This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Anyone who has had to share a room—or worse, a bed—with a loud snorer knows the effect unchecked snoring can have on sleep, sanity and emotional stability. An entire industry of products, technologies and treatments claims to cure or prevent loud snoring, with varying degrees of success.
Most scientific research into snoring, however, is aimed at treating sleep apnea, a serious and potentially life-threatening condition distinct from ordinary snoring. But snoring not caused by sleep apnea can still be debilitating for the snorer and for the people who have to put up with it. Scientists are still unsure exactly how the sound produced by snoring is generated, which inhibits their ability to prescribe solutions.
In Physics of Fluids researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden developed a 3D model of the upper airway, complete with dynamic airflow, soft tissues and sound generation. Their goal was to understand how these elements relate to one another. "Many existing studies simplify breathing or neglect the interaction between airflow, tissue motion, and sound generation," said author Peng Li.
"We hope to better understand how breathing drives snoring and identify the dominant sound generation mechanisms." If you touch the roof of your mouth, directly behind your teeth, you'll feel a rigid, almost bony surface. This is the hard palate, which extends several inches into the back of your mouth. Further back, however, this hard surface gives way to a smoother, more spongy texture called the soft palate.
This soft tissue was the focus of the group's analysis. Using their computational model, the researchers re-created the upper-airway environment, simulating the movement of air through the mouth and watching closely for sound-producing vibrations. They found that the loudest sounds resulted from unsteady airflow across the soft tissues of the mouth, hinting at possible anti-snoring solutions.
"Our results suggest that reducing soft palate vibration or unsteady aerodynamic loading may help reduce palatal snoring," Li said. "This could inform evaluation of palatal stiffening procedures or other interventions that modify tissue mechanics or airflow." While their model can reveal the mechanics behind snoring, it is still too simplified to offer detailed recommendations for preventing it. For that, the researchers plan to expand their simulation to incorporate the effects of possible treatment options.
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