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.