The risks of smoking include the development of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke. Reduced airflow into the lungs strains the heart and vascular system, overburdening it over time. The most crucial factor here is that, most snorers do not realize they snore while sleeping, or that it could be a symptom of an underlying serious condition leave aside the disturbance it causes to them. When you have a disturbed sleep or reduced sleeping time, due to snoring it also adversely affects the person’s driving capabilities increasing accident toll by up to 7%.
Treatments for Snoring: A good place to start would be your personal physician who can associate if any risk factors are involved with snoring and recommend a treatment procedure if needed from a sleep clinic. There are a number of treatments including.
Change your life style to control snoring: Your doctor may recommend the following lifestyle changes that can help manage snoring:
Reduce Weight: excessive weight is one of the main reasons for snoring. A doctor can recommend a safe and balanced plan to reach a healthy weight. So, if you want to learn how to stop snoring, reduce your weight.
Exercise: An active lifestyle not only helps maintain a healthy body weight, it’ll lead to more restful sleep. Exercise, particularlywalking, jogging, running and hiking improve your quality of sleep. Strenuous activities should not done for at least two hours before you hit the bed.
Quit smoking: Your symptoms are likely to increase with smoking because of throat irritation and coughing at night, leading to snoring.
Sleep Scheduling: To promote a sound and undisturbed sleep scheduling time for sleeping and waking up is ideal. Tiredness due to lack of sleep resulting in snoring can be avoided by going to bed and rising at the same time each day.
Refrain from alcohol and sleeping pills: Alcohol and few drugs like sleeping pills, pain killers etc can make the throat muscles relax or contract that it usually does, leading to obstructions or narrowing. These make things worse by not allowing your brain to be alert thus the duration is prolonged even more.Overtime this can lead to serious damage to the body.
Sleep on your side: Medical research shows that sleeping on your back allows gravity to further narrow your airways increasing the risk of snoring.
A sleep disorder clinic, may be involved for serious cases for further observation and tests either at the person’s residence or at the clinic. Treatments include breathing devices such as CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) equipment. You doctor prescribes a pressure rate which will be maintained by this device, which inhales air and passes it through funnels into a mask at the specified pressure. This device is worn over the nose and the aligned pressure enables smooth airflow and reduces snoring.
Other treatments include a dental device that is worn while sleeping to dilate the airways, holding the lower jaw and tongue forward. Radio wave treatments are used to shrink tissue in the throat or tongue and surgeries that reduce the tissues in the nose, uvula, and palate (roof of mouth) or the bony tissues in the back of the throat to decrease the risk of blockages.