Your neck muscles tend to relax during sleep. With many people, these muscles relax too much causing a closure in your airway temporarily reducing the oxygen to your body. The neck muscles and soft palette of the mouth can collapse creating the common sound known as snoring.
The following conditions can affect the airway and cause snoring:
Snoring can lead to a wide range of issues in your daily life:
We offer our patients a “mandibular advancement device” which in simple terms moves your lower jaw further forward than your top jaw. This has the effect of keeping your soft palate open and allowing air to pass through much easier. It can be a suitable alternative to the facemask and positive pressure machines, such as CPAP, that many people are advised to sleep with.
Studies have shown that the CPAP is more effective than Mandibular advancement splints for reducing the apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI), but compliance (continued willingness to wear) is better with the splints. People are able to use the splints for longer and the splints are superior to CPAP on several quality-of-life domains. In short, it may be worth trying the splints as they may work well for you and may be worth having as an alternative to the bulky machine and facemask particularly for holidays or times away from home.
Snoring is the sound made from the vibrations of the tongue, throat, mouth or nasal passages as the sleeper breathes. These parts of the body relax during sleep and can become narrower as a result.
Some people are more prone to snoring than others. If you are overweight, smoke or drink a lot of alcohol then one or more of these can all lead to loud snoring. Even if you just sleep on your back, then this alone can result in snoring. Some people who suffer from the condition called sleep apnoea will also snore; this is when the airway becomes temporarily blocked during the sleep pattern.
25% of the UK population suffers from some sort of sleep disorder including restless leg syndrome, sleep apnoea and snoring.
Snoring affects around 3.5 million in the UK. Snoring can cause real issues between husbands, wives and partners and put a genuine and serious strain on a relationship. Snoring disrupts the sleep of other household members creating real challenges on a day to day basis caused by drowsiness, lack of motivation and just a general inability to cope with the mental and physical challenges of life.
The British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association had found in a survey that 54% of people have had their holidays ruined by snoring. The trouble with hotels and holiday apartments is that you can’t always decamp to another room to avoid the noise!
Unsurprisingly, the market is awash with anti-snoring devices because it is such a common and disruptive problem for so many people. It can be hard to know which to try and this is often alongside resistance from the person who is snoring; they are usually the only person who is getting a good nights’ sleep.
We offer a mandibular advancement device which simply moves the lower jaw slightly further forward whilst you sleep. This keeps the soft palate open; having a low, thick soft palate will constrict the airway and people who are overweight will often have extra layers of tissue in this area which cause the same effect. Restriction in the soft palate is one of the main causes of persistent snoring.
Keeping the soft palate open will immediately allow a better flow of air and alongside supportive lifestyle changes which tend to work over the longer term, provide a multi-targeted approach to the problem and instant relief for the household.
There are lots of possible anti-snoring treatments including face masks and CPAP machines. Some of these options particularly the CPAP – Continuous Positive Airway Pressure – produce good results particularly for people suffering from sleep apnoea.
However, the problem is that CPAP is quite intrusive and also bulky and so constant use of the device is sometimes lower than mandibular splints which offer almost as good results but crucially, are also far less intrusive. The same applies to face masks which many people dislike the feel of at night even though we are all getting used to wearing them. Nasal strips don’t really get to the root of the problem which is commonly in the throat rather than the nose.
Mandibular splints as they are called are effective and data suggests a far better uptake than other forms of snoring intervention. They also provide virtually instantaneous results which are important and helps sufferers to commit to using the device for long periods. Quality of life is important and so is the quality of restful sleep. Disturbed and uncomfortable nights due to the feel and intervention of a device like CPAP will not encourage the snorer to make the necessary commitment to change.
Mandibular splints are portable and easy to use wherever you are and are more likely to be worn during time away from home too such as trips away or on holiday. They are simple to use and will encourage long-term commitment as an effective snoring remedy.
In around 99% of cases, snoring can be successfully using active intervention from snoring treatments like mandibular splints but some lifestyle changes can also help. Here are some daily changes that anyone can work which will improve the problem some of which will also help your general health.
One of the biggest challenges to curing the problem of snoring is persuading the culprit to commit to change. Our anti-snoring device has one of the best records for effectiveness in solving the problem but also for commitment to long-term usage.
