Myth or fact

Snoring is just noise

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By GyroscopeUpdated November 14, 20269 sources

Sort of. Plenty of snoring is just noise. But loud snoring is the first item on the checklist doctors use for sleep apnea, and it changes how your body handles a drink. Across trials, alcohol added about 4 breathing events (pauses and shallow breaths) an hour in snorers, almost twice the 2.3 it added across everyone.

Why it sounds right

Plenty of snorers feel fine. They sleep through it, and the only person bothered is the one next to them. It’s a joke in a lot of households.

Most of the time that’s fair. The trouble is that the same sound can come from an airway that’s narrowing a little and an airway that keeps closing.

Is a rattle in your car a problem?

A rattle in a car is usually a loose bit of trim, annoying and harmless. A rattle with the engine cutting out every few minutes is something for a mechanic, even though it sounds the same from the driver’s seat.

Snoring is the rattle. Breathing that stops and starts again is the engine cutting out, and you can’t watch yourself sleep, which is why the doctors’ checklist asks whether anyone has seen you stop breathing.

What makes the sound?

MedlinePlus says the sound is made by tissues at the top of your airway that strike each other and vibrate, when airflow is partly blocked during sleep.

In obstructive sleep apnea, the same upper airway gets blocked many times a night, NHLBI explains, and the airflow drops or stops. That’s why snoring sits at the top of the list. It’s the sound of an airway that’s narrowing, and the question is whether it closes.

When is snoring more than noise?

It’s more than noise when it comes with the other signs. NHLBI lists breathing that starts and stops, frequent loud snoring (more common in men) and gasping for air at night, with daytime sleepiness, fatigue, headaches and insomnia during the day.

Doctors often use an eight-item checklist called STOP-Bang. Snoring loudly is the first S. The rest are tiredness, someone seeing you stop breathing, high blood pressure, a BMI over 35, age over 50, a large neck and being male. In studies, people with more of those signs were far likelier to have moderate to severe apnea on a sleep study, from about 18% with two or fewer to 60% with seven or eight.

It’s not rare. Researchers estimate moderate to severe sleep-disordered breathing affects about 17% of US men and 9% of US women aged 50 to 70. And the US sleep medicine guideline says a checklist can’t diagnose it on its own, so the next step is a sleep study, in a lab or with a home test.

Why do drinks hit snorers harder?

A 2018 analysis pooled 14 trials with 422 people. Alcohol added 2.33 breathing events an hour across everyone, 4.20 in snorers and 7.10 in people with diagnosed sleep apnea. It also lowered the night’s lowest oxygen by 1.25 points across everyone. MedlinePlus’s advice for snorers is to cut down or avoid alcohol and other sedatives at bedtime.

Does sleeping position help?

For many people with sleep apnea it does. In 12,036 sleep-center patients with sleep apnea, 66% had their breathing problems mostly on their back, and 28% only on their back. MedlinePlus tells snorers not to sleep flat on their back, and NHLBI’s sleep apnea advice is to sleep on your side.

The best case for the myth

“My dad snored for 40 years and lived to 90.” Some snorers never have apnea, and MedlinePlus says snoring is common. What changes the picture is what comes with it. Loud snoring with someone seeing you stop breathing, or with falling asleep at your desk, is a reason to ask for a sleep study, because NHLBI says untreated sleep apnea raises the risk of stroke and heart attack.

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