5 Common Causes of Snoring
1. Mouth Structure
If you have an extra long uvula (soft palate) or enlarged tonsils, the airflow becomes partially blocked. As air is inhaled and exhaled, this blockage creates a snoring sound.
2. Nasal Congestion
When you cannot breathe through your nose, you will automatically open your mouth so that you can breathe. When this happens, your tongue is probably laying on the bottom of your mouth and as a large amount of air is inhaled and exhaled, those snoring sounds are likely to occur. Understand that if your nose is stopped up, you must breathe through your mouth to continue to live. Hopefully, it is short-lived due to a cold or allergies. When you get well, you should go back to breathing through your nose without snoring. If your nasal congestion is ongoing, you can easily get into the habit of mouth breathing and snoring.
3. Body Weight
If you are overweight, you probably have extra fat around your throat which can narrow your airway when sleeping. Losing a few pounds may help eliminate your snoring if that is the only reason that you are snoring.
4. Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol relaxes your throat muscles which may obstruct your airway and result in snoring.
5. Mouth Breathing
If you have no issues like the ones listed above, just breathing through your mouth while you are sleeping is enough to cause you to snore. Your snoring can worsen and lead to sleep apnea if your tongue falls down and blocks your airway. If your tongue “lives” on the bottom of your mouth, then relaxing while lying down can cause your tongue to fall to the back of your throat and partially block your airway. If the day comes that your tongue totally blocks your airway, then you have probably developed sleep apnea.
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