Snoring is caused by poor breathing. How is breathing achieved? What is the principle of a ventilator?

For humans, there is one thing that is most important, and that is breathing.

Everyone needs to breathe all the time, but we don’t realize this on weekdays. Only when there is a problem with breathing can we notice how important breathing is. There are many factors that lead to breathing problems, such as respiratory inflammation caused by viral and bacterial invasion, respiratory dysfunction caused by muscle atrophy, or airway obstruction. There are usually two situations for airway obstruction. One is the obstruction caused by external foreign objects, such as when food is stuck. At this time, the Heimlich first aid method must be taken in time, otherwise it will lead to suffocation and endanger life. The other situation is airway obstruction caused by one’s own reasons. This situation usually occurs after falling asleep, and the external manifestations are snoring and apnea.

Why do people snore and have sleep apnea? This all starts with breathing itself.

How do people complete the breathing process? When we talk about breathing, we immediately think of the lungs. Indeed, the lungs are important respiratory organs, but the lungs alone cannot complete the breathing process, because breathing is completed through the contraction and expansion of the alveoli, and there is no muscle tissue on the alveoli, so they cannot contract and expand. Therefore, a tissue called the "diaphragm" plays a vital role in the breathing process. Breathing can be broken down into two parts: exhalation and inhalation. When inhaling, our diaphragm will drop and the ribs will rise accordingly. In this way, our abdominal cavity will be compressed and shrink, and the volume of the chest cavity will expand and increase. We can inhale and feel it. You will find that when you inhale, the chest cavity becomes larger and the abdomen contracts.

When other conditions are the same, an increase in the volume of gas will cause the air pressure to decrease, so after the chest cavity expands, the air pressure in the chest cavity decreases.

Since the air pressure inside the chest cavity is lower than the air pressure outside the body, the gas will be quickly inhaled into the body. After entering the body, the gas first enters the bronchi through the trachea, and then reaches the alveoli through the bronchi. There are a large number of capillaries attached to the surface of the alveoli. The blood in these capillaries comes from the heart and contains a large amount of carbon dioxide. Therefore, this carbon dioxide is exchanged with the oxygen inhaled into the alveoli. The blood returns with a full load of oxygen, and the carbon dioxide in the alveoli is discharged from the body through the subsequent exhalation process.

When a person begins to exhale, the diaphragm rises and the ribs drop accordingly, so the chest cavity is squeezed and shrinks, while the abdominal cavity expands and increases.

Now we can exhale to feel it. You will find that your chest cavity has shrunk and your abdomen has expanded. Under the same other conditions, the reduction in gas volume will lead to an increase in air pressure. At this time, the air pressure in the chest cavity will be higher than the air pressure outside the body, so the gas in the alveoli will pass through the airway again and be quickly discharged from the body. In this way, a complete breathing process is achieved. After understanding the breathing process, we can talk about what snoring is. After a person falls asleep, the muscles in various parts of the body will relax. At this time, if a piece of meat in the airway sags too much due to muscle relaxation, it will block the airway. If it is only partially blocked, snoring will occur.

If the airway is completely blocked, it will not just be snoring, but sleep apnea will occur, and the person will be woken up by himself.

Although people may be awakened by apnea, they may not realize it because they will fall asleep again soon. The key problem is that you think you have slept a whole night, but in fact you have been awakened dozens or even hundreds of times. Therefore, the whole sleep process is fragmented, and the quality of sleep is extremely low. When you wake up in the morning, you not only do not feel the pleasure of a night's sleep, but also feel groggy. In severe cases, you may even have a headache. This is also something I have experienced personally. Recently, I often wake up with a headache, and it is difficult to relieve it for most of the day. At first, I thought it was a cardiovascular problem, but later I realized that it was caused by snoring and apnea, so I wrote this article.

So what should we do about snoring and apnea?

My personal problem is related to eating more and moving less recently, because obesity itself is also an important cause of airway obstruction, so weight loss exercises can help with this. In addition, a ventilator can also be used to relieve it. How does a ventilator help people breathe, and what is its principle? In fact, it is very simple. The ventilator actually provides a positive pressure. To put it simply, it blows air into the mouth and nose. Because the air pressure entering the body increases, the originally blocked airway is opened, and snoring and apnea are relieved. However, everyone's situation is different, so similar problems still need to be checked by a doctor first, so that you can choose a ventilator with appropriate pressure according to your own situation. Of course, the ventilator mentioned here only provides a home ventilator with external positive pressure. It is still very different from the medical ventilator used to treat critically ill patients. The latter also has multiple functions including suction, and the pressure regulation is more sensitive.

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