Snoring

• Being overweight
• Having large tonsils
• Having a small receding chin
• Suffering from nasal obstruction and/or congestion
• Taking sleeping tablets
• Sleeping on your back
• Consuming alcohol before bed
• Smoking and chronic exposure to other inhaled irritants
• Suffering from chronic exposure to allergens.

Often snoring has no serious consequences, but it can be a symptom of a condition called sleep apnoea.

Sleep apnoea occurs when someone stops breathing for a few seconds while asleep. This may result in broken sleep. Sleep apnoea has been linked with poor work performance, relationship problems and other health concerns.

A simple test, like the one below, can help decide if you may have sleep apnoea.

1. Are you a loud habitual snorer?
2. Do you feel tired and groggy on awakening?
3. Do you experience sleepiness and fatigue during the day?
4. Are you overweight?
5. Have you been observed to choke, or hold your breath during sleep?
6. Do you often wake up in the morning with a headache?

If you answer yes to atleast three of these questions it is worthwhile visiting your doctor for further tests. You may be referred to a sleep disorders centre for full assessment and treatement.

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Types of Sleep and Sleeping Patterns:

Everyone’s sleeping patterns are different. Some people sleep more than eight hours a day – others need as little as five. Generally, the need for sleep decrease as we get older. Both the number of hours you sleep and the structure of the sleep you get are important. There are two main types of sleep,

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep: During REM sleep, your eyes flicker rapidly behind closed lids, your body temperature is slightly raised, the heart beats faster and breathing is irregular. REM sleep is often described as dreaming sleep. You are likely to have four or five periods of REM sleep during a night. Most of it occurs during the last third of your sleeping time.

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (non-REM) sleep: There are four stages of non-REM sleep ranging from light sleep to deep sleep. Stages 1 and 2 are the light sleep stages. Your muscles begin to relax, heartbeat is regular, body temperature slightly drops and sleep walking is possible at this stage. You can still be woken easily, for example, if you hear a door slam or someone calls your name or shakes you.

Stages 3 and 4 of non-REM sleep are the deep sleep stages. During these stages your blood pressure drops, your body is inactive and it is difficult to be woken up. Most of the deep non-REM sleep is in the first part of the night.

Dreams occurring at this time are usually snapshots, incomplete and may not make sense to you.

In a normal sleep cycle, non-REM and REM sleep alternate throughout the night. Sleep begins with about 80 minutes of non-REM sleep followed by about 10 minutes of REM sleep. This cycle is repeated three to six times per night. As the night progresses there is less deep sleep and more REM sleep per cycle.

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