Study Finds Narrow Throats Create Snores

People who snore have narrower throats than those who sleep quietly, and this appears be an underlying cause of their nightly rumbles and snorts, researchers conclude.

“Our study shows that for people of the same age, weight and sex, those who snore have narrower throats than those who don’t snore,” Dr. T. Douglas Bradley said. “Although we didn’t prove that this is the cause of snoring, we believe that it is one of the factors that plays a role.”

He believes the narrowing passage causes turbulent airflow.

In their paper, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors said their work shows that snorers “have anatomical and physiologic abnormalities of the pharynx.”

A co-author of the report, Dr. Victor Hoffstein of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said: “We’ve studied many snorers, and it’s extremely common for them to have some reduction in their throat size.”