Featured Patient #109
It is not necessary for sleep-related breathing disorders to have medical ramifications for them to be disruptive to people’s lives. Featured Patient #109 came to us for help with her troublesome snoring which was preventing her husband from sleeping in the same room with her.
Snoring can cause significant relationship problems and has let to many a divorce. The snorer is almost always unaware of their snoring unless told by a bed partner. Bed partners can loose significant amounts of sleep as they suffer from “second hand snoring”. When bed partners chose to sleep in a separate bedroom rather than deal with the snoring, feelings can be hurt.
Oral appliance therapy allowed Featured Patient #109 to sleep quietly. We were pleased for her when she told us, “My husband and I can now sleep in the same bedroom!”
February 16th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
It is so hard to believe that snoring could cause a couple, a married couple, to argue so much and to cause such an issue as to lead to divorce. But, on the other hand, if I was losing sleep I am not sure what I would do. Sleep, outside of being a necessary part of our daily lives, is something I truly enjoy. I like being able to lay down, relax, and get six to eight hours of sleep every night. Are there nights I get less than that? Of course.
But to have this lead to divorce? That is just crazy. I would love to see some stats relating to this. Do think that these happily (at one time or another) married individuals will allow something that is controllable ruin their lives. Thanks for sharing this. I do believe that I need to keep one ear open tonight and see if my bed partner is snoring to save future fighting!
February 16th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Ricky, you would be amazed at the conflict that snoring can cause in a relationship. The National Sleep Institute says that almost 1/4 of people sleeping in separate bedrooms do so because of the snoring of a bed-partner. This often leads to hurt feelings. The snorer is completely unaware of the noise that is generated by snoring and doesn’t understand the difficulty that their snoring is causing their partner.
When I see patients for consultation, I encourage bed-partners to come as well. Sometimes this leads to some quite interesting interaction!