Millions of Australians warned of silent bedtime killer: ‘A huge problem’

Snoring is a problem that most of us would rather forget about. It’s annoying for the sleeper and infuriating when it keeps you up all night.

But a new study of more than 12,200 people has found snoring could be silently killing millions of Australians at night. For the first time, Flinders University researchers have linked snoring to two serious illnesses: high blood pressure and uncontrolled hypertension.

Professor Danny Eckert, director of sleep health at the university, estimates that at least 7 million Australian adults snore and need to see a doctor.

Three Health Problems Directly Associated with Snoring

The Flinders University team identified three additional problems caused by snoring. “If you snore, you’re likely to have more disrupted sleep, and we know how restorative sleep is for all the processes in the body, including heart health,” Eckert told Yahoo News.

Second, the act of snoring itself is a sign that you are working harder to breathe, which places additional stress on the heart. This is because when we snore, the airway structures around the throat and back of the nose relax, causing the airways to narrow.

The third problem is that the vibrations of snoring cause plaque to build up in nearby arteries, which clogs the cardiovascular system and increases blood pressure. “Some people snore very loudly, sometimes over 100 decibels. That’s a lot of force, a lot of sound and energy transmitted to nearby structures,” Eckert says.

What is hypertension?

Call from a snoring expert to women and children

Most of the study participants were monitored for six months using sensors placed under their beds. The technology couldn’t determine whether certain types of snoring were linked to heart disease, but researchers suspect that louder snoring is more problematic.

About 15 percent of participants snored more than 20 percent of the night. Although the majority of them were overweight men, the study’s lead author, Dr. Bastien Lechat, warns that they are not the only ones at risk.

Women and children also experience sleep apnea regularly, and often do not seek treatment due to the stigma associated with the condition.

“It’s not something to be ashamed of, it may just be that your upper airway is naturally more congested, making you more likely to snore,” he said.

The study found that snoring and sleep apnea often overlap, indicating a common cause. Among people who snored, about 60% had sleep apnea.

“It’s a huge problem because 80 per cent of them go undiagnosed,” Lechat said. “The key message is that if you snore and you wake up in the morning and you’re a bit tired, or you feel a bit sleepy in the afternoon, then maybe see your GP and try to have a sleep study to see if there’s something more serious going on.

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