(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-27 11:01

BERLIN: It recurs at regular intervals, over and over again: The fluttering sound of "sawing logs" that often robs sleep from the partners of snorers.

The habit is not merely annoying. "It can even be a health risk," notes Volker Schilling, chief physician for head and throat surgery and disorders of the ears, nose and throat at the Vivantes Clinic in Berlin's Neukoelln district.

Snoring results from an obstruction to the flow of air through passages at the back of the mouth and nose. When muscles in the soft palate and uvula are relaxed, they can vibrate noisily as the sleeper breathes.

Certain factors contribute to snoring, Schilling says, "such as being overweight or having a late, heavy meal, which busies the body with digestion".

About 2 percent of snorers suffer from a dangerous disorder called sleep apnea. "Apnea is a constriction of the upper respiratory tract, causing breathing to stop for several seconds, or up to a minute and a half," explains Winfried Randerath, a sleep physician from the German city of Solingen.

Muscles go slack, and the tongue - a large muscle - falls backward into the throat, blocking it. "This cuts off the airway and leads to an oxygen deficiency in the blood," says Schilling, who adds that an affected person's muscles then tense, bringing him or her out of a deep sleep into a lighter one.

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