Why do people snore?

Question

I am 33 years old, and I have been told by my parents and my wife that I snore. My question is - what is the reason for snoring? Is it a symptom of bad health?

Answer 1

As explained here [1], it is the price we've paid for our ability to speak:

Obstructive sleep apnea is an anatomic illness caused by evolutionary changes in the human upper respiratory tract. These changes include shortening of the maxillary, ethmoid, palatal and mandibular bones, acute oral cavity-skull base angulation, pharyngeal collapse with anterior migration of the foramen magnum, posterior migration of the tongue into the pharynx, descent of the larynx and shortening of the soft palate with loss of the epiglottic–soft palate lock-up. While it is commonly believed that some of these changes had positive selection pressures for bipedalism, binocular vision and locomotion, development of voice, speech and language ultimately became a substantial contributing factor. Here it is shown that these changes are the anatomic basis of obstructive sleep apnea.

Many people who don't have obstructive sleep apnea, will snore as a result of these evolutionary adaptations. You can let your doctor examine your throat, if you feel drowsy during the day you can do a sleep test to see of you suffer from sleep apnea. But snoring in itself doesn't necessarily have to be due to a pathological problem that needs to be treated.

[1] T. M. Davidson, The Great Leap Forward: the anatomic basis for the acquisition of speech and obstructive sleep apnea, Sleep Medicine 4 (2003), 185–194.

Answer 2

Snoring is the sound produced by vibrating structures of the upper airway, typically during inhalation. Those who have enlarged tonsils, an enlarged tongue or excess weight around the neck are more prone to snoring. When you sleep, muscle tone throughout your body decreases, or becomes hypotonic that results in the harsh vibratory noise.