Why we snore by Chanie Kirschner

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Why we snore (and how to solve it)

It could be sleep apnea or allergies causing that horrific sound.

CHANIE KIRSCHNER

August 1, 2019, 2:20 p.m.

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You might not know you snore, but your significant other certainly does — and would like you to fix it. (Photo: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock)

Snoring is not an illness, but it can be a symptom of something more problematic.

When you fall into a deep sleep, the muscles in your body relax, including the muscles in your mouth. Sometimes they relax so much that they can partially block the airway, causing vibrations — and that’s snoring. In some cases, snoring is caused by your mouth anatomy — a low, thick palate or an unusually long uvula, for example. Sometimes, it’s due to nasal problems (like chronic congestion), sleep apnea or even alcohol.

The narrower your airway gets, the more forceful the airflow becomes, causing vibrations in the tissues in your throat. The greater the vibrations, the louder the snore.

Though snoring can happen in otherwise healthy people, there are several causes for snoring, ranging from the benign to the more serious.

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is the most serious underlying cause of snoring. People who have sleep apnea stop breathing over and over again while they’re sleeping. It’s characterized by episodes of especially loud snoring, followed by brief periods of silence when breathing momentarily stops. At that point, a person with sleep apnea will usually wake up gasping for air.

Sleep apnea occurs in about half of adults who snore loudly, according to the National Sleep Foundation. With sleep apnea the muscles of the airway relax so much that they close for up to 10 seconds at a time, at least five times every hour. Many times the problem is first detected by a bed partner. It’s then usually diagnosed by a sleep study performed in a sleep clinic. When you undergo a sleep study, sensors are put on your neck and face to measure how often you stop breathing during sleep. Sleep studies can diagnose the problem accurately and indicate the need for treatment.

Treatment for sleep apnea usually involves the use of a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine, which is worn while you sleep. It’s a mask connected to a tube that blows air into your nose or your nose and mouth to keep your airway open during sleep.

Sometimes, treatment can also include surgery to fix anatomical issues, such as tonsils or adenoids that are too large. (This is most often used for kids, who often have enlarged tonsils and adenoids, though this doesn’t always lead to sleep apnea.) In an overweight person, weight loss can ease the condition.

It’s imperative to treat sleep apnea because it causes more than just annoying snoring. It can also cause disturbed sleep and reduced oxygen flow, which can lead to depression, memory issues, strokes, osteoporosis and even heart disease and cancer.

Other snoring causes (and how to treat them)

A stuffy nose can trigger snoring. (Photo: Iakov Filimonov/Shutterstock)

There are several other, less severe, causes of snoring. They include:

Nasal congestion. When you’re stuffy and can’t breathe through your nose — whether from a cold or allergies — you breathe through your mouth, and that can trigger snoring. An antihistamine or steroid spray can help with the congestion.

Deviated septum. Sometimes the wall that separates one nostril from the other can be crooked or off-center and can contribute to snoring. About 80% of people may have issues with their septum. If you have significant problems — such as chronic sinus infections and breathing issues — your doctor may suggest medications or even surgery.

Alcohol. Alcohol works as a muscle relaxant, causing the airway muscles to relax more than they normally would. Drinking right before bedtime can lead to snoring. Sedatives can have a similar effect.

Aging. When I was a kid, I remember my grandmother dozing on the couch, snoring so loudly you could hear her in the kitchen, or even sometimes outside. As we age, our muscles tend to relax more, making snoring more common in older adults.

Lifestyle changes

It's harder to snore when sleeping on your side. (Photo: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock)

If your doctor has ruled out any serious medical issues, you may want to try some home remedies to prevent snoring. The Mayo Clinic suggests:

Sleep on your side. When you lie on your back, your tongue falls into your throat, which partially obstructs your airflow. Some people have success sewing a tennis ball into the back of their pajama top to keep them from always rolling onto their back.

Raise the head of your bed. Raising it about 4 inches may help.

Try nasal strips. Apply these adhesive strips to the bridge of your nose to open nasal passage and help breathing.

Lose weight. Extra pounds can often be linked to snoring. Being active throughout the day can help you keep a healthy weight, which might lead to less snoring.

Quit smoking. In addition to so many other health benefits, when you quit smoking you can also ease snoring.

Get enough sleep. Adults should get at least seven hours of sleep per night. When you're overly tired, you tend to sleep deeper which can trigger more snoring.

As long as it’s not caused by sleep apnea, snoring is not a worrisome problem (although your partner may adamantly disagree). If you’re experiencing other symptoms, such as daytime drowsiness or morning headaches, be sure to see your doctor to get to the underlying issues.

Editor's note: This story was written in November 2014 and has been updated with new information.

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Shailene Woodley and Greenpeace	Fri, Aug 2, 1:55 PM (2 days ago)
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Hi Nelson, I’m writing to you, right now, from the deck of the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. Our oceans are in a heap of trouble. Climate change. Deep sea mining. Overfishing. Plastic pollution. It’s as if all the world’s problems were just dumped into the great big blue. So we are sailing out to sea for the chance of a lifetime: to protect more of this planet than ever has been before. You’ve already joined the movement to support a Global Ocean Treaty — thank you!Now, will you share my message to your friends and family? ASk them to sign the petition for a bold Global Ocean Treaty and to create a massive network of ocean sanctuaries. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter I need your help to have a huge impact while I’m onboard. We need as many signatures as possible by August 19 when the United Nations will next discuss the treaty. This is real. Delegates are set to put us on a path to turn 30% of the oceans into sanctuaries for marine life. I didn’t hesitate when Greenpeace invited me to sail with them. Please don’t hesitate either, ask your friends to sign Greenpeace's petition now: Share on Facebook Share on Twitter I’m at sea to help research microplastic pollution in what could become the treaty’s first protected ocean sanctuary — the Sargasso Sea. This is the part of the Atlantic to the South East of North America. I’m told it’s roughly the international waters that make up the Bermuda Triangle. How neat is that? It gets even cooler. I’m learning so much from the scientist onboard! Here, ocean currents bring together truly massive matts of floating seaweed. It’s like a floating grassland. A mind blowing number of baby sea turtles and other creatures use it for food and protection. It’s like the Atlantic Ocean’s nursery. Those same currents also bring in plastics from all over the world. Turtles, seabirds and fish all ingest this plastic. Some don’t survive. And that is just one threat to this unique and globally vital ecosystem. The Sargasso Sea needs to be made a sanctuary so life all over the Atlantic can thrive. Help me make it happen! Share the petition with your friends and family.  Share on Facebook  Share on Twitter Thanks for all that you do and for joining me in this important adventure, Shailene Woodley Actor, Activist, Greenpeace Oceans Ambassador

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(Sun)Bathed in Energy Abundance

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Every five days, the Sun provides the Earth with as much energy as all proven supplies of oil, coal and natural gas. If humanity could capture just one 6,000th of Earth’s available solar energy, we’d be able to meet 100 percent of our energy needs. And today, we are riding a tremendous wave of advancements in both solar panel efficiency and novel methods of expanding surface area coverage. Meanwhile, the cost of solar continues to plummet, as this year’s price per watt of solar energy averaged around $3. Yet while the efficiency of current run-of-the-mill solar panels still hovers around 16-18 percent, traditional silicon solar panels have only reached half of their theoretical efficiency potential. And new materials science breakthroughs are now on track to double this theoretical constraint, promising cheap, efficient and abundant solar energy. As the price-performance ratio of solar technologies begins to undercut traditional energy sources, we will soon witness the mass integration of solar cells into everyday infrastructure, meeting energy demands across the globe. The Surge of Solar-Capturing Surfaces Traditionally, solar energy-generating plants have been deployed on swaths of out-of-eyesight farmland, or on the roofs of self-powered homes and commercial properties. Yet critics point to land area use as the single greatest barrier to widespread solar adoption. Over the next decade, however, solar panels will be installed almost ubiquitously across urban and semi-urban areas, embedded in our infrastructure, transparent surfaces and potentially even transit vessels. Even now, tens thousands of acres of unused urban space — not to mention the soon-to-be-repurposed parking land once driverless vehicle fleets proliferate — could be equipped with solar panels. And disruptive players are rapidly iterating on solar cell products to enhance their aesthetic appeal. Several of these technologies focus on integrating solar panels more seamlessly into our everyday lives. Imagine if every window and every glass surface could capture solar energy, for instance. New advancements in transparent solar panels will bring this future to fruition. Only five years ago, transparent solar panels (or solar cells embedded in transparent surfaces) could not harness nearly enough energy to justify cost and commercialization. In 2013, their efficiency stood between a mere 1 and 3 percent. What’s more, the opacity of these clear surfaces was still far too high, allowing little light penetration. Today, however, solar cells and solar capture materials are finally becoming sufficiently versatile for integration in glass and other aesthetic surfaces. Enter Ubiquitous Energy, a Silicon Valley startup that has raised $22.8 million to date. While still in its nascent stages, Ubiquitous Energy has now developed a transparent solar cell called ClearView Power, achieving 9.8 percent solar panel efficiency. A color-neutral coating for glass, ClearView Power can absorb and convert non-visible light (ultraviolet and infrared) into electricity. It can theoretically be applied to any window of an existing building. Perhaps most notable, however, is the company’s claim that its panels are as clear as glass itself, obstructing no visible light. To put this in perspective, Ubiquitous has nearly doubled the efficiency of glass solar panels just one year after researchers at Michigan State University announced a similar panel with mere 5 percent efficiency in 2018. Within the next decade, commercialized solar-capturing glass could begin to populate every skyscraper, school, and residential rooftop, generating abundant and newly democratized energy. And now, opaque solar panels are also on track to becoming similarly unobtrusive (not to mention aesthetic). Numerous startups have begun tackling solar tiles and solar roofing technologies, aiming to integrate them seamlessly into the construction of homes and mid-scale structures. Tesla, for instance, has its own brand of beautifully designed solar tiles called Solar Roof. Incorporating an embedded Powerwall battery, these highly durable solar tiles can both convert and store solar energy throughout the day, then make it available at any time. Amenable even to customized levels of electricity generation (based on household energy usage), Tesla’s Solar Roof essentially converts any home into its own utility. As remarked by Elon, “We have a shot at being equal to a comp shingle roof plus someone’s utility cost or being lower than that. That’s one of the cheapest roofs available. So you can have a great roof with better economics than a normal fairly cheap roof and your utility bill.” Projecting a future wherein residential structures not only fuel your household activities but can make you money, Musk believes that solar roofs will cost less than traditional roofing materials (already at near-zero maintenance costs) in just the near future. Not only that, but current figures would suggest that solar tiling can even compete on price with rooftop installation of traditional solar panels: Price Comparison of Solar Roof and Premium Roof + Solar Panels. Source: Electrek. And Tesla is not alone in the solar roof game. Silicon Valley-based startup Forward claims to have already undercut the price of Tesla’s product with its own solar tiles by more than half. Backed by Forward’s claim to the longest-lasting solar tiles on the market, the company’s first batch of pre-ordered roofs sold out within a week. And while it remains unclear if the company will be able to deliver on these promises, its current figures speak for themselves. Touting an energy density of 19 watts per square foot, Forward’s roofing further incorporates a venting system that offsets efficiency loss caused by solar panel overheating. But even in light of environmental conditions, stable solar panel efficiency is steadily on the rise. Materials & Efficiency Historically, inefficient electrical production has stood as the greatest barrier to large-scale solar adoption. Yet the efficiency of photovoltaic cells has improved exponentially since their invention. Today, most active solar panels average 18 percent efficiency, meaning they capture 18 percent of the energy to which they are exposed. Solar Panel Efficiency Improvements, 1960 - 2017. Source: Go Solar Texas. But new advances, as shown in the graph above, have dramatically increased that number. Several companies such as Solar City, Panasonic and SunPower have achieved solar panels with between 22-23 percent efficiency, a staggering 25-27 percent efficiency increase from standard panels. SunPower: the $1.5 billion public company boasts the most efficient solar panel on the market to date, reaching 22.8 percent efficiency in its X22 solar panel. Yet others, such as Tesla and Panasonic (jointly engaged in producing solar cells) have broken the 20 percent efficiency threshold in their commercial products today. And in terms of price-performance, the gross cost of solar panels per watt has fallen a staggering 64 percent since 2014 (in just 5 years). But even these improvement rates are beginning to be challenged by new innovations borne from R&D. The National Renewable Energy laboratory and the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology announced in 2016 that they had built a solar cell capable of 30 percent efficiency. And just one year later, a group of scientists from George Washington University and the Naval Research laboratory announced that they had built a cell that was capable of 44.5 percent efficiency. Or take SolSunTech, a NYC-based startup that has achieved 33 percent solar panel efficiency in just a few years. Adopting a distinct geometric approach, SolSunTech is one of the few players using 3D panels as opposed to flat ones. While the three-dimensional silicon wafer’s structure significantly increases its solar-absorbing surface area, its wavy shape further allows re-absorption of the same reflected light. Having boosted efficiency through a simple engineering solution, SolSunTech now plans to begin construction of a 100MW facility this December following the company’s next financing round. Currently, these high-efficiency cells and panel solutions are prohibitively expensive because of the materials used to build them. However, they notably demonstrate that today’s commercial technology is nowhere near the upward limit of solar efficiency. And as materials science breakthroughs drive down cost, commercial solar products will become increasingly demonetized and democratized, just as solar efficiency continues to skyrocket. One material for consideration is none other than perovskite: a light-sensitive crystal and one of our newer new materials. Over the past five years, perovskite's conversion efficiency has increased from 4 percent to 23 percent, making it the fastest-developing technology in the history of photovoltaics. Better still, the theoretical upper limit of its conversion efficiency is about 66 percent—compared to 32 percent for silicon—and its ingredients are widely available and inexpensive to combine. Estimates suggest that perovskite panels will cost about 10 to 20 cents per watt, compared to 75 cents (or almost 4X the cost) of traditional panels. Also, while silicon is heavy and rigid, perovskite is thin, flexible and lightweight, allowing these panels to be placed on any surface imaginable. To date, scientists have also used a chemical compound called guanidinium thiocyanate to dramatically improve the structural and optoelectronic properties of the lead-tin mixed perovskite films. And one company most heavily leveraging the material, Perovskite PV, has just secured $2.4 million in seed funding — a modest yet validating start. Moreover, scientists continue to discover materials deficits and efficiency-optimizing modifications at an extraordinary rate. Recently, for instance, researchers found a material defect in silicon responsible for the 2 percent efficiency drop experienced by solar panels in their first few hours of use. As solar cells’ electronic charge is transformed in the presence of sunlight, the flow of electrons gets trapped. This, in turn, reduces the level of electrical power that can be produced. While seemingly negligible, the potential to recapture this 2 percent efficiency loss from light induced degradation (LID) represents a massive opportunity. To put it in perspective, a 2 percent efficiency increase across all solar panels globally represents more energy than the UK’s 15 nuclear power plants combined. This breakthrough discovery of the root causes of LID brings scientists leagues closer to recapturing that energy. And on a macro scale, this and similar discoveries tremendously accelerate the commercial viability and energy-generating potential of solar power. Final Thoughts Skyrocketing advancements in materials science, battery technology, and solar-capturing surfaces are driving our future of solar energy abundance. According to a recent Harvard study, cost decreases are anticipated to drive the growth of solar power production by at least 700 percent in the next 20 years (by 2040). And already, solar power as a percentage of the U.S. energy production pie has grown 2,000 percent in the past 9 years. While still amounting to a negligible percentage of our energy consumption, we are barely at the knee of the curve and on the cusp of a solar energy surge. As grid capabilities and energy storage technologies continue to catch up, solar is joining a host of renewables in transforming our energy economy. Next week, we will focus on this latter part of the equation: batteries. Join Me (1) A360 Executive Mastermind: Want even more context about how converging exponential technologies will transform your business and industry? Consider joining Abundance 360, my highly selective community of 360 exponentially minded CEOs, who are on a 25-year journey with me — or as I call it, a “countdown to the Singularity." If you’d like to learn more and consider joining our 2020 membership, apply here. 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Success is not the ability to exploit the poor.

Nelson Raglione

July 31 2019

Gentle People:

The claim we are attempting to destroy the economy by redirecting money towards creating sustainable products and projects, is bogus! Totally false! The idea is to protect our air and water and food production and hey! Who's money is it anyway? Money is a power coupon created by our elected governments for the purpose of maintaining an economy based on the distribution of goods and services. It was never meant to be hoarded by a few corporate moguls in order for them to dictate how we so called 'consumers' survive. In fact company executives created the concept of consumerism in the first place for the purpose of helping themselves get very rich very fast!
The title of 'successful person' today is claimed by millionaires and multi-millionaires and some politicians who have by various means, managed to accumulate more money than they need for basic survival. More than one millionaire has become rich by converting natural resources into cheap destructible consumer products without understanding or caring how the destructive nature of his or her industry creates dangerous repercussions within and to our Biosphere!
We are not trying to take away personal success! We are simply trying to survive as best we can and all we ask today is that our industrial companies around the world take responsibility for their actions!
Would it not be nicer if you became a millionaire by growing and selling millions of fruit bearing trees and vegetable plants? How about building a recycling plant that converts millions of discarded rubber car tires into powder and that powder applied to maintaining existing roads and highways? Don't forget to remove the wire from the powdered tire. Metal has value and is worth recycling!

How about building water filtration plants here and around the world to help provide clean water for the desperate poor who are running out of drinking water? You can recycle tons of plastic by making thick water distribution pipes for countries without such pipes.

One good idea now in the works is to create plastic molecules that can be easily recycled back into usable plastic so that all plastic can be recycled and reused by the company who makes a product.

Creating stronger and better containers made from glass and metal and stronger plastic and then reclaiming the containers after a “consumer” has 'consumed' the contents” is an idea I can live with and so can you! The idea is now in progress and has been adopted by many large companies and it is called “Looping.” why not get into the loop?

How to Loop.
Remember the old milk bottle concept? Full glass milk bottles were left on door steps and empty bottles were collected for cleaning and reuse. One company was responsible for recycling and reusing the bottles. The same can be done by hundreds of companies for thousands of products around the world whether they be plastic or not.
The economy will not miss a beat and in fact will be more enjoyable for everybody. People will feel less cheated and exploited by greedy companies and that will be a good thing for everybody? The idea is to protect our air and our water and our food production. Mother Nature is delicate and is presently being beaten to death by uncaring industries around the world and all in the name of profit and success!

We can do better if we stop buying inexpensive products created to self destruct in order to keep selling more products. We can do better if we do not have a “throw away” society because products today are packaged from cheap but indestructible plastic presently found floating within our Oceans. What is less well known is that we are also breathing and eating tiny molecules of plastic carried by wind currents around the world.

Sometimes something may look like a quality product but also self destructs and rather than bothering to fight with the sales people to refund our money, we find it expedient to simply dump the broken product in a recycle bin and then go buy another cheap product. The sad fact is that the broken product does not get recycled by our local communities.
Our local municipal recycling plants and garbage dumps are full! There is no more room for our discarded products whether we try to recycle them or not using the current system. We need the companies who make the products to take full responsibility and take back the packaging after the product they contained has been used.
If a product is made from: glass, metal, plastic or even rubber, the company who created the product, small or large, must take it back when the consumer who bought the product signals its end of use.

It is difficult not to sound sarcastic but our so called brilliant and educated politicians and company CEO's are now sending our garbage to other countries who, by the way, will be delivering our garbage back to us.
Here is a thought! Forget planning the quick demise of cheap products in order to maintain large profit margins. You honestly do not need millions of dollars. All that creates is jealousy! What you need is a good circle of friends and some honest love.

Thanks for reading!
Signed: Nelson Joseph Raglione
Executive director: The world friendly peace and ecology movement.
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