How Nasal Congestion Can Result In Snoring?

When you have nasal congestion, breathing through nose becomes difficult and breathing takes place through mouth.

When your nasal congestion forces breathing through mouth during sleep, greater negative pressure is developed behind the uvula and soft palate.

The negative pressure increases the vibration of uvula and soft palate during sleep and creates the sound called snoring.

What are the reasons for nasal congestion?

Nasal congestion is caused due to different factors. Seasonal allergies and perennial allergies as well as sinusitis can cause swelling of the nose lining and turbinates, which increases nasal congestion.

Narrow intra-nasal anatomy from deviated nasal septum can cause physical blockages. Airflow is blocked due to sinus and intra-nasal polyps and due to benign and cancerous growths.

Significant congestion can interfere with sleep, cause snoring and is associated with not breathing episodes during sleep. In children, nasal congestion due to enlarged tonsils cause chronic sleep apnea.

The other causes of nasal congestion are common cold and flu, often accompanied by watery discharge from nose, headache, sore throat and cough and hay fever accompanied by watery discharge, sneezing and itchy eyes which can result in snoring.

How to treat nasal congestion to stop snoring?

Treatment includes avoiding allergens that cause seasonal and perennial allergies. Take allergy medications and immunotherapy for treating allergies. Sinusitis can be treated with antibiotics.

Decongestants for snoring:

Some decongestants can be taken in pill form and some can be sprayed into the nose. Decongestants reduce blood supply to nasal mucus membranes by narrowing blood vessels. This reduces nasal congestion. If your snoring is caused due to nasal congestion, decongestants can help.

Oral decongestants not only narrow blood vessels in the nose, but they also narrow blood vessels in other parts of the body. Due to the narrowing of blood vessels, you can see side effects such as nervousness and high blood pressure.

Nasal decongestant sprays narrow the blood vessels in the nose but not in other parts of the body. Therefore, side effects are rare than oral decongestants.

Nasal decongestant sprays should be used only for few days, using for longer period can cause rhinitis medicamentosa. It is a condition in which decongestant gives relief initially but worsens nasal congestion.

Nasal decongestant sprays works within ten minutes and can relieve nasal congestion for up to twelve hours. When the amount of nasal congestion is reduced, you can be able to reduce snoring

Side effects with nasal congestion:

• Trouble sleeping or insomnia
• High blood pressure
• Headache
• Increased pulse rate
• nervousness

Use decongestants for short period. Take the dose prescribed by your doctor. Overdose can cause serious health problems. Discuss with your doctor about both the problems so that they can suggest for how many days you can use nasal decongestants.