What causes snoring?

There are many causes of snoring, but some of the most common include excess bodyweight, use of drugs and alcohol, congestion or swollen tonsils, aging, and apnea.  As many as 50 percent of adults have some type of snoring problem.

Snoring is the result of the vibration of the soft tissues in your month and your throat. While awake, the muscles surrounding these structures tighten, keeping the air passage open. When you're asleep, these soft tissues relax, and your lower jaw and tongue drop back, blocking the opening to your airway. This increases the speed of the air flowing through your airway when you breathe, which causes the soft tissues to vibrate. The sound of those vibration tissues is what we call snoring.

Heavy snoring and delayed breathing of 10 seconds or more may be symptomatic of a more serious condition, sleep apnea which is frequently associated with hypertension, stroke, and other cardiopulmonary problems.

What you can do to stop snoring.

There are several simple things that you can try to help stop snoring:

• Lose weight
• Avoiding Alcohol
• Using a humidifier
• Applying nasal strips before bed