How to Sleep with a Snorer

According to Ellie McGrath, Good Housekeeping,"Love can be blind and, for a while, even deaf. I was somewhat aware that my husband-to-be had a snoring problem, but I didn't realize the extent until a friend he had traveled with presented us with an unusual wedding present: a black collar studded with little electrodes. Whenever my husband snored, he'd get a harmless electric shock that would wake him up — with the goal of conditioning him to stop snoring altogether. After a few nights, though, my husband called for an end to the torture, pointing out that a heart attack would permanently end the snoring. Like so many other couples, our bedtime rituals became reminiscent of Monday Night Football: swift kicks, sharp elbows, and time-outs.

According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, twice as many men as women report that they snore every (or nearly every) night — 32 percent of men versus 16 percent of women. "The majority of people we see, study, and treat are men," says J. Catesby Ware, Ph.D., director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and professor of medicine and psychiatry at Eastern Virgina Medical School. The majority of sufferers are women.

Snoring can take a heavy toll on a relationship. A study by John Shepard, M.D., medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., found that the bedmates of heavy snorers lose an average of one hour of sleep per night. Dr. Shepard calls the phenomenon of partners being awakened by snoring spousal arousal syndrome. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of arousal most people crave in bed. Another study released last year, from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., found that when heavy snorers with sleep apnea underwent treatment, they and their spouses reported better sex lives and a smoother relationship. For more on this article see: How to Sleep with a Snorer