Diagnosing your snoring pattern

  Diagnosing your snoring pattern is very essential. It is very essential to get your partner or co-sleeper involved as in understanding the pattern, you will need assistance. You will have to figure out if you sleep with your mouth open or closed? Learning to distinguish between kinds of snoring will help you to address the particular causes of that kind of snoring.

• Closed-mouth snoring indicates that your tongue is the cause of your snoring, and that some exercises and lifestyle changes should help eliminate these kind of snoring.
• Open-mouthed snoring can be caused by sinus trouble or by posture in bed, and can be remedied by addressing those issues.
• Snoring from any position might indicate apnea or other significant issues that will require more substantial medical treatment to address.

    In the next few posts I will be discussing in detail about the solutions to control these three situations. Definitely Sleep apnea requires medical attention; whereas rest of the two situations can be personally monitored and fixed. 

    If you sleep alone and if you wish to keep a track on your snoring pattern or if you wish to know if you snore or not, you could use the following android apps to keep a check on yourself while you are on sleep. I personally used them when I was alone to study my normal tendency to snore until I finally gave up my habit of snoring. Though the first application is not a snore monitor, it does help one to monitor the entire sleep without any trouble. Its reliable and is very user friendly.

Smart voice Recorder:- Download Smart Voice Recorder

Snore Clock:- Download Snore Clock

   The Snore clock comes with several additional features which might make a beginner find it little harder to use than the former. One you have got your mobile set to record your sleep, make sure that you put it little away from your head and ensure that the mobile is fully charged and its not connected to your charger. Putting your mobile close to your head can cause undesired radiations and also having it connected to the charger during sleep is not advised as explosions have been reported around the world due to overheating and charging. Keep it at a safe distance and do not use it close to kids sleeping with you as they are more prone to such radiation damages. Here your only intention is to know your pattern of sleep and not to record and remix, so keep it at a safe distance to avoid any mishaps.

    Being self aware of your sleeping pattern is very essential to correct yourself. What most of the people does is, when somebody complains about ones sleeping pattern, they easily get offended and reject their complains. If you are being told that you snore, accept it and try to make a difference. Being defensive will not be of any help to you in your future life. So lets get started. Download the app and get things ready. Lets face it, we have a sweet angel inside us who often sounds like a demon zzzZZZ zzzZZZ.

Snoring is not one's fault

      Ridiculing someone who snores is not a good idea as it doesn't help him nor does it help your moral side. It is very much possible for you to loose patience once you are sleep deprived. In such a case, even if you do go out of control with your words, don't self justify your act, instead step up to speak to him and let him know why you reacted and be supportive as much as you can.

    If you have been bashed at real harsh by your co-sleeper for snoring and you still haven't got an apology for their act, do realise that it wasn't your fault and it was very normal for her/ him to have reacted that way as being sleep deprived can make a person loose his or her mental stability.

   Snoring is something that can attack you anytime, anywhere and during any age. Even kids can be a prey to snoring. For kids, even when they are infants, when they are suffering from a nasal blockage, they tend to snore lightly during sleep. You could very well consult a paediatrician for help during such instances. If its for a grown up child, then you should get him/her consulted by an ENT specialist and if everything is normal get your child to regular exercise which would keep him/her more active at school and also at home.

     For men who are slightly overweighed are also under the risk of snoring. Snoring is not something that is visible only with men, its also seen very commonly with women too. Most of the time, women tend to be more health conscious than men and so they tend to remain within the right BMI. You can calculate your BMI using the following section.

Enter your weight in kilograms and your height in centimeters in the form below and press the "Let's see" button (Please read disclaimer below before using this form)

Your Weight (kg)	Your Height (cm)	Your BMI	Comment

---

Disclaimer: This form is based on the calculation of "Body Mass Index" and is only meant to be a demonstration of how Javascript(tm) could be used on a Web Page. Information it contains may not be accurate and is not designed or intended to serve as medical advice. I am not liable for any physical or psychological damages suffered as a result of using this script. This free script provided by JavaScript Kit

     For women there are instances wherein they would start snoring even if they are all health conscious. In such cases, you should consult a Doctor as it could be an alert to check your metabolism just to ensure that you are in perfect health. My Mother for instance used to snore real hard. Later she was hospitalised due to chest infection. After she was fully cured, she stopped snoring and everything got back to normal. For women there are two other instances where they would snore; during pregnancy and after menopause. With pregnancy there is nothing much you can do. Its normal to suffer from nasal blockage which might extend till post pregnancy and might gradually fade away. If you are finding it hard to sleep due to nasal congestion, do consult your gynecologist or obstetrician as they will be able to provide you a nasal decongestant which will be apt for your situation. 

      For ladies who are doing well after menopause could slowly get on with a normal exercises which could keep them healthy and moving on with life. Walking and cycling could be a great exercise to start with after which aerobics and yoga can also be considered. While walking one thing you should keep in mind is, always use a pair of shoes while walking on the treadmill and if you prefer walking on road, try avoiding hard surfaces as such roads or pavements wont yield much and the pressure would backfire on your knees thus resulting in pain on your knees. There are certain treadmills which would reduce this pressure but comes with a higher price tag. If you prefer exercising indoors, an indoor exercising bikes would be a perfect choice.

  Therefore, one should always understand that snoring is not one's fault. A little bit of understanding and support can help a person get over with snoring and lead a healthy life. Snoring in most of the cases is an indicator to change the life style or the living pattern. A healthy lifestyle will assure a healthy sleep. Snoring is not confined to a particular age group or gender. You could also be a victim of this so called SNORRRRRING...

Giving up is the second step

     Giving up is the second step towards getting rid of the snoring. Now when I said giving up, I didn't mean that you should give up on your attempts to stop snoring. There are certain habits which has become part of us and has made us who we are without our knowledge. Some of them has become our traits, some we call as a habit. Certain habits have a long term impact on our daily life and sleep patterns. One such habit is consumption of alcohol and smoking. 

     You might be feeling a lot comfortable to sleep after consuming alcohol as it does induce sleep. But if you do watch your actions the very next day, you would find yourself to be more exhausted than the day before you had alcohol. Most of the time youngsters tend to rely on after party pills which would help them get back on course after their weekend partying. The moral here is, alcohol weakens your muscles of your body at the same time weakens your muscles of throat which does induce snoring. 

     Alcohol travels to all areas of the body and slows the brain's responses, causing the muscles to relax even more than during a normal night's sleep. Alcohol is also acts a depressant. The added relaxation of the musculature causes the oropharynx (The oropharynx lies behind the oral cavity, extending from the uvula to the level of the hyoid bone.) to collapse more readily causing further snoring.  Alcohol can sometimes induce obstructive sleep apnoea (where breathing stops for short periods during sleep) in individuals who are otherwise just snorers. 

      Its not easy for many to quit their habits unless been forced upon by an external factor which could be your dear ones or even the Government. Your body has its indicators which does remind you of your actions. From the beginning of mankind, people have been observing the way our body reacts to various situations and use to make inferences. Similarly if we are keen and careful, we could avoid situations which would destroy your normal life. If you face a situation when you have been drinking alcohol and your sleep is interrupted by periods of not breathing, you should be aware that if you do not modify your lifestyle, this condition will worsen. 

     Alcohol causes nasal airway irritation and congestion that increases the airway resistance when breathing. I don't think I should be explaining to you the harmful effects of alcohol. There are people around us who cannot just accept the fact that alcohol is bad, but can control its usage. For such people, there is a good news, you can very well control your involuntary action; snoring. If you cannot stop drinking you can modify the effects by having your last drink at least 4 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body sufficient time to reduce the effects of the alcohol and help you to sleep without snoring.

     Similarly, if you take sedatives, there is a greater chance for you to snore as it tends to collapse your airway during sleeping. So, if you have serious conditions of snoring and if you are taking any medication that has a sedating effect, ask your doctor for a non-sedating alternative. Naturally, you should never stop taking prescribed medicines without your doctor's consent. If you are taking longterm sedatives, its better that you ask your doctor for alternatives and also do let him know that you have a serious snoring issue which you wish to take control of.

     The third habit forming snoring inducer is smoking. It seems logical that smoking may increase your risk of snoring. The irritating smoke may cause inflammation and disruption of your upper airway, especially your nasal passage and throat. It may cause increased airway congestion. This disruption may lead to vibration as air moves through, leading to the unpleasant sound of snoring. Here I have also taken the help of statistics that I collected from about.com. Large research studies have actually supported these proposed associations. In one study of 811 adults, the risk of snoring was 2.3 times greater among current smokers. In another large study of 15,555 people, snoring occurred more commonly among current smokers (24 percent) compared to former smokers (20 percent) and never smokers (14 percent).

     The risk of snoring seems to correlate with the amount of smoking. In other words, if you smoke more heavily, the risk of snoring is likewise increased. The role of nicotine withdrawal or nasal congestion in this phenomenon is not fully understood, but if you really do care to stop snoring, you need to let go of your unhealthy habits. Snoring may be another reason for you to finally quit smoking. 

     If you are reading this blog, you do want to quit snoring and want to gift a good night's sleep to your co-sleeper. So if you have any such habits, its high time that you quit them and then make things better for you and for your co-sleeper.

Reasons for snoring and first step to resolve

     

     It was a week before my marriage that I came to know that I snore. Being born a single kid and not having been in any relation before wedding kept me away from an option to know if I snore or not. A week before my wedding, my cousin was home to finalise our preparations for the wedding, I was really tired and I decided to take a break and get some sleep. My brother continued with the work while I slept comfortably for 4 hours. When I woke up, I saw my Brother staring at me, his words just made me feel real worried, "Dude, you snore like an engine, you better go meet an ENT before you get married." I was quite serious with this relation and marriage that I decided to meet an ENT at the earliest. The very same day I managed to get an appointment and had myself thoroughly checked to see if I had any major issues. 

The point here is, there are many issues which would be a cause for snoring. Identifying the reason for your snoring is very essential to fix your issue. Following are the reasons for snoring, some of them require medical intervention whereas the rest require only your intervention.

The Causes Of Snoring

• Overeating and/or Lack of Exercise
• Alcohol and Sleeping Pills
• Smoking
• Sleeping Position
• Allergy

• Nasal Stuffiness
• Mouth Breather
• Small or Collapsing Nostrils
• Tongue Base Snorer
• Multifactoral Snoring
• 
  

     Overeating or lack of exercise leads to an increase in fat around the throat. If you have a collar size of 16½ inches or greater, you may not have the muscle tone needed to keep the airway open sufficiently at night to allow normal breathing, and the narrow airway is more likely to vibrate. Therefore its very essential that you start of with a good amount of exercising. 

     When I had consulted my ENT, he told me that I had no issues with with my sinus nor do I have any issues with my throat, which narrowed down to the cause as me being overweighed. I then decided to workout, but how much could I loose weight in a week before my wedding? Things didn't go as planned, responsibilities piled up and I had to do many things before our wedding and so exercising was out of my schedule. 

     I was then suggested to stay awake at night so that my wife would not have trouble sleeping with me in the very first week of our married life. I then decided to listen to their words and tried to make it work. But on the contrary, after the wedding, it happened in a way that we both dozed off almost during the same time thus avoiding any such issue of loosing sleep. Later when my wife came to know that I snore, she just reassured me and told me that it was normal, which indeed made me feel the need to somehow fix this issue. I then started workout on a regular basis which reduced my snoring to a great extend. My wife who later got pregnant and woke up frequently did mention that I snored lightly than usual which was indeed an encouraging factor.

     Being overweight by just a few kilograms can be the cause of your snoring. If you have fatty tissue around your neck you will find that during sleep it squeezes the airway and prevents air from flowing in and out freely. Weight loss with accompanying fat reduction will certainly help to alleviate snoring. Weight loss cannot be achieved by diet alone, it must be accompanied by a sensible exercise programme. You could try using the world famous GM diet which could help you loose some weight. You may check the following links for the details on GM Diet. Do refer the Pros and Cons before you commit to the GM diet. Also don't forget to exercise at least 15 minutes a day, which could just include the normal Cardio Exercises ( Running, Cycling, Skipping etc...)

Details on GM Diet

GM Diet and its PRO's and CON's

Diet Chart:- DIET CHART FOR DOWNLOADING

     In the next few sections I will be discussing in detail about the various causes and their actual remedies. As a first step, why don't you just start with exercising and a well planned diet? I do have better solutions, but before all that lets take the first step towards a healthy life. We all eat to live, lets eat healthy and exercise well for a better tomorrow and for a good night's sleep.

Snoring...

   

     The reasons for divorce around the world has been sometimes the weirdest of all. According to China.org, one man's snoring was so disruptive it prompted his wife to file for divorce. In the filing, she claimed that she hasn't gotten a full night's sleep since they married. She also mentioned that the man's heavy snoring made her ill and caused her to lose a significant amount of weight. The divorce was granted and the judge asked the man to pay his ex a settlement of 5,000 yuan, or $806.45.

      Sure, snoring may be a strange reason to file for divorce, but it's happened before too. Even till date, some people loose grounds when it comes to snoring. No matter how much you love the person, once he or she manages to disrupt your sleep, the next day you would just have a grumpy face to welcome him to the new day. Who has to be blamed for such weird divorces? Could such instances be avoided? Well the answer is yes, it could very well be avoided.

     Every relation is based on respect, mutual understanding and love. No matter how good a person is with these qualities if he or she snores, the one who has to share sleep with him or her is sure to loose patience and might react in a way that might even end their relation. In this blog I will be sharing few points that would help you get a real good control on your snoring and if lucky you could quit snoring and save your precious relations. Here I don't make any false promises nor do I expect anyone to make a payment.

     Now you might be wondering on what grounds am I talking about the practice of snoring? Well the answer is, I myself used to be a heavy snorer who has managed to quit snoring all by my healthy practices and by monitoring my sleep. I have done it all that could give my wife and daughter a good night's sleep. Patiently go through the posts in this blog and you are sure to win this battle with your body.