How snoring is like a heart murmur

You are told that you snore.  So what?  What does snoring mean?  

Snoring is noisy breathing during sleep.  There is most commonly noise with the inhale breath, but there can also be snoring when you exhale.  The air that is moving through your throat as you breathe is turbulent and causes the tissues to vibrate.  Kind of like the air escaping from a full balloon.  Or like a heart murmur.  

Yep, a heart murmur. 

A heart murmur is the sound that turbulent blood makes as it travels through your heart.  That’s what is heard with your doctor’s stethoscope. 

And, also like a heart murmur, it is possible that snoring is benign. But you have to get it checked out to know for sure.  Because the noise of snoring may be your body’s signal that there is a bigger problem.  Snoring means there is turbulent air flow, and this can be caused by breathing through a narrow air passage– because your throat tissues have collapsed during sleep.  Even a partial obstruction to your breathing can cause your blood oxygen levels to go down.  Snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea, a breathing problem that is profoundly detrimental to your health and well-being. 

Oh, you only snore a little bit?  Or you snore for a little while and then stop?  Or only snore on your back?  Hmm, the same can be true for a heart murmur.  A little heart murmur, an intermittent heart murmur, or a positional heart murmur also deserves to be evaluated.  

Just like your snoring.  

Snoring can be variable, but this doesn’t correlate well with the presence or severity of sleep apnea.

And the absence of snoring doesn’t necessarily mean you DON’T have sleep apnea.  Because you may have complete collapse of your airway, which means no air flow at all.  No air flow, no snoring.