I know head position and all that affects snoring but how can someone be awake and laying down and not snore, but then fall asleep in the same position and then start snoring
In: 79
When you’re awake, the relevant muscles and tissues are tensed and held in a different posture, either in use or ‘at the ready’. When you fall asleep, everything relaxes. The mechanics of breathing also change, becoming slower and gentler.
Snoring happens when the tissues relax in such a way as to partially block the airway. As you breathe, forcing the air past them vibrates them enough to make an audible sound, amplified by the natural sounding chamber of your throat, mouth, and sinuses. This simply cannot happen while one is awake.
When a person is awake, they have full control over their muscles. When a person is sleeping, most of the muscles are relaxed. This includes the muscles that keep airways open. When a person with the ‘correct’ anatomy sleeps, their airways partially close leading to snoring. The extreme end of this is sleep apnoea, where the airway closes completely.
Snoring is the result of an obstruction in the airways that causes the tissues in the throat to vibrate as air passes through them. When a person is awake, they are typically able to maintain muscle tone in their throat and keep their airways open, which prevents snoring. However, when a person falls asleep, their muscles relax, including the muscles in their throat. This can cause the airways to narrow or become obstructed, leading to snoring. Some people may be more prone to snoring due to factors such as their weight, age, or the shape of their airways, which can make them more likely to snore when they are asleep.
I have sleep apnea and I immediately snore when I fall asleep.
It’s to do with your muscles relaxing when you are asleep and you have control when you are awake
Do you seriously not know the answer to this?
The same way you don’t fart in a room full of people. You’re awake and you have control. When you sleep, you are relaxed and do what you do.
From a doctor:
When you are awake, your mouth, tongue and throat muscles that make up your airway are constantly adjusting and tensing a little here and there – this is called muscle tone. We don’t notice it as it’s mostly not under our conscious control (just like we don’t have to think about standing to stay standing, thankfully). When you tense up a muscle it gets firmer. This is one of the reasons why our breathing pipe doesn’t collapse in on itself, as it is supported in part by those muscles staying firm, and our tongue stays in the front of our mouth because we like it to be there.
When we are asleep however, our muscles relax a bit. Our tongue might fall into the back of our throat and the rest of the other squishy bits in our noses, mouths and back of the throat can get too floppy. We also relax our neck muscles and our head can tilt forward, which kinks our airway.
So now instead of a smooth path for the air to flow into the lungs, there’s squishy muscles and other tissue in the way. We take a breath, those bits vibrate and create that irritating snoring noise. “Heavy breathing” is just a mild version of snoring.
Now the bonus ELI5 you didn’t ask for…
The more relaxed, or unconscious you are, the more likely you are to snore… or even block off your airway completely. People waking up from an anaesthetic, or people who are super-drunk often snore. If you perform a chin lift or jaw thrust (if you are trained, like in lifesaving courses) you straighten out and unblock their floppy (collapsed) airway and the snoring often stops instantly, which is sooooo satisfying 🤣
People with obstructive sleep apnoea have such floppy airways they completely block off and stop breathing (“apnoea”). When their oxygen levels drop sufficiently their brain wakes them up just enough for them to regain muscle tone, open up their airways, take a gasp and get some air in. This is one of the reasons why people with OSA are so tired as they are constantly waking up a tiny bit all night.
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