Advice On Living With A Loud Snorer
Loud snoring may become a very difficult issue for the individual snorer and for the person sleeping with a snorer. There seem to be many different reasons for the the loud snoring, e.g., it may be an indicator of a physiological problem that should be reviewed and resolved as soon as possible. Interestingly, snoring seems to occur significantly with men and women who are overweight due to a bulky throat situation. Snoring may also occur for children, especially those with large tonsils. Snoring often increases with age and many people (45 percent of adults) only experience occasional snoring.
It is possible that the loud snoring may occur only when the individual is sleeping on his or her back. Even people who hardly ever snore may find that they do when lying in this position. The solution for them is simple enough, to lie in a different position, e.g., on either side should eliminate the problem. It may take a while to “retrain” to sleep differently, but can be learned fairly easily and after a short time.
There are chronic snorers for whom there is little or no relief from snoring in any sleeping position, in fact it is estimated that 25 percent of adults are considered habitual snorers. The physical problem may be a deviated septum, in which one or both nostrils are narrow making it very difficult to find some relief. There are several other reasons for snoring that include obstructed nasal passages, poor muscle tone in the tongue and throat, and long soft palate or uvula.
In addition, information from John Hopkins Medical Center indicates that Long interruptions of breathing (more than 10 seconds) during sleep caused by partial or total obstruction or blockage of the airway. Serious cases can have total blockage episodes many hundreds of times per night. Frequent waking from sleep may cause snoring issues that even a snorer may not realize.
Snorers who may have obstructive sleep apnea (pauses in breathing while sleeping) generally sleep lightly, as they try to keep their throat muscles tense enough to maintain airflow. Often, blood oxygen levels are lowered, which causes the heart to pump harder and raises blood pressure.
The result is a poor night’s sleep that may lead to drowsiness during the day and may interfere with the person’s quality of life. Continued suffering from obstructed sleep apnea may result in higher blood pressure and may cause enlargement of the heart, with increased risks of heart attack and stroke.
Those who sleep with a chronic snorer may have a difficult time sleeping themselves, which could trigger mental and physiological issues for themselves and quality of life for both parties may suffer.
There are many aids and/or cures for snoring and product cures have evolved into a multi-million dollar business. For those overweight, maintaining a proper diet and losing weight may help minimize and even eliminate snoring. Eliminating alcohol drinking and eating at least 4 hours before going to bed may aid snoring. Sometimes consistent sleep patterns, going to bed at the same time every night may help. Sleeping on either side could reduce or eliminate snoring completely. Enlarged tonsils could be surgically removed when they have been causing habitual snoring. Often using a second pillow to raise your head 4 inches may help the snoring. Other surgeries to eliminate snoring are removal of adenoids (adenoidectomy), somnoplasty (removal of soft tissue in the upper airway) and palate surgery (removal of soft palate tissue that may be obstructing breathing.
During the past decade many products have been offered to decrease or eliminate, e.g., nose strip, special metal nose clips, there are various “natural remedies” that may or may not work for people, there are special nasal and throat sprays including cortisol types that may help some, and there are some who use special magnets or unique metals like gold to sleep with.
Living with a snorer and trying to get a good night’s sleep may seem like an enormous undertaking; however, one of the easiest ways a partner can get some relief from the snorer is to purchase soft earplugs so as not to hear the sounds during the night.
The plugs are comfortable and enable a good night’s sleep. In any case, the snorer and partner have several options so that neither one has to accept the snoring situation. It is no longer necessary for anyone to accept the loud snoring. Relief is just a short step away.
Peter Stern, a former director of information services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood, Texas.
Iraq Verdict — Looking at Washington
Vice President Joe Biden made his fifth trip to Iraq early this month, once again trying to persuade leaders of various parties to collaborate in forming a new government.
The government we fought with, and American troops died doing so in a joint effort, deserve to know whether the leader of the country we supported, costing over 4,000 American deaths and over 30,000 wounded, is to continue to lead the country—Nouri al-Maliki.
His party, and allied parties, won fewer seats in the Iraq parliament than backers of Ayad Allawi. And for four months now the various factions have been deadlocked, with the designation of the new prime minister undetermined.
Meanwhile, bombings continue and Washington insists U.S. troop withdrawals will be on schedule at the end of August. But this announcement is deceiving.
We now have 80,000 American soldiers in this small Muslim country, who probably never should have been sent there.
The U.S. invasion of this Muslim nation was an unforgivable tragedy—for Christians, numbered over a million, living in Iraq, a country of less than 20 million.
Some 600,000 Christians fled the country because of the reaction of Muslims to a Christian invasion. Thousands were killed and tens of thousands lost all their possessions. We hear little about this in our glamorized publicity about a U.S. victory and the sacrifice of Americans (hopefully for a permanent, meaningful victory).
As to the much-publicized troop withdrawal, it’s importance and significance is overrated. We are only going to bring home, now, 30,000 Americans, leaving far more, 50,000, remaining in Iraq. This proves we know the war there is not a permanent victory, as bombings continue and the deadlock over formation of a new government continues.
And since we recently added 30,000 troops to our forces fighting another highly questionable war in Afghanistan, the number of Americans ordered to fight wars in these two Muslim countries remains the same. As suicides among our soldiers increase and Americans are facing reductions in government job programs, and even mail service—for lack of money—Americans continue to die in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, with June claiming the highest number of monthly American deaths in the entire eight plus years of war in Afghanistan, possibly a worse gamble than Iraq.
These two gambles are costing an estimated $200 billion dollars a year!