How Alcohol Affects Your Snoring

Haven’t you ever heard people saying that they would sleep deeply only because they drunk that day? Of course, yes!

This would be a common scene in films that you may have watched a thousand times. Whenever people become sad and depressed, they drink a lot and falls asleep fast, forgetting all the worries.

The fact of the matter is that this is a misconception that alcohol consumption will help you sleep well. However, it is fact that people tend to sleep faster after drinking. Still, alcohol affects sleep adversely.

Now, the question is what is the link between alcohol and snoring? Definitely, there is a link between them. Let’s see what happens when we drink.

There are several reasons as to why a person snores as he or she sleeps. Some people only end up snoring due to fatigue from an entire day’s work. For others, however, it has become a constant presence at night.

Another reason behind snoring is alcohol consumption. In the simplest term, what alcohol does to your body is just relaxing your body muscles, which naturally includes throat muscles. When they relax, the back of the tongue also relaxes. When the back of the tongue lowers, the passage of air is blocked. So the air passes with a friction or block, making the tissues vibrate and this vibrating sound is called snoring.

There are a few more things we should be aware of while discussing the link between snoring and alcohol. Our body breathes deeply, whenever it needsa higher oxygen level. For instance, when we do intense exercise, or even climb stairs, we tend to breathe fast and heavy. Our body hasan inspiratory resistance which refers to the mechanical resistance of the muscles we use to breathe work against. This causes friction between the muscles and the surrounding muscles. All these happen while we are awake.

But our body needs a lower level of oxygen while we sleep and thus inspiratory resistance also decreases. So whenever our body needs more oxygen, we just have to take longer breaths. There is a vast difference in the case of snorers. The inspiratory resistance of snorers is four times more than an average healthy man.

You may be thinking of what about the role of alcohol then, right? Let me explain.

As we have already stated, the inspiratory resistance of a snorer is four times more than an average healthy man. But after alcohol consumption, this becomes eight times more than a normal person. So a person who occasionally snores, have the chances of mild snoring and the condition of a snorer becomes even worse. The higher inspiratory resistance level further narrows the airways. But the air has to flow faster to cope up the body’s needs. This causes vibration and the resulting flapping sound is called snoring.

Because your body had to work twice as hard at night, you wake up in the morning feeling fatigue. Your days have not even started yet, but your body already feels exhausted. In addition, your sleep also gets interrupted all the time at night.

Ultimately, drinking too much alcohol can lead to the development of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition where your breathing stops and starts periodically. One of its major signs is the excessive snoring at night.

Sleep apnea happens when the muscles that should be helping your body to breathe ends up relaxing. This is very much similar to snoring—in fact, they are identical. However, sleep apnea is a much more serious problem.

When you have sleep apnea, there’s a big risk that your health might be greatly affected. It is bad because a person’s breathing may suddenly just stop and never restart. Thus, there’s a need to immediately address this problem before it gets worse.

Snoring may be addressed and cured by anti-snoring devices that you can use to stop snoring. In addition to these snoring devices, it is important to take note of what is causing it. Thus, to reduce snoring, you must monitor your alcohol consumption.

One of the fastest ways is to bidding a goodbye to alcohol consumption. This is especially encouraged when a person’s snoring had become too loud and difficult to control. Drinking more alcohol can worsen your condition than it already is.

The ultimate solution to stop snoring as far as an alcoholic is to stop alcohol consumption completely. However, you can restrict the symptoms by drinking moderately. Another way is to consume alcohol for at least three hours before you go to bed. This will help you get rid of alcohol from your body as much as possible. Still, you should not remain awake too late at night thinking that this will eliminate alcohol contents completely from your body;instead, it will create further complications.