Excess weight is often associated with snoring, and people who snore are often advised to lose weight. Weight loss can help reduce snoring, but in many cases, reduced snoring can assist with controlling your weight.
Being Heavy Contributes to Sleep Apnea and Snoring
More than half of all people with sleep apnea are overweight, which has led to the stereotype that heavy people snore. This tendency to snore is largely due to the amount of tissue around the neck. A larger neck results in extra masses of relaxed tissue pressing down around the airway, which in turn results in difficulty breathing and the characteristic snoring noise we’re all familiar with.
Chronic snoring indicates blocked airflow to the lungs and reduced blood oxygen levels. When the brain recognizes this dip in oxygen, it panics the body awake, disrupting sleep.
Sleep Apnea and Snoring Cause Fatigue
This disruption in sleep results in a variety of health issues, including fatigue. Even though someone who snores may seem to sleep through their snoring, it’s actually preventing them from getting to the deep sleep cycles where mental and bodily restoration occur.
Not only will snoring prevent restful sleep for the snorer, but it will affect his or her bed partner as well. Someone whose partner snores will therefore also experience fatigue during the day.
Chronic Sleep Deprivation Linked to Serious Weight Related Medical Conditions
Sleep apnea and the resultant chronic sleep deprivation have a variety of effects on your health, beginning with fatigue. Fatigue will affect judgment, leading to poorer choices about food, exercise, and so forth. The constant tiredness makes the effort involved in eating right and exercising seem far less worthwhile, and thus precipitates a variety of other health issues.
In addition to poorer health choices, your metabolism itself is affected by lack of sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to contribute toward:
- Metabolic syndrome, which involves a variety of disorders
- Type 2 diabetes
- Obesity
- Increased blood pressure
The health issues associated with snoring occur in a dangerous cycle. Snoring, sleep apnea, and resultant fatigue can lead to obesity and its attendant health issues, which in turn lead to more pronounced snoring, which then leads to fatigue, and on and on.
If you snore or if you are overweight and not getting enough sleep, call The Snoring Center!
The Snoring Center will diagnose the root cause of your snoring and sleep apnea. From there, we can help you with a variety of procedures to get your snoring under control and help you reduce the risks of advanced health problems. For more information, contact The Snoring Center today!
