It’s long been thought that snoring is mainly a male problem, but a new study has found that women snore just as much, yet insist – incorrectly – that they don’t make as much noise as their male counterparts.
Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of Negev, the fastest-growing research centre in Israel, found that nearly 40% of women who declared that they were non-snorers actually recorded severe or very severe intense snoring when they took part in a sleep study.
Nearly 2000 patients were analysed and the research was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
“We found that although no difference in snoring intensity was found between genders, women tend to underreport the fact that they snore and to underestimate the loudness of their snoring,” reported study co-author Dr Nimrod Maimon. “The fact that women reported snoring less often and described it as milder may be one of the barriers preventing women from reaching sleep clinics for a sleep study.”
Snoring and women
The first stage in the sleep study was a questionnaire that asked participants to rate the severity of their snoring. Then, while sleeping, the volume of snoring was measured with a digital sound meter. Over 1,200 men were assessed compared to 675 women, and one interesting conclusion from the study was that 28% of women self-reported that they didn’t snore – but that was actually true for just 9% of female participants.
Snoring is often a symptom of sleep apnoea, which can have very serious applications, so it’s crucial that women seek help if snoring is interrupting their sleeping habits and having an impact on quality of life.
