Snoring: The Emotional Problems

Readers who themselves aren’t snorers, but have lived with (or currently live with) a first class snorer, might find themselves shedding a tear or two as they read this section.  That’s because often overlooked in the whole snoring discussion are those people who don’t snore. 

These are the husbands, the wives, the kids, the nanny’s, the siblings, the in-laws, and even the neighbors who have found themselves on the receiving end of a chain saw, or a lawn mower, that tended to start at around 10:00pm, and continued – unabated! – Until about 7:00am the following morning. 

For such people, trying to fall and stay asleep was not merely an exercise in stress coping; it was an exercise in crisis management!

It’s not at all overly dramatic to suggest that the emotional costs of snoring are as severe, or possibly even more severe, as snoring’s physical toll.  This is because snoring can lead a disturbing array of emotional problems, including:

§ lack of sleep, leading to depression and anxiety

§ Marital breakdown and divorce, due to lack of sleep and lack of empathy (remember, the snoring partner doesn’t often know the pain that they are unwittingly causing!)

§ Eviction by a landlord and the resulting humiliation (this may sound funny, but some people have literally been kicked out of their homes because of their snoring!)

§ warring roommates and neighbors

§ job loss, due to inability to concentrate and focus (because of sleeplessness)

§ memory and retention problems due to sleeplessness
And within these problems (and this just a simple list, an entire book can be filled to document the real life emotional damage caused by snoring) are a host of painful mental states that infect both the guilty-snorer, and the enraged non-snorer. 

These unproductive emotional states include:

· frustration

· anger

· feelings of violence

· helplessness

· desperation

· anguish

· exhaustion

· growing resentment 

· lack of confidence and self-esteem

And let’s not forget the millions of non-snorers who drive cars or operate heavy machinery; without a solid night of sleep, some of them can (and regrettably do) put both themselves and others at risk.

Indeed, the emotional problems associated with snoring are, unfortunately, less discussed; especially since the snorer himself or herself isn’t aware that he/she is causing so much unintentional emotional damage!  Yet, as you can easily see (perhaps even in reflecting upon your own life), the emotional costs can be severe and incalculable.

Different Degrees of Snore-Related Suffering

Ultimately, the point here is not to try and see whether the physical problems associated with snoring are more important, or more devastating, than the emotional problems.  Different people are going to experience different aspects of both levels; and some, unfortunately, are going to experience the worst of both. 

Quite simply, it’s enough for us to conclude without question that snoring is one of the most serious health problems in the world; and the notion that it is merely a nighttime inconvenience, or something that can’t lead to anything severe or lasting, is just plain incorrect. 

Snoring is a real problem, and hundreds of millions of people around the world – both snorers and non-snorers – would readily agree.

The Race to End Snoring

It is in this light – that snoring is such a massive global problem – that the quest for a solution has been nothing short of monumental.  Virtually every corner of the health care world claims to offer something to mitigate or eliminate snoring; from acupuncture to invasive surgery. 

On the one hand, this focus on solving snoring is quite welcome; it signifies that qualified medical people (i.e. the educated folks in lab coats who are paid to solve health problems) are very interested in finding some answers, and very willing to commit their large brains to this important task.

Yet on the other hand, this focus on solving snoring is, ironically, beset with additional problems.  Quite simply, there is a lack of quality information with respect to what solutions work, and what solutions quite frankly don’t work.

Though it’s always more fun to focus on the positives – and that’s certainly what we’ll do in this book – it’s necessary for us to first take a look at something a bit negative: surgery; or more specifically: why surgery isn’t often the way to go if you want to end snoring once and for all.  We take a look at this in Section 3, below.