Pamela did suspect apnea, but three internists dismissed her concerns before a fourth doctor referred David to a sleep laboratory, where the problem was diagnosed. Three months later, after other treatments failed, Lentz underwent throat surgery, which laid both the snoring and the apnea to rest. If you or someone close to you snores or breathes irregularly at night, here's what you need to know to get diagnosed and treated right. How to silence snoring During sleep, the muscles supporting the soft tissues at the back of the throat tend to relax, letting the tissues sag into the airway. If the airway is already narrow due to fat deposits, enlarged tonsils, cysts, polyps, tumors, or just the natural anatomy of the throat, the air rushing through the even narrower opening may rattle the soft tissues, creating that rasping sound.
Apnea occurs when the problem worsens, shutting the throat completely.
Breathing stops until carbon dioxide builds up in the blood, triggering a gasp for breath and, in some people, kicking or other twitches. Shun drinks and drugs. Avoid sleeping pills, and skip alcohol and tranquilizers for at least four hours before bedtime. Those drugs cause the soft tissues at the back of the throat to sag even more. Smoking can cause those tissues to swell.