What causes snoring?
Snoring is caused by the vibration of tissue at a variety of levels in your nose and throat. It may be due to such problems at any one (or a combination) of the back of the nose, the palate, the back of the tongue, or the side walls of the throat.
Sleep disordered breathing and obstructive sleep apnoea
Enlarged tonsils can cause snoring or sleep apnoea, which is when the tonsils obstruct breathing during sleep. This can affect both adults and children but the causes are often different. In children nearly all sleep apnoea is caused by enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids.
Paediatric sleep disorders range from simple snoring to full-blown sleep apnoea, where breathing is restricted. Breathing may pause temporarily, and a child may wake gasping at night. Based on the history, or if there is doubt about sleep apnoea, a sleep study may be required to show the presence of sleep apnoea in children, although this is less commonly done and usually only required for children at high risk. A sleep study usually only requires monitoring of oxygen levels overnight.
If a child has sleep apnoea with enlarged tonsils, we would recommend having them removed, as sleep apnoea in children can cause a number of issues such as poor concentration, behavioural problems, bed wetting, reduced brain development and, in extreme cases, strain on the heart and lungs. Children often wake regularly, which can be exhausting for all family members due to reduced sleep.
If we were removing the tonsils for sleep apnoea, we would also inspect the adenoids to see if these are enlarged and potentially remove them as well. Sleep apnoea can occur with small tonsils as the adenoids alone may be enlarged, so if sleep apnoea is suspected it is always worth consulting a specialist. Surgery in the form of a tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy is almost always successful in treating snoring and sleep apnoea in children. More information on the surgery can be found on our paediatric tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy pages.
Adults are managed slightly differently and further information on adult sleep apnoea can be found here.