Effects of Excessive Snoring


Snoring is a noisy condition that causes many to lose sleep. While mild snoring might go unnoticed, excessive snoring is of great disturbance especially to the family member(s) sharing the room (or even the house) with the snoring person. This might create psychological stress as well as social tension in relationships.

Excessive Snoring and Social Relationships

Though the patient cant help loud snoring, it is often hard for the patients spouse/partner to put up with this disturbance during sleeping time. A survey conducted in Britain in 2005 shows that the problem caused by excessive snoring may lead to divorce.

Research reveals that in 80 % cases of snoring, partners eventually end up sleeping in separate rooms. The Rush University Medical Center in Illinois has found that couples, in which the male is suffering from sleep apnea and associated excessive snoring, have a divorce rate.

If the cases of snoring do not reach the extreme of divorce, these affect marital relationships in another way: failing sexual life. Studies show that in snoring cases, more than one fourth nearly give up their sex life and about 60 % prefer to sleep separately. More than half of the couples were found to have sex less than once a month.

One thing that is taken little notice of but that aggravates the situation invisibly is the fact that snoring is dealt as joke-topic in conversation, though it can topple social relationships.

Effects of Excessive Snoring on Women

In an interesting study at the Avesta Hospital in Sweden, researchers found that women living with heavy-snoring men more frequently suffer from several health problems. These include headache in the morning, sleep disturbances, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue. The alarming thing is that sleeping in separate bedrooms was also found of little use. The stress level of women remained nearly the same and the symptoms showed no alleviation. It is therefore extremely important to get the men treatment for snoring so as to save a relationship from going on rocks.

Snoring and Childrens Academic Performance

There is some evidence that children snoring during early childhood are likely to be poor academic performers in middle schools. It is advisable therefore to treat snoring in children as early as possible.

Snoring and Hearing Loss

While excessive snoring was once thought of related to hearing loss (which often is a normal phenomenon associated with aging), some of the latest research finds this not to be the case. Researchers at the University of Toronto found in a 1999 study that long exposure to snoring does not relate to hearing loss.