We tend to talk a lot about how damaging snoring and related conditions like Sleep Apnea can be for a sufferer’s health, but let’s not forget that it can also have a major effect on a sufferer’s partner.
It is estimated that someone who is sleeping with a loud snorer will, on average, lose the equivalent of an hour’s sleep each night, due to the interruption to their sleeping patterns that this disturbance can cause. As we know, the facts of Sleep Apnea are that a sufferer will experience sporadic blockages of the breathing passages as they sleep, which prevents them, intermittently, from breathing. Typically, this problem clears itself through loud, explosive snoring, the shock of which is forceful enough to jolt a sleeping partner from one phase of sleep to another.
Obviously, the stresses and strains this places on the sufferer’s body have a number of unfortunate consequences, such as increased blood pressure, excessive tiredness and difficulty concentrating during the day, and a number of other symptoms.
The partner of the sleep apnea sufferer, or chronic snorer for that matter, won’t be directly experiencing these physiological effects, but they will end up with some of the problems of reduced quality sleep, both physical and mental. That hour a night figure we mentioned at the start of the article is quite a lot. It doesn’t take long over time for the negative effects to really start stacking up.
That’s the bad news, now here’s the good. Seeking help for this problem can make a difference almost immediately. In studies of couples where a partner started to use a treatment such as a CPAP mask or even lesser snoring aids like nasal strips or a chin strap, their partner saw a drastic improvement in the quality of their sleep- often gaining almost all of that ‘lost hour’ back again.
This is heartening news for anyone who is suffering from snoring problems, and anyone who is feeling guilty about putting their partner through difficulties. Getting help, and using the right anti-snoring aid, can make all the difference!
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