Many people find it unbelievable when their partner tells them about their snoring. When you sleep peacefully, your partner keeps awake due to your loud snoring. People wonder if I really do snore and if so, why can’t i hear myself snore? Well, you will find all the answers about snoring in this article.
This mysterious phenomenon does have a logical explanation. While sleeping, our brain’s certain areas become dead or deactivated, and the ability to hear sounds lessens. That’s why the body ignores the non-threatening sound of snoring. Now, let’s get into the detailed explanation of our body’s nervous system.
Table of Content:
This table of content allows you to see what content you will get from this entire article. It will help you by providing quick navigation and a view of contents.
Why Does Snoring Happen?
Snoring happens when you become unable to move the air freely through the throat and nose while sleeping. This thing makes your nasal tissues vibrate, which is the main reason behind the snoring sound. Another reason is when the nose muscles start relaxing, and the tongue falls back into the throat.
Also, a narrower throat, nasal polyps, enlarged tonsils, deviated septums, poor muscle tone, bulky throat tissues are the reasons for snoring. People snore for several reasons, and finding out the actual one is very hard. Here are some common causes for happening snoring:
Age
As the age grows, the throat becomes narrower, and the throat muscle decreases. Thus, older people face difficulties while breathing, which causes snoring.
Overweight
Carrying fatty tissues, excess weight, and poor muscle around the throat or neck causes snoring. Some people are genetically overweight; they should control their bedtime routines, lifestyle and do some throat exercises.
Nasal Issues
Stuffy nose, blocked airways, and nasal congestion make it difficult to inhale air properly. Also, it creates a vacuum in the throat which causes snoring.
Alcohol, Smoking, & Medication
Intaking alcohol, high-dose drugs, and frequent smoking makes the muscle relaxed and leads to more snoring.
Sleeping Posture
People snore most while sleeping on their back. This position makes the throat flesh relax and blocks the airways. In this case, changing the posture can help you.
Surroundings
The air we inhale most of the time contains dust, pollen, contaminants, allergens, etc. These things cause allergy, nose blocking, cold, and ultimately snoring.
Why Can’t I Hear Myself Snore?
It is a common morning scenario where the husband or wife reminds you how your snoring keeps them awake all night. In this section, we will discuss the reason behind why can’t i hear myself snore?
Ronald Chervin, director of the Sleep Disorders Center, says it probably relates to how the brain processes sensory information during sleep. Actually, to sustain life, the nervous system of your body keeps monitoring hundreds of signals while you sleep. The most important functions are regulating the heart rate and breathing that the nervous system handles.
Your body repairs and rebuilds itself while sleeping, and during this process, the brain’s certain area becomes dead. That’s why when you rest, the function of listening sounds lessens and ignores the non-threatening sounds. Then why do people wake up with the sound of the alarm, crying, or other loud sounds?
It is because the brain can recognize and respond to unusual or exceptional sounds. The Thalamus, a part of our brain, filters out the expected and unexpected actions. For example, we are more likely to wake up when hearing our name rather than the others.
Another thing, the constant noise like the spinning of a fan, the clock ticking, etc., doesn’t affect us at all. These are the facts that keep you unaware of your snoring sound and let you sleep.
Is Snoring Physically Harmful?
Since you can’t hear snoring noise, that doesn’t mean it won’t create any health issues. This thing can indicate serious health problems like heart attack, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and many more. Chronic snoring directly affects the sleeping hours, which can cause sleeping disorders like obstructive sleep apnea.
OSA can lead a person to daytime sleepiness and exhausted which can be very risky while driving. It can affect your mental well-being as there is a deep link among sleep apnea, snoring, and depression. A study stated that people with daytime sleepiness feel more anxiety and depression.
For pregnant women, snoring can increase the risk of fatal complications. Researchers found connections between morning headaches and snoring as well as sleep apnea. Snoring and OSA is linked to cardiovascular diseases like coronary artery disease and high blood pressure.
Data suggests that loud snorers are likely to have fatal heart attacks and non-fatal heart disease. The louder you snore, the greater chance of risk you have for a stroke and high blood pressure. Snoring can also cause gastroesophageal reflux disease as their throat closes while air flows during sleep.
Closed-mouth snoring indicates the tongue problem of yours, and open-mouth snoring is related to throat tissues. If you snore in all sleeping positions, that means the situation is more difficult and may require proper treatment. Snoring while sleeping only on the back stated that you might probably have mild snoring. If you improve your sleeping habits and change the lifestyle, snoring may be cured.
Conclusion
There are some instances where people wake up when they snore loudly, but it happens very rarely. When people enter into the slow-wave deep sleep cycle pattern, they become inattentive to everything around. Researchers stated that normally people wake up during the night several times, but they don’t even realize it.
Some snorers make so much noise that the other person can’t even shut their eyes for once. The next morning they even can’t realize this thing as they didn’t hear the sound of their snoring. This article explained why can’t i hear myself snore so you can get detailed knowledge about it.
