Loud Snoring May Damage Hearing

A person who snores not only disturbs the sleep of others. He may damage their hearing. This was revealed by Mark Bricklin, executive editor of Prevention magazine, who said that a snorer sounds like a "yammering jackhammer" or a "ringing alarm clock."

How much noise does a snorer create? ...A person who snores not only disturbs the sleep of others. He may damage their hearing. This was revealed by Mark Bricklin, executive editor of Prevention magazine, who said that a snorer sounds like a "yammering jackhammer" or a "ringing alarm clock."

How much noise does a snorer create? Bricklin said the rumbling reaches an average of 80 decibels for an eight-hour period of sleep. This figure exceeds the US Environmental Protection Agency standard for noise pollution and may seriously impair hearing.

A decibel is a numerical unit which stands for the relative loudness of sound. Ordinary conversation is about 60 decibels while noisy traffic reaches 90 decibels, according to the late Dr. Morris Fishbein, the former editor of “The journal of the American Medical Association.”

"Pain threshold for most people in 120 decibels. Ear damage can result from sounds over 85 decibels - the measurement obtained when all appliances in the kitchen are turned on at once," he said in his “Popular Illustrated Medical Encyclopedia.”

What's the best way to escape a snorer's wrath? Start by asking him to visit a doctor. Snoring is caused by breathing through the mouth. The unpleasant sound it produces is the result of the vibration of the soft palate (the roof of the mouth).

A person may snore for the following reasons: He may have adenoids, a deflected nasal septum, partial obstruction of the nose brought about by hay fever; the common cold, nasal polyps (non-malignant growths), sinusitis, allergic rhinitis (the inflammation of the membranes of the nasal passages caused by an allergy), swollen or enlarged tonsils or pharyngitis (sore throat).

In others, the problem may follow the habit of sleeping with the mouth wide open or on the back instead of the side.

More men than women snore which means the problem is somehow related to the male hormone testosterone. Snorers are also more likely to suffer from heart disease and high blood pressure. This was disclosed by University of Toronto medical professors Peter G. Norton and Earl V. Dunn in an article in “The British Medical journal.”

The two said there may be a link between snoring and certain diseases because some snorers have pulmonary hypertension while others lose much oxygen from the blood while they sleep. This makes them susceptible to diabetes, rheumatism, allergies, chest disease, depression and alcoholism. A lot of snorers are also overweight, the two added.

While snoring may be difficult to stop, you can nick the noise by determining and treating the cause of your problem. Since fat people tend to have poor muscle tone in the throat which makes them snore, the sensible thing to do is to lose weight and stop smoking.

Drinking heavily and taking too many drugs can over-relax the palate and uvulva (the cone-shaped piece of tissue which hangs down from the soft palate in the back of the mouth). This, in turn, causes snoring. To avoid this, don't take anything at least two hours before bedtime.

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