The Link Between Snoring and Sleep Disruption: Earplugs for Better Sleep

It’s 2 am, and you’ve been up for a while. Beside you, what sounds like a chainsaw going through a log is just your partner’s impressive snoring. This is yet another night in a long line of nights where you lost sleep, and it’s starting to wear a bit thin.

If this sounds like a familiar scenario, you’re far from alone. At Pacific Ears, we’ve helped many people sleep through the sound of snoring with custom earplugs. Here, we’ve put together a quick and easy guide to snoring, sleep deprivation, and how custom earplugs for sleep can help deal with both.

Bad Vibrations: Understanding Snoring

First things first, why do people snore?

Snoring is a fairly common phenomenon. An estimated 45% of adults snore sometimes, while 25% of adults do it more regularly. The mechanism behind snoring can impact almost anyone, though risk factors indicate it’s more likely to afflict anyone overweight or above 40 years old.

But those aren’t the only factors that dictate whether someone snores. Some of the most common factors include:

• Mouth anatomy. A low, thick, soft palate can narrow your airway, causing the air to vibrate as you breathe in and out.
• Nasal problems. A crooked septum or clogged nasal passages can contribute to snoring.
• Sleep deprivation or alcohol consumption. These can both drive a deep, heavily relaxed sleep. Your throat muscles relax more than usual, lowering your defences against airway obstruction.
• Sleep position. Finally, lying on your back puts gravity against you. The downward force narrows your airway, increasing the chance you’ll snore.

Now that we know why snoring occurs, let’s ask the big question: how does your partner or family member’s snoring impact your sleep quality?

Counting Sheep: The Long-Term Impacts of Poor Sleep Quality

We’ve all had nights where we’ve struggled to fall asleep and had to wander zombie-like through the following day. Some people are more experienced with sleeplessness than others, but the longer you go with poor sleep, the more it can impact your days.

The loud, sonorous sound of snoring makes it very difficult to drop into slumber. After dealing with that for long enough, you might notice a few effects.

Short-Term Sleep Deprivation

You might notice a few short-term side effects after experiencing poor sleep for a few nights. These include poor memory, negative changes in mood, trouble with focus or concentration, or even an increase in clumsiness.

Long-Term Sleep Deprivation

As poor sleep continues for weeks and months, more permanent effects can manifest. Research associates an increase in blood pressure, diabetes risk, heart disease risk, and even weight gain with long-term periods of low-quality sleep.

But when snoring is plaguing you, you don’t exactly have a choice in the matter. Try as hard as you might; it’s nigh-on impossible to sleep through loud snoring!

At least, not without a little help.

How Custom Earplugs Can Help

Over-the-counter earplugs can kind of help the problem, but they don’t do the job as well as their custom counterparts. If you’re tossing up between those two options, let’s shed some light on why custom sleeping earplugs are your best bet for next-level noise reduction.

Snug = Quiet

Generic earplugs are good in a pinch but are not custom-made to fit your ear canal. Manufacturers must create a more broadly applicable shape, meaning that store-bought earplugs won’t be likely to form a perfect seal in your ear canal.

This allows sound to escape through the gaps, making it to your eardrum (and thus, disturbing your sleep). Custom earplugs are crafted to fit your ear’s unique contours. This means they’re not only excellent at blocking noise, but they’re also much more comfortable than store brands.

Buy Them Once

Another downside of relying on store-bought earplugs to save your sleep is the need to buy them over and over again! Unless the snoring is likely to stop in a certain amount of time, it’s likely you’ll be needing earplugs every night for the foreseeable future.

While the cost of buying store-bought earplugs might seem small, it can quickly build up. Depending on the type of earplugs you purchase, they can last anywhere from a few days per set to a couple of weeks. Beyond that, they present the potential for bacterial infection.

When you buy custom earplugs, you take that ongoing cost out of the equation. Custom plugs are safe to reuse for years with proper maintenance, allowing you to recoup the cost of their purchase within mere months.

Use Them for Everything

Finally, custom earplugs aren’t just for sleeping! Depending on which ones you pick, you can use them for everything from sleep to ambient noise blocking. Increase focus, protect your ears from a loud environment, and get a great night’s sleep, all with the same set of earbuds at your side.

However, if you’re after sleep-specific earplugs for ultimate comfort, you can absolutely opt for those.

In summary, your sleep is important. If you’re sitting up in the middle of the night right now, Googling ways to block out snoring, you’ve come to the right place. Take back your nights and get the best sleep of your life with a set of custom earplugs.

Save your sleep with custom earplugs from Pacific Ears.

Say goodbye to sleepless nights! Discover our SleepSound earplugs, custom-made to fit your ear for maximum comfort.