Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, pay Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren vogal bomb here. Almost half of all adults snore.
Speaker 1: Loud and persistent storing may be a symptom of sleep apnea,
Speaker 1: a serious sleep condition that requires medical attention. But is
Speaker 1: it true that most snoring problems can be fixed just
Speaker 1: by sleeping on your side first? A quick snoring primer.
Speaker 1: Snoring is the result of an obstruction of the breathing
Speaker 1: pathways during sleep. As you drift off to sleep, your mouth, tongue,
Speaker 1: and throat relax. The soft tissue in your throat can
Speaker 1: relax to the point that it partially blocks your airway.
Speaker 1: As air passes through this restricted space, it causes the
Speaker 1: tissue to vibrate, producing detail tale rumble. The narrower that
Speaker 1: your airway is, the more forceful the flow of air
Speaker 1: will be, which increases the vibration of the tissue and
Speaker 1: makes your snoring sound even louder. The root causes of
Speaker 1: snoring vary from person to person. Obesity is a common
Speaker 1: underlying reason for storing because at sus weight on the
Speaker 1: neck and chest compresses breathing pathways. Other causes can include allergies,
Speaker 1: they cause congestion, and inflammation that tighten airways in the
Speaker 1: nose and throat, and drinking alcohol before sleep, which relaxes
Speaker 1: the throat muscles. And some people are just born with
Speaker 1: an extra thick soft palate or a low hanging nuvula
Speaker 1: that obstructs airflow to the throat. So where does sleep
Speaker 1: position come into all of this? Sleep experts agree that
Speaker 1: sleeping on your back exacerbates snoring. That's because when you're asleep,
Speaker 1: your tongue, soft palate, and throat muscles automatically relax, and
Speaker 1: if you're sleeping on your back, those relaxed muscles will
Speaker 1: sag downward and backward, increasing the odds of an obstructed airway.
Speaker 1: Sleeping on your side is most effective on true tongue snorers,
Speaker 1: where the chief cause of the obstruction is a relaxed
Speaker 1: tongue blocking your airway, But turning on your side won't
Speaker 1: necessarily solve the snoring problem if it's an allergy or
Speaker 1: obesity issue. The trouble beside sleeping is a cure is
Speaker 1: that unconscious people are terrible at following directions. If you
Speaker 1: are partner has a hard time maintaining a side sleeping position,
Speaker 1: you might try using pillows to prop them up, or
Speaker 1: place a tennis ball under their shirt in the middle
Speaker 1: of their back to remind them to turn over with
Speaker 1: their permission, of course. Today's episode was written by Dave
Speaker 1: Ruse and produced by Tyler Clang. To find brain stuff,
Speaker 1: laptop cases and other brain stuff, check out our shop
Speaker 1: at t public dot com slash brain stuff, and to
Speaker 1: find more on this and lots of other RESTful topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com.