Has your husband or partner recently informed you that you're bringing down the house at night with your snoring? Impossible, you say. However, menopausal women may start snoring for the first time in their lives because of the sleep disruptions they are encountering as well as other contributing age-related factors. Hot flashes, night sweats, restless leg syndrome, achy muscles, getting up to urinate (repeatedly), stiff joints and a ton of stresses waiting for you upon waking do not produce restful sleep and may exacerbate snoring.
Snoring Increases During Menopause
Sleep disorders, such as snoring and apnea, are not all that common in pre-menopausal women; however, that changes dramatically after menopause. According to Webmd.com, this may be attributed to weight gain or to laxness in the neck muscles, which occurs with age. Whether fluctuating hormones are part of the reason for an increase in snoring among menopausal women has yet to be determined conclusively.
Contributing Factors
People who are older, overweight and are generally out of shape are apt to snore, according to Women.webmd.com. As we get older, we lose our muscle tone and that includes in our palate. The palate becomes flabby, according to Dr. Joseph Scianna, MD, and co-director of Loyola University Health System's Nasal Sinus Center. When the palate becomes flabby, it is more susceptible to vibration. If you are drinking alcohol before you go to bed, this further relaxes the muscles in the airway, which can exacerbate snoring.
Hormonal Influence
According to the Vancouver Sleep and Breathing Center, the ratio of male to female snorers is 2 to 1; however, the gap closes after a woman enters menopause. It may be that the female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone, which drop out of sight during menopause, prevent younger women from snoring. Women snore more during the last stages of their pregnancies, which is believed to be hormonally related, according to Aolhealth.com. Hormones may have something to do with an increase in snoring among menopausal women, although this would be due to the lack of them and not because of an excess of them.
Snoring Takes its Toll
Mothernature.com reports that five percent of women between the ages of 30 and 35 snore on a regular basis. That percentage increases to 40 percent by the age of 60. Most 60-year-old women are well into menopause. Even if you aren't aware that you are snoring, Dr. Richard Millman, director of the Sleep disorders Center of Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, says it is still taking its toll on you. Snoring takes away your vigor and can decrease your mental acuity during the day because you aren't sleeping that well. In addition, heavy snoring has been linked to heart disease.
Those Especially at Risk
Women who are shorter and heavier than average snore more than tall, thin women, according to Noseworks.com, which applies to both pre- and post menopausal women. Snoring women have more nasal problems and are at a higher risk for heart disease and hypertension, according to the 1992 Cardiac Consult Review.
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