Don’t let a snoring partner keep you awake

It’s relationship annoyance number one: a snoring partner. It drives you crazy at night. But what exactly is snoring, what causes it, and what can you do about it?

Snoring occurs because your muscles relax when you sleep. This includes the muscles in your tongue and palate. As a result, your airway narrows when you breathe in and open your mouth. The air travelling through the narrowed airway makes the uvula, mouth, and throat vibrate, which results in snoring.

This constriction can have several causes, such as the tongue and the uvula sliding backwards when you lie on your back. But it can also be caused by irritation of the respiratory tract or, if you are unlucky, by genetic predisposition.

Bad habits such as excessive alcohol consumption and smoking make snoring worse, and unfortunately the risk of snoring is even higher if you are overweight.

It can be hard to stop snoring. A few tips that can help:

• try to sleep on your side
• do not drink alcohol
• do not use any sleeping pills
• do not smoke
• if you are overweight, try to lose weight

All Auping Smart bases (that’s our smart adjustable mesh base) have an anti-snoring function. The moment someone snores, the back section goes up a bit or the snorer gets a gentle nudge, so that they turn over and the snoring stops.

The anti-snoring function works with an app that’s linked to the Auping Smart base. In that app, you can set what you want the Auping Smart base to do as soon as snoring sounds are detected. You can choose between two options:

• ‘Lift’: the back section of the bed rises slightly so your throat opens a little and the snoring stops. The back section stays up slightly until you stop snoring again. This option is best if you sleep on your back.
• ‘Nudge’: the back section goes up and down a few times and ensures the snorer turns over. Your bed actually gives you a little ‘nudge’. This function is mainly for people who sleep on their side.

• 30% to 50% of Dutch people snore
• men snore more often than women
• a snorer can produce up to 100 dB of sound, which sounds like a rock concert in your bedroom
• the older you get, the more likely you are to snore
• you’re more likely to snore if you sleep on your back