打鼾的人为什么不会吵醒自己?

如果你有过和打鼾者共睡一室的经历，你一定有这样的感受：看着那个发出巨响的家伙幸福地睡着是多么的让人恼怒。

Loud snorers can wake themselves up with their own log-sawing sounds, but only for a few seconds. That's why they may not be able to recall the sleep disturbance when they wake up the following morning, according to "Sleep: The Mysteries, The Problems, and The Solutions" (Penguin, 2007).

打鼾者有时会被自己拉锯般的响声弄醒，但一般也就几秒钟。按照《神秘的睡眠：问题和答案》（企鹅出版社2007年出版）的说法，这就是为什么他们第二天一早起来并不会想起自己睡眠受过有什么打扰。

Snoring is caused by breathing in air through a partially blocked airway, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). When that happens, air vibrates as it flows past the tissues in the back of the throat, which produces the snoring sound.

美国睡眠医学院认为，打鼾是由呼吸气道中的局部堵塞造成的。当堵塞发生时，空气流经咽喉的后部会引发振动，从而发出鼾声。

The AASM estimates that approximately 24 percent of women and 40 percent of men are habitual snorers. Snoring is more common in those that are overweight because they tend to have more fat tissue in the back of the throat, which increases vibration.

睡眠学院估计大约24%的女性和40%的男性有打鼾习惯。体胖者更易发生打鼾，因为他们咽喉后部更大，所以振动更大。

Loud snoring may also be a sign of an underlying problem such as sleep apnea, which is a chronic form of snoring that is characterized by the blockage of the air passage at the back of the mouth during sleep. Sleep apnea can cause a person to stop breathing for about 10 to 30 seconds, although some stop breathing for up to two minutes before their brain sets off the "arousal trigger" and wakes the person up, according to the book "Sleep."

打鼾也许是一种潜在问题的信号，如睡眠窒息，它打鼾病的一种表现形式，特征为睡觉时口腔后部气道堵塞。按照《睡觉》一书的说法，在大脑触发“觉醒板机”之前，睡眠窒息可能会造成10秒到30秒的呼吸停止，有的会长达两分钟之久。

Blocked air passages can cause those with sleep apnea to stop breathing and wake up hundreds of times throughout the course of a night, and they are usually unable to recall doing so the next morning. Besides preventing a person from feeling well-rested, the poor sleep quality caused by loud, chronic snoring can lead to cardiovascular problems, an increased chance of having metabolic syndrome and accidents associated with sleep deprivation.

气道堵塞除了会造成睡眠窒息之外，还会造成一夜之中几百次因呼吸停止而醒来。除了感觉休息不好之外，严重而长期的打鼾者还因睡眠质量不佳而患上心血管病，并且增加患新陈代谢综合症和因睡眠不足而发生事故的机率。