Sleep snoring is generally considered to be a sign of good sleep, and people think that snoring only affects others and has little effect on them. However, in recent decades, it has attracted more and more attention from the medical profession because many patients not only snore loudly, but also stop at times, and some of them even pause their breathing dozens of times per hour during sleep at night, and the accumulated pause time reaches the hour level, and the condition is so serious that they can’t live normally because they drive and doze off. This kind of snoring is called malignant snoring by modern medicine, and the accurate name is sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome. According to a survey, the prevalence of malignant snoring in adults is as high as 30%-60%, especially in patients with hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, where long-term oxygen deprivation is a hidden killer of life. Therefore, adults who snore should not take it seriously and should go to the hospital to see if they need treatment. Under normal circumstances, when we sleep, the soft tissue of the pharyngeal muscles will automatically relax, and the jaw and tongue will fall backwards, blocking the airway or reducing the smoothness of the airway, therefore, the airflow through the airway must be accelerated. The result of faster breathing is that the soft tissues of the pharynx oscillate, and the snoring sound is the sound of this oscillation. Occasional snoring is not a big obstacle to the human body, but people who snore severely, the upper airway will be completely closed. The lungs will not receive oxygen for up to 30 seconds. People who snore badly usually fall asleep with loud gasps, and sleep apnea lasts for tens of seconds or longer each time, and is repeatedly cycled during sleep, reaching dozens or even hundreds of times a night. You can imagine how much damage can be done to the muscle for such a long time without oxygen supply. The snoring of Zhang Fei in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a typical manifestation of this disease. The final death cannot be said to be without the credit of this disease. There are many reasons for snoring, besides physiological reasons such as enlarged tonsils, loose soft palate, long uvula, nasal lesions, etc., there are also reasons such as decreased body immunity, too greasy diet, old age, overweight, incorrect sleeping posture, excessive smoking and drinking. Therefore, people who snore in bed should first figure out what causes it, and receive good results only with symptomatic treatment. What are the dangers of long-term sleep apnea to human body? Sleep apnea can cause harm to people of all ages. First of all, long-term sleep apnea can cause growth retardation in infants and children and make them prone to recurrent upper respiratory infections. In addition, sleep disturbances, nighttime crying and abnormal daytime behavior can occur. Loss of appetite. For children, it can cause cognitive abnormalities including abnormal behavior, learning difficulties and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, enuresis, etc. It can also cause slow growth and even cardiovascular system diseases, in addition to facial development deformities, such as adenoid face, etc. For young and middle-aged people, it can cause serious damage to the heart and brain organs. For men, long apnea can cause impotence and premature ejaculation, making the age of sexual decompensation 15-30 years earlier, and even lead to hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke and other serious diseases. If left untreated, it will also cause symptoms such as fatigue, body fatigue, dizziness, dramatic reduction in sexual ability, significantly accelerated aging, and will further aggravate hypertension, heart disease and other diseases. For the elderly, hypertension, heart disease, cerebral thrombosis and other chronic diseases would have found their bodies, and if there is sleep apnea, it is like “adding insult to injury”, life will be more serious threats, the chances of inducing stroke, hemiplegia and other serious diseases that are difficult to take care of themselves will greatly increase. It is especially worth noting that pregnant women are also a major risk group. Pregnant women with severe snoring will have increased blood pressure and the possibility of hypoxemia, and these pathological changes will affect the development of the fetus, resulting in fetal growth retardation. Pregnant women with a long history of sleep apnea should always be alert for any significant increase in fetal heart rate. Moreover, not only pregnant women, but also women with sleep apnea before marriage, if left untreated, will not only affect their sex life after marriage and the development of the fetus after pregnancy, but also cause rough skin, dull complexion, irregular menstruation, and even enter menopause 3 to 15 years earlier. Since there is so much harm readers will certainly ask what exactly should be done? Now, there are many ways to treat sleep apnea breathing. For example, wearing a positive pressure ventilator and surgical treatment. The effect of the ventilator is very certain, however, most patients cannot bear the pain of wearing a big mask again during sleep and have to resort to other methods such as surgical treatment. Minimally invasive surgical procedures such as low-temperature plasma surgery and laser surgery are now the first and foremost surgical treatment, and the name of the procedure is palatopharyngoplasty. Cryo-plasma radiofrequency ablation is one of the most widely used techniques, which is safe, less painful after surgery, fast recovery and positive results. For pediatric patients, only the tonsils and adenoids can be decompensated , to relieve some parents of the concern of immune deficiency after removal. For adults, the tonsils are often routinely removed and then the soft palate is surgically shaped, so it can be said that this surgery is somewhat like plastic surgery in the mouth. Our hospital has carried out this minimally invasive surgery earlier, with rich experience and positive results, and patients come from all over the country, which is highly praised by patients and peers. However, the etiology of snoring is very complicated, and the above mentioned are only the most common cases. In some patients, it is not enough to perform surgery only on the above mentioned parts, but often, surgery on the nasal cavity and the root of the tongue is needed to receive better results. Therefore, it is important to identify the cause of the problem before determining the specific treatment plan. In addition, there are some painless self-improvement methods in daily life that can provide relief or treatment. For example, side lying and weight loss are good methods. Side lying can reduce the pressure on the airway caused by the fat in the neck and chest, which helps to reduce snoring. And weight loss can relieve the fat deposits in the neck and prevent the narrowing of the upper airway lumen. In addition, it is also very important to quit smoking and alcohol. Because excessive smoking will stimulate congestion and edema of the pharyngeal mucosa and increase the narrowing of the pharyngeal cavity, while excessive alcohol consumption will make the flaccid soft palate droop and the fatty tongue root fall back, leading to narrowing of the upper airway, both of which will induce or aggravate apnea. In short, patients with sleep apnea must visit the ENT department of a regular hospital to identify the cause and determine a treatment plan for active treatment, and never wait until serious complications arise before treating them. With the improvement of the country’s economic strength and the people’s living standard, there are more and more diseases of affluenza, and the chances of affluenza with sleep apnea are quite high. Adequate awareness of the disease has become one of the most important tasks to improve the quality of the nation. As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”, only early prevention and early treatment will not leave regrets and improve the health of the nation.