Some people snore all the time, but there are those who only start snoring when they’re tired.
Why do I only snore when I’m really tired? When you are overly tired, your tongue collapses against your throat, causing a blockage in your airways. This causes extreme vibration as the air passes through, causing the snoring sound.
As you read further, you’ll understand what causes snoring and find out whether this poses any risks to your health. You’ll also find tips on what you can do to stop snoring.
Why Do People Snore?
To truly understand why you snore when you’re tired, it’s first important to know why people snore.
People snore when there is something obstructing the proper flow of air through your nose or mouth. These obstructions can come in different forms:
- Obstructed nasal airways
Any form of obstruction within the nasal passage causes people to snore. Allergies can be one source of obstruction, as this doesn’t only cause possible inflammation in your nose, it can also cause mucus buildup. Sinus infection has the same effect.
Deformities in the nose can also be a reason for snoring to happen. There are people, for example, who have a deviated septum. This means that there is something wrong with the wall separating one nostril from the other.
Nasal polyps can also be considered an obstruction. These are non-cancerous growths shaped like teardrops forming in the sinuses or in other parts of the nasal passage.
- Poor muscle tone in the tongue and throat
When the throat and/or tongue muscles are too relaxed, they collapse right into the airways, blocking the flow of air.
What causes these muscles to relax?
Some of the most common reasons are deep sleep, sleeping pills, consumption of alcohol, and the like. Aging can also cause these muscles to overly relax.
When you are overly tired, this would also be where your snoring is coming from.
- Bulky throat
The bulkier your throat is, the smaller the space where air can pass through.
Bulky throat is often caused by excess fats. It’s also possible that the tonsils and adenoids are large and swollen, which is a common issue among kids who snore.
- Long uvula and/or soft palate
People who have long soft palates and/or uvulas also have narrow openings from their nose all the way to their throat. The uvula is that dangling tissue at the back of your mouth.
When air passes through, the soft palate and uvula vibrate and bump against each other. They start to obstruct the airways, causing you to snore.
What are the Risks of Snoring?
Snoring should not be dismissed as just another irritating sleeping habit. It is one of the biggest symptoms of sleep apnea, which could open up a myriad of risks to your health like:
- Inconsistencies and interruptions in breathing
When you have sleep apnea, your breathing sometimes stops not just for a second or two, but sometimes for a minute or more. This is cause by the obstructions in your airways.
- Frequent waking from sleep
You may not realize it, but if you’re a habitual snorer, you actually wake up a number of times throughout the night as you sleep. You just don’t realize it nor remember it.
You see, your brain senses when your breathing is not normal. And when it detects that you are not breathing anymore, it sends a signal to your body that rouses you from your sleep.
- Light sleep
When you snore, you often don’t reach that deep sleep that restores and nourishes your mind and body. Your sleeping pattern shifts away from the normal, and you would spend more time just sleeping lightly.
- Fatigue and lack of focus
Because of the interrupted and light sleep, snorers end up not feeling rested or refreshed when they wake up. Sometimes, they even wake up more tired than when they went to bed.
This lack of quality sleep may cause you to lose focus. It is often hard to concentrate on what you’re doing. Sometimes, you may even end up being highly irritable.
- Strain on the heart
The longer you suffer from sleep apnea, the worse the strain is on your heart. It will eventually cause hypertension and enlargement of the heart. It will also heighten the risks of a stroke or a heart attack.
How to Stop Snoring
If your roommates or spouse tell you that you’ve started snoring, don’t worry about it. There are a number of ways for you to avoid snoring.
Here are some tips that can help:
- Sleep on your side or on your stomach.
When you sleep on your back, there is a bigger chance of your tongue and throat muscles collapsing into your airways. This is why you have to find ways to shift to a different sleeping position.
To make it easier to shift to a side sleeping position, you can invest in a body pillow. This will support your body as you sleep on your side.
You should also find ways to avoid falling back to your original sleeping position. You can prop pillows against your back, for example. Some even sew tennis balls at the back of their pajamas to make sure they never feel comfortable lying down on their back again.
- Avoid sedatives, alcohol, and the like.
Sleeping pills, alcohol, and other sedatives causes your throat and tongue muscles to relax and collapse into your airways. Even over the counter antihistamines have the same effect sometimes.
If you’re going to drink alcohol, do it moderately and stop around 3 hours before you’re scheduled to sleep.
- Stop tiring yourself out too much.
It’s normal for people to get tired after an entire day. But make sure you don’t overdo it.
Get enough sleep at night and eat food that will give your enough nourishment and energy to support your daily routine.
When you’re running on very little sleep and energy, you’ll burn yourself out, and your sleep won’t be as restful and restorative. Again, it will cause your airways to be obstructed by your overly relaxed throat and tongue muscles, causing you to snore.
- Maintain optimal weight.
Additional fats and weight, especially around your neck, makes your airways narrower. This makes it harder for air to pass through, causing your tonsils and other parts of your throat to vibrate. This vibration comes out as the sound of snoring.
- Get rid of allergens.
Snoring can come from blocked nasal passages, too. And there’s no bigger cause for blocked nasal passages than chronic allergies.
There are a lot of potential allergens around the house that could be causing your nasal tissues to swell up. Your pillows, for example, can’t be used forever.
Make sure you get new pillows regularly. In fact, doctors say that if you’re using cheap polyester pillows, those should be changed every 6 months. Allergens build up pretty quickly in those pillows. But if you’re using pillows with better structural integrity (like a memory foam pillow perhaps), you can use those for up to 3 years.
Always check for dust around the room as well. Look at air vents that may be hiding dust and molds. If you have carpeting, make sure that’s cleaned regularly as well.
You should also get rid of chemical-laced air fresheners and the like. You may be tricked into thinking that a good-smelling room is a clean room, but in reality, if your air freshener is filled with toxic chemicals, then you’re adding potential allergens into the mix.
- Have yourself checked for sleep apnea.
If you’re snoring more regularly than you like, then it’s possible that you’re not just snoring because you’re tired. You may be snoring because of a deeper reason.
Have the doctor check you for sleep apnea. You may be advised to go to a sleep specialist for this, but it’s better to cover all bases.
Although some of the basic tests can be done right from your own home, the doctor may also recommend more stringent testing that should be done at a sleep center. In this case, you may be asked to stay the night so that they can thoroughly monitor your vital stats while you’re sleeping.
Related Questions
Does sleeping without a pillow stop snoring?
If your snoring is caused by your throat muscles and tissues collapsing into your airways, then removing your pillow might not help at all. It’s your sleeping position that matters (like sleeping on your side instead of flat on your back) and not the presence of the pillow. It could improve your posture though, so removing your pillow (or using a thinner pillow) could help if you also have back problems.
What can you do when someone is snoring and you can’t sleep?
You can consider investing in a good set of ear plugs that could completely drown out the sound of your roommate or spouse’s snoring. If they’re sleeping on their back, you can also try to get them to reposition and sleep on their side instead.
