World Sleep Day is celebrated every year on March 21 to draw attention to the importance and quality of sleep. When it comes to sleep, people often think first of whether they can fall asleep, whether it is easy to dream, whether it is easy to wake up and fall asleep again. However, there is also a class of people in life, it is easy to sleep on the surface, even if the car can fall asleep during the day, sleep is particularly ";fragrant";, snoring sound and irregular, medically called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA), that is, we commonly known as snoring. In fact, snoring is a multidisciplinary disease, habitual snoring, can increase the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease, diabetes. More than 936 million people are affected worldwide, and about a quarter of men over 30 have some degree of snoring, which is more common than asthma.

What is Snoring?

During sleep at night, patients have apnea due to upper respiratory tract obstruction or muscle collapse, which blocks the airway above the glottis (complete disappearance of oral and nasal airflow), but the respiratory driving function of the central nervous system is normal, and they can continue to send respiratory movement instructions to excite the respiratory muscles. Therefore, the chest and abdomen breathing movement still exists, and the main clinical manifestations include deafening and irregular snoring, suffasphyxia or awakening at night, dry mouth in the morning, drowsiness during the day, and increased urination at night. Clinically, sleep apnea hypopnea Index (AHI) is often used to measure its severity, that is, the sum of the average number of apnea and hypopnea per hour. AHI 5-14 times /h is mild, 15-29 times /h is moderate, and AHI≥30 times /h is severe.

Snore and not know it?

During the lunch break in the office, Xiao Zhao, a colleague, fell asleep on the desk, snoring all over, and the colleagues around him could not sleep at all. I believe that many people will have such doubts: why some people snoring so loud, he himself can not hear, but "the more sleep the more fragrant"? This is mainly because snoring generally occurs during deep sleep, when the body is already immersed in deep sleep, and theoretically it is difficult to hear yourself snoring. In addition, people who snore for a long time are less sensitive to snoring and automatically block out their own noise. In life, some people claim to be often woken up by their own snoring, in fact, it is not, but by the abnormal wake up caused by poor breathing.

Why do you snore?

When you breathe normally, you make no sound. However, during sleep, the tight muscle tissue of the upper respiratory tract relaxes, narrowing the space of the respiratory tract such as the mouth, nose, and throat. When the inhaled air quickly passes through the narrow part, it hits the soft tissue, causing the wall of the airway to shake and produce sound.

Snoring is sleep soundly? -- It is a disease, it must be cured!

Public misunderstanding: In the eyes of many people, snoring is a good performance of sleep, the louder the snoring, the more sleep. In fact, snoring is a sign of poor ventilation. When the air flows through the throat, it causes the soft tissues of the throat to vibrate and make a sound. The bigger the snoring during sleep, the resistance of the respiratory tract is particularly large, which is easy to lead to hypoxia and be awakened, so that there is no spirit during the day.

Actual harm: Some snorers report that they are choked by something during sleep, unable to breathe, and struggle to breathe for a long time, but it is actually apnea. Sleep apnea caused by snoring has a great potential danger, ranging from dry mouth, headache, mental exhaustion, lethargy, memory loss and other symptoms to hypoxemia, which impairing the function of multiple systems in the body. According to the World Health Organization, 4,000 deaths a day worldwide are linked to snoring.

Early detection, early treatment: if you often snore at night, and get up during the day without spirit, always feel tired and sleepy, dry throat headache, you should doubt whether you belong to sleep apnea syndrome. If you can, it is recommended to record your sleep video with a mobile phone, see if you have no mouth breathing, listen to your snoring sound, if you meet these two situations, you should seek medical treatment in time.

Who is prone to snoring?

1. Obesity

Obesity causes too much soft tissue to build up in the neck. At the same time, fat is easy to accumulate in the soft tissues of the upper airway, aggravating the stenosis of the airway. For every 1 kg/m2 increase in body mass index (the ratio of weight to height squared), the risk of habitual snoring increased by 19%. For every 1cm increase in waist circumference, the risk of habitual snoring increased by 6%.

2. Structural deformity of the upper airway

There are certain abnormalities in the upper airway that cause snoring, such as a large tongue and enlarged tonsils.

3, special frontal structure, etc

"Stubby"; neck, small chin, flat chin, ";fat" tongue.

4. Pregnant women

During pregnancy, if there is a blockage in the nasal cavity, the pregnant woman will be obstructed ventilation and snoring. At the same time, weight gain and fluid retention of the body are also important causes of snoring. Therefore, frequent and irregular snoring during pregnancy should be of particular concern.

What is the harm of OSA to body health?

1.Poor sleep quality

When snoring, the force of the breath will be greater than usual, and the muscles will contract when the force is exerted, which will stimulate the cerebral cortex to make an awakening response. This kind of awakening is also called micro-awakening. People who snore have many micro-awakenings at night, which will make sleep intermittent, seriously affect the quality of sleep, and can not enter deep sleep. Fragmented sleep may also lead to chronic inflammation and hardening of the arteries.

2. Blank living memory

Snoring is a serious condition in which a person's breathing is interrupted during sleep. Repeated cycles of lack of oxygen at night can have an impact on a person's brain's ability to remember things.

 

3. Increased risk of myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and hypertension

People who snore every night are 77 percent more likely to have a heart attack than those who sleep quietly. In severe snoring, breathing repeatedly stops, resulting in a significant reduction in the amount of oxygen in the blood, causing hypoxia of cells throughout the body. Frequent hypoxia can also cause damage to blood vessel walls, increasing the risk of blood clots and triggering heart attacks.

4. Fatty liver

People who snore often are more likely to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (fatty liver disease), and thin people should pay particular attention. The association between snoring and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was stronger in thinner people (body mass index <24 kg/m2).

5.depression

Too little or too much sleep has been linked to depression. Patients with depression had prolonged sleep latency, increased number of awakenings, early awakenings, and decreased non-REM sleep. Insomnia caused by snoring is the main factor that aggravates depressive symptoms and the duration of depression.

6.Increased risk of infertility

Snoring is caused by the repeated collapse of the upper respiratory tract (back of the throat) during sleep. An episode in which the upper airway completely collapses for at least ten seconds is called apnea, which results in a lack of sufficient deep sleep and is often accompanied by snoring. The severity of OSA is associated with reproductive hormones in obese people. A research team in Taiwan, China, found that men with snoring had a 24% increased risk of infertility.

7.Facial deformity

People who snore due to the narrowing or obstruction of the upper respiratory tract, will change from "nasal breathing"; to "oral breathing", and for a long time, it is easy to lead to facial deformity.

How is snoring treated?

 

1.Lose weight (diet control, exercise).

2.Stop drinking, smoking, sedative hypnotic drugs and other drugs that can cause or aggravate snoring.

3.Sleep on your side.

4.Oral appliance for patients with mild snoring and mandibular retraction.

5.Intraairway positive pressure treatment: includes continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and BiPAP, with transoral and nasal CPAP being the most commonly used.

6.Surgical treatment, such as tonsil hypertrophy people, can be tonsil extraction.

 

 

Chapter of Sleep Medicine

 

(The opinions expressed are solely those of the author. Some pictures in this article are from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete)