High Blood Pressure Is Linked to Snoring

Always at High Level of Blood Pressure? Do You Snore When You Sleep?

During sleep, the muscles of the whole body relax, and so do the muscles of the throat. The waves of “hoo – hoo – hooooo” sound is called snore. That’s because when you are breathing, the air in and out of the respiratory tract cause vibration.

In a thundering snore, some people repeatedly stop and start breathing while you sleep. The whole night in between “snoring – stop breathing – snoring again” loop is called sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome by the doctor.

Maybe you feel snoring during sleep is not a big problem, but as a matter of fact, it might be one of causes of your poor hypertension control!

What are the consequences of sleep apnea?

Hypoxemia, an abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood, is the result of “apnea” and “hypoventilation” during sleep. Thus although you seem to sleep for long time, your sleep is not of high quality. When getting up in the morning, you may feel dizzy, headache and dull. When working in the daytime, you may be easily tired and sleepy. Overtime, you may be accompanied by memory loss, aniety and irritability.

In addition, long-term hypoxemia can also cause vascular lesions. 45% to 48% of patients with sleep apnea have high blood pressure. There are studies showing that treating sleep apnea is helpful to take control of hypertension.

Moreover, obesity, diabetes and hyperlipidemia can also be caused by hypoxemia. The risk of coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular accident is much higher.

So who needs to be very careful about snoring? To put it simply, patients who are overweight, especially those with high blood pressure who have a stubby neck and no chin.

Obesity and snoring are a dangerous pair. Snoring can lead to obesity; obesity will aggravate snoring. There could be a vicious cycle. Then hypertension, diabetes, high blood lipid problems come out.

How to improving breathing and snoring?

1. The most important thing is to lose weight.

Keep a balanced diet. Don’t eat too much at each meal.

Maintain a certain amount of exercise. Half an hour of jogging, aerobics, swimming and other aerobic exercise every day. You can undertake the strength training of low intensity under the guidance of professional fitness coach. Although the strength training in low intensity cannot burns much fat, it is helpful to improve body shapeand control high blood pressure.

2. Keep a good sleep habit.

You may be prone to snoring during sleep when you feel tired or if you sleep after drinking. Therefore, avoid excessive fatigue in the daytime, and don’t drink alcohol before going to bed. Additionally, taking the position of sleeping on your side is also effective.

3. Home CPAP therapy.

Usually, CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine is used to treat sleep apnea. It can produce a certain amount of pressure, initiatively “blow” the air into the patient’s respiratory tract in the inhalation. It is good to improve the situation of hypoxemia during sleep.

The control of blood pressure is a problem. It cannot just rely on antihypertensive drugs.

If you have a problem with snoring during sleep and your blood pressure is monitored to be over high, it is recommended to take a sleep study in the hospital or to monitor your blood oxygen levels by using sleep apnea monitors at home.