Are you someone
who snores? Are you someone who also drinks a lot, or just likes have a
"belt" before bed? It may surprise you to know that snoring and
alcohol consumption are actually related! You could be causing your own snoring
by having those few drinks, whether they're during the day or right before
bedtime. Let's take a closer look at just how it is that snoring and alcohol
consumption go hand-in-hand.
Too Deep of
Sleep
Getting deep
sleep is important for the body to adequately rest and refresh itself. Daytime
naps are fine, but to really function optimally, the body does need that deep,
REM stage sleep.
However,
snoring and alcohol consumption seem to be connected in that alcohol causes a
person to sleep just too deeply. This means that the body cannot regulate it's own
breathing and air passages. The mouth falls open involuntarily, and snoring
occurs. When you're not sleeping this deeply, the body will know to breathe
through the nose as it should, but snoring and consumption of alcohol are
closely related when a person is sleeping too soundly to have the body react as
it should.
Drying Your
Throat
If you've ever
cleaned a wound or cut with rubbing alcohol, you know how dry your skin gets
around it. Obviously the alcohol in drinks is very different (and we would
never recommend you drink rubbing alcohol!) but it still has something of the
same effect on your skin in your throat. The alcohol dries the skin around your
mouth, throat, tongue, and other areas of your respiratory system.
Snoring occurs
when air passing over this area causes the membranes of the throat to vibrate,
which happens more when those membranes are overly dry. If you're snoring, and
alcohol consumption is a part of your daily life or part of your bedtime
routine, you are just drying up your throat even more and causing your body to
snore that much more.
It may be
difficult for you to consider giving up your daily or nightly drinks, however,
when you consider the obvious connection between snoring and alcohol
consumption, you might want to consider how to at least cut back. Try not to
have a drink for at least an hour before bedtime. Have a glass of water or
rinse your throat with an alcohol-free mouthwash to remove the alcohol residue.