"Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone." — Anthony Burgess

There's no denying it: Snoring is a pain for anyone and everyone within earshot. If you're the one kept awake by the grumbles and grunts, you might find yourself asking the snorer to sleep elsewhere — like with the fishes. If you're the snorer in question, understanding the source of the sound is an important step to solving the problem and letting everyone get back to bed.

Snoring is a result of the narrowing of the airway and the subsequent vibration of soft tissue when air is sucked through. Having excess "floppy" tissue in this passage (often the case with overweight or obese snorers) can cause vibrations, as can alcohol consumption (which relaxes the soft tissue in the airway), sleeping on your back, smoking, allergies, and asthma. Some obvious solutions arise: Lose weight, curb alcohol use before bed, quit smoking, and sleep on your side instead of your back.

But if these simple remedies just don't cut it, other options are available for considera-tion. Dr. Neal Aguillard, medical director of the Methodist Sleep Disorders Center, explains that for some, their anatomy predisposes them to snoring and/or apnea.

"When you snore, the tissue in your throat above the opening of your voicebox is narrowing. You might just have big tonsils or big adenoids, or the space may be small because of the way your jaws and tonsils are made. You can have your tonsils or adenoids removed, or an otolaryngologist can surgically trim out excess tissue and straighten out blocked airways in your nose. Sometimes you can simply go to the dentist for a special retainer that moves your jaw forward and pulls the tissue to open the space up."

While snoring is not dangerous in and of itself, when it leads to sleep apnea, this noisy nuisance has serious health implications. "Apnea is an exaggeration of what happens to you when you snore," says Aguillard. "Really bad snoring progresses to difficulty breathing to no breathing for seconds or minutes at a time."

An estimated 12 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, and when left untreated, could face consequences far beyond a groggy, cranky, foot-thumping spouse. These include heart attack, a compromised immune system, and memory difficulties — all linked to the oxygen deprivation concomitant with apnea.

For severe apnea, doctors often prescribe a nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, or CPAP. "It's a mask that generally fits on the nose and exerts positive air pressure through the nose and acts like an air splint that keeps that tissue from collapsing," says Aguillard. Without this splint, apnea patients struggle to breathe. This in turn releases adrenaline, which elevates blood pressure and blood sugar levels. High blood pressure, decreased flow of oxygen, and high blood sugar all contribute to the risk of stroke or heart attack.

Aguillard sees thousands of apnea patients each year. How can you tell if you have sleep apnea? The first symptom is snoring because, as Aguillard explains, "If you don't snore, you don't have apnea." You might also notice that you feel sleepy during the day even after a normal amount of sleep. "If you've been in bed sleeping for 7 or 8 hours and you're still sleepy, something is wrong," he says.

If you think you have apnea, visit a sleep lab, like the one at the Methodist Sleep Disorders Center. They will offer you a hotel-like room, where you can stay the night and be monitored for any irregularities in breathing, heart rate, or muscle activity. Not only could it give you back your restful sleep, it could save your life.