But I did get a good amount of reading and studying done. But that can be cancelled out by the good amount of television watching I did as well, so whose to say which side of the coin is luckier, eh? I might have stepped out to check my letterbox but that doesn't count because I don't even lock the door when I step out to check my mail which could be dangerous. I read somewhere about some serial rapist around here who would sneak into girl's apartments when they left the door unlocked because they were just throwing trash in the rubbish bin or some other mundane task like that where you wouldn't even give a second thought of anything violent happening if you were just meandering away 20 meters or so. But then when they came back, woops, to their astonishment a rapist was there to pillage them. How awful is that? Mighty awful...mighty.
Let that be a lesson to all females (and males, perhaps!) reading this to always lock your doors when you step out no matter how close or far you might stray.
Anyhow, I digress.
I am in the library which is deliciously empty because the term has not started back yet (not till January 18, the lucky undergraduate bastards!) and there's not a trace of university life other than the hopeful librarian at the circulation desk, the brunette professor with the thick rimmed glasses chatting with her Internet lover, the grad student whose fallen asleep and me who should be studying for the GRE's but my muse decided to climb onto my back so I have no other choice but to give it a piggy-back ride, yes?
Let's go back to that grad student whose fallen asleep. I cannot see him because I am tucked away in the corner in my cublicle, but I can hear him. His snores are bellowing out like he's trying to wake the dead. Or maybe attract some wild boar. Either way, where most people would find this distracting and annoying, I find it quite amusing and am grateful for him because if his melodious drones weren't permeating (GRE Verbal Rocks!) my ears and brain, I might find myself asleep as well (and I've been told that I snore, too!)
So this sparked my interest and I decided to learn some more about why people snore and so where else to look but embarassingproblems.com Hey, that's really a site, don't knock it. I know a few of you have wandered there in your darkest hours seeking insight and refuge. Don't try to deny it.
So what's the million dollar question for today? You guessed it. Why do people snore? Simple enough, all you had to do was ask.... :) I know you've been dying to find out.
When we're not sleeping, the muscles of the throat hold the throat open, so that air passes in smoothly as we breathe. When we are asleep, these muscles relax and the throat sags inwards, causing air turbulence, particularly as we breathe in. Snoring occurs when the roof of the mouth (soft palate and uvula - the uvula is the piece of tissue that dangles at the back of the throat), and sometimes the base of the tongue as well, starts to vibrate intermittently as a result of excessive turbulence. (Interestingly, astronauts hardly ever snore in space, because without the pull of gravity, the throat and tongue will not sag in.) [Reference: http://www.embarrassingproblems.com/pages2/snore1.htm]
Isn't that interesting? And even more so are the list of things that heighten your chances of being a snorer which I have assembled as follows:
- have a small jaw and narrow throat and/or a large uvula
- drink alcohol or take sleeping pills
are overweight, particularly if you have a fat neck - breathe through your mouth rather than your nose
- smoke
- sleep on your back
- eat a large meal before bed
- have relatives who snore
- have a round-shaped head rather than a long, thin head. (Sleep and Breathing 2001;5:79-91).[Reference: http://www.embarrassingproblems.com/pages2/snore1.htm]
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