathing and pausing
- Snoring and startling, choking, suffocating
- Restlessness and not energetic even with sufficient hours of sleep
- Headache every morning
- Extreme sleepiness in the afternoon, possibly had history of car accident due to drowsiness accident from drowsiness.
People with Snoring Risks
- Overweight
- Allergies or sinusitis
- Enlarged tonsils
- Abnormal nasal bridge, face shape and short chin
- Pregnant mothers
- Menopause women
- Regular smokers and alcohol drinkers
- Take medication that causes drowsiness
Snoring Diagnosis
Doctor will perform a thorough physical exam: blood test and x-ray as well as a Full-night Sleep Test to find the root cause and see if there is also sleep apnea involved. In some cases, this can also be done though Home-sleep Test or Watch-pat which can be used to determine further treatment.
Snoring Treatment
- Lifestyle modification such as weight loss, sleeping on the side, scheduled sleep, avoid drinking alcohol and smoking, etc.
- Use CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) to expand airway while sleeping.
- Surgery helps relieve snoring. This should be under discretion of a specialist to assess each patient.
Do not ignore your snoring problem as there may be a bigger health risk involved. Proper treatment can increase quality of life and quality of sleep. Therefore, you should consult your specialist for your healthy sleep.
To find out your risk of sleep apnea, please fill out the STOP-BANG questionnaire for preliminarily self-assessment: https://www.bangkokhospital.com/th/bangkok/content/checklist-stop-bang
For more information on package: https://www.bangkokhospital.com/th/bangkok/package/home-sleep-test
