It seems like people know that obese men and women snore more than their thin counterparts, but few people know the science of why that happens.
These are the facts.
1 in 4 people is afflicted with chronic snoring.
Snoring worsens with age, and, unfortunately, with weight.
The reason is this: When air is obstructed in the nose, mouth or throat, the throat vibrates during the breathing cycle.
This vibration is the noise we know as snoring.
Snoring itself is the vibration of the throat.
There are a few things that can trigger that vibration.
If nasal passages are partially blocked extra work is required to get air through to the lungs.
This sort of snoring worsens during allergy season, as people get congested because of pollen and grass amongst other things.
Chronic snoring has less to do with restriction from congestion.
Poor muscle tone in the throat causes relaxation of the already weak muscles, causing them to actually collapse into the airway.
Obese people suffer from extra thick throat tissue, which puts pressure on the air passages the same way weak throat muscles do.
Aside from losing weight and changing your dietary habits, there is one simple change you can make to better your ability to sleep at night.
Sleeping on a memory foam pillow could allow you superior comfort in the night.
How? Your neck adjusts to the shape of your pillow, which often causes air passages to constrict further than they would naturally.
Memory foam pillows work differently: the visco-elastic foam molds itself to the shape of your body.
While the problem may not clear entirely, a memory foam pillow could help greatly by loosening your air passages at night so you snore less, if at all.