Snoring, commonly known as snoring, is a very common sleep phenomenon. Many people think that it is commonplace and do not take it seriously, and others see snoring as a sign of a good night’s sleep. In fact, snoring is the enemy of health, due to severe snoring will make the sleep of breathing repeated pauses, resulting in a serious lack of oxygen to the brain, blood, the formation of hypoxemia, and induced hypertension, cerebral cardiomyopathy, arrhythmia, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and other cardio-cerebral vascular diseases, medically referred to as snoring, sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome. Nighttime apnea of more than 120 seconds is prone to sudden death in the early hours of the morning. How is snoring formed? Is all snoring a disease? “Snoring is the sound produced by the vibration caused by the impact of airflow through the upper airway during sleep on the edge of the pharyngeal mucosa and the secretions on the mucosal surface. Occasional, light snoring is a normal sleep phenomenon. If the sound of snoring is more than 60 decibels, affecting other people’s rest or making other people irritable, then it is no longer a normal sleep phenomenon, it is snoring.” Snoring is more common among middle-aged people, with more men than women. Information shows that among adults aged 40-60 in the United States, the proportion of men suffering from snoring is as high as 50%, and 30% of women also suffer from snoring. The situation in China is not as serious as that in the United States, but a survey shows that the incidence of snoring among adults aged 45-59 in China is nearly 10%. Why snoring is often accompanied by breathlessness in sleep? This is mainly due to the snorer’s airway is usually narrower than normal people, during the daytime awake pharyngeal muscles compensatory contraction to keep the airway open, not blocked. However, at night when sleeping, the nerve excitability decreases, the muscles relax, the pharyngeal tissues are blocked, which makes the upper airway collapsed, and when the airflow passes through the narrow part, it generates vortex and causes vibration, which results in snoring, and when it is serious, the breathing can be stopped temporarily, which affects the person’s physical health. In addition, there are few people who snore because of central causes, such as encephalitis, brain tumors, intracranial injuries, which are caused by central lesions. At the same time, snoring due to various causes can also be further aggravated by central system lesions due to lack of oxygen. In addition, snoring is also likely to be caused by other physical causes. Current medical research reports show that obese people are more prone to snoring, and patients with diabetes, hypothyroidism, postmenopausal endocrine disorders and other diseases are more likely to have snoring problems. Most of the snoring people can not notice themselves, often through the same room sleepers to know their own snoring. Therefore, some people do not know they are suffering from snoring even when they wake up from sleep suffocation and are particularly uncomfortable. “Situations like this are already serious and need to be treated in the hospital as soon as possible.” Dr. Zheng Zhenyu said. Snorers need to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible. Dr. Zheng Zhenyu reminds: “Snoring not only affects other people’s rest, but also is not conducive to one’s own health, especially children’s snoring can not be ignored.” Children suffering from snoring will generally have short stature, intellectual development disorder, poor concentration, irritability and hyperactivity, and dislike of learning due to poor sleep quality and failure to achieve deep sleep. For infants and young children, their nervous system is in the developmental stage, and they are very sensitive to lack of oxygen. Snoring harms once the frequent episodes of severe apnea lead to lack of oxygen and metabolic disorders, and it is very easy to cause irreversible brain damage. For people with mild snoring, they can be relieved by some common methods, for example, put the pillow a little flat, try to make the head and airway to keep the flat state; keep sleeping on the side, avoid sleeping on the back (because when sleeping on the back the tissues of the back of the oral cavity will be sunk with gravity, hindering breathing); keep the nose breathing freely when sleeping, avoid breathing with the mouth when sleeping, and so on. However, for serious snoring patients, eliminating snoring is not so easy. One method is surgery to remove the excess soft tissue in the throat. This method is not once and for all, and attention needs to be paid to avoid recurrence after the surgery, otherwise after the surgery, the loose flesh may grow back after some time, blocking the breathing passage again, and snoring and breath-holding will rise again; there is also a method of using snoring stopper, also known as jaw forward device, which treats snoring with the mechanism of restoring the correct position and shape of the internal organs of the oral cavity, and allowing the teeth to be “grounded” by pulling the chin forward to “grounded”, creating an unobstructed airway, and achieving the goal of reducing or even fundamentally eliminating snoring and breath-holding. When it comes to treatment, some people have a one-sided belief in the efficacy of surgery, believing that it will solve all problems. “Not all snoring results will be good after surgery, there are indications for surgery, some snoring patients are suitable for surgery, while others are better off with non-surgical treatment.” Dr. Zhenyu Zheng said. “For snoring caused by obstructive reasons, surgery is an option; while snoring that is caused by central lesions will not do well with surgery.” Patients with this condition are better off with ventilator therapy. This treatment can expand the narrow airway in the pharynx through positive pressure ventilation, keep the airway open, improve the hypoxia of the blood, and play a certain therapeutic role in central nervous system lesions. Some people are concerned that this treatment will make them dependent on the ventilator for life. “Judging from the clinical results of the ventilator, this concern is not necessary.” Choosing ventilator therapy not only has an immediate therapeutic effect, but after four to six months of treatment, the original blocked pharyngeal passageway can be expanded through positive pressure ventilation, expanding the narrow airway in the pharynx and maintaining a more long-term therapeutic effect.” “In a sense, the ventilator is changing symptomatic treatment to causative treatment, removing the key issues that cause snoring from the cause. All of these effects were not expected by doctors at the beginning of treatment with the ventilator.”