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Posted in Uncategorized | August 6, 2025
Does your partner often complain about your snoring? Loud, chronic snoring can interrupt your sleep and that of your loved one, preventing you from getting a good night’s rest. While snoring is quite common, most people know little about it.
Keep reading to learn more about the things you didn’t know about snoring.
Snoring refers to the snorting, rumbling, or grumbling sound you make while asleep. It can affect anyone, no matter the age or gender.
In fact, nearly everyone snores at some point.
When you’re asleep, tissues in your tongue, soft palate, and back of the throat can sometimes relax too much, narrowing your airway. As a result, air is forced through relaxed tissues, causing the tissues to vibrate as you breathe. This creates the grunting or rattling sound you know as snoring.
Different factors can contribute to snoring, including being overweight or having a blocked nose due to a cold or allergies. The anatomy of your mouth can also trigger snoring.
For instance, an elongated uvula or enlarged adenoids can obstruct airflow and increase vibration. Other snoring causes include a deviated septum, small nostrils, an underactive thyroid, sleeping with your mouth open, swollen tonsils, and nasal polyps.
Snoring is normal for many people, including babies and young children. Occasional snoring is usually not a cause for concern.
However, loud snoring can be disruptive for both you and your bed partner, making it difficult for you to get adequate sleep.
Beyond being disruptive, snoring, particularly when loud and frequent, could be a sign of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder characterized by breathing pauses that occur regularly throughout the night.
Once your brain realizes that you’ve stopped breathing, it wakes you up briefly so you can start breathing again. While you may not remember waking up multiple times at night, these micro-awakenings can prevent you from getting the deep, restorative sleep that is essential for your physical and mental health.
Sleep apnea can often go undiagnosed until it begins to contribute to other health problems. Over time, apnea can cause many complications if left undetected and untreated, including:
When loud snoring is accompanied by the following symptoms, it could signal the presence of sleep apnea.
Pauses in breathing and gasping for air are usually reported by a bed partner. If you snore loudly on a regular basis and experience one or more of these symptoms of sleep apnea, it’s crucial to see an ENT specialist without delay for a proper evaluation to determine if you have apnea.
Not every person who snores has sleep apnea, but many do. Snoring and sleep apnea can occur independently.
If you snore but don’t have symptoms of apnea, the cause may be due to personal factors and your lifestyle. These can include smoking, drinking alcohol, and certain medications.
Sleeping on your back and pregnancy can also increase your risk of snoring.
Your ENT specialist may order a sleep study to accurately diagnose or rule out sleep apnea. Depending on your diagnosis, there are different solutions for snoring.
Your ENT doctor may recommend simple lifestyle changes, switching some of your medications, and various treatment options. By determining and treating the underlying cause of your snoring, you can enjoy deeper, more restorative sleep and better overall health and prevent complications.
Your ENT specialist may suggest the following lifestyle changes to help you breathe freely and ease snoring:
Your ENT specialist may recommend the following:
Other treatments can include:
A CPAP machine is a device that delivers a steady stream of pressurized air through a mask while you sleep. The air pressure keeps your airway open throughout the night, preventing sleep apnea and snoring.
Oral appliances work by pulling your tongue or jaw forward, ensuring your airway remains open during sleep. When worn as recommended, oral appliances can help improve sleep apnea symptoms and eliminate or reduce snoring.
If non-surgical treatments don’t resolve your sleep breathing problems, your ENT doctor may suggest surgical procedures such as:
If you have a deviated septum contributing to your snoring or sleep apnea, a septoplasty can help alleviate these issues. The septum is the wall of bone and cartilage that separates the right and left sides of your nose.
Septoplasty involves repositioning, trimming, or replacing cartilage and bone to straighten your septum. Doing this can improve nasal obstruction and airflow, making it easier to breathe through your nose while you’re asleep and alleviating apnea symptoms, including snoring.
UPPP refers to various procedures that target particular structures that block your airway. In UPPP, your ENT specialist may reposition or remove parts or all of your soft palate, tonsils, adenoids, or uvula to get rid of obstructions.
This can help you breathe better while sleeping, decreasing snoring and other sleep apnea symptoms.
Maxillomandibular advancement surgery entails moving your jaw forward to enlarge your airway and reduce symptoms of sleep apnea.
A hypoglossal nerve stimulator, or HNS, is an implantable device that opens your airway while you sleep by stimulating the hypoglossal nerve, which controls tongue movement.
Stimulating this nerve causes your tongue to move slightly forward, allowing air to flow freely. HNS promotes more restful sleep, considerably decreasing or eliminating snoring, and improving other apnea symptoms.
Persistent snoring can interfere with sleep and negatively impact overall health. If you snore regularly, it’s crucial to see our ENT specialist. They can determine what’s causing your snoring and provide a personalized treatment plan to help alleviate your symptoms and improve your sleep.
Do you snore loudly and often? Schedule your appointment at Specialty Care ENT in Elgin, IL, today to find a lasting solution for your snoring.
