Why do children snore when they sleep?

Snoring while sleeping is a common phenomenon among people, but generally speaking, children’s snoring is much lighter than that of adults. Therefore, parents are reminded that if children snore frequently while sleeping, it may be due to abnormal development of the throat or factors such as enlarged tonsils. In order to find out the cause, it is best to take your child to the hospital to see an ENT department. The reasons why children snore frequently are as follows.

Why do children snore when they sleep?

The problem of children snoring while sleeping can be big or small, but there are reasons for it, so there must be some reasons that have not been discovered in time that cause children to snore while sleeping. Parents must not be careless when they find their children snoring while sleeping. They should pay attention to the cause, because some diseases can cause children to snore while sleeping, and may even cause sleep breathing disorders.

Snoring, also known as snoring, can be divided into benign snoring and malignant snoring. Benign snoring is usually caused by physical fatigue. The snoring is even and generally does not require treatment and will heal itself after a good rest. Malignant snoring is characterized by intermittent and uneven snoring, and respiratory arrest, which is usually caused by obstructed breathing while falling asleep.

There are many reasons why children snore, such as genetics. If the parents have jaw abnormalities and narrow airways, the children will usually have the same symptoms, so breathing will be obstructed during sleep and cause snoring. Usually, the main reason why children snore while sleeping is due to lesions in some glands around the child's respiratory tract. For example, the tonsils or adenoids will swell when they are inflamed. When the child falls asleep, the muscles relax and the swollen glands will temporarily block the airway. Obstructed ventilation makes it impossible to breathe through the nose while sleeping, and the child breathes through the mouth. As a result, the root of the tongue falls back, and snoring sounds are made with the breathing.

The dangers of snoring in children

When children snore while sleeping, adults usually don’t pay too much attention to it, thinking that children snore because they are sleeping soundly. But in fact, snoring in children while sleeping is not always a good symptom, and snoring in children while sleeping can also be harmful.

Snoring in children is mostly caused by enlarged adenoids and tonsils in the nasopharynx or developmental malformations of the craniofacial structure. Diseased adenoids or tonsils can easily cause breathing difficulties or apnea in children after falling asleep, resulting in hypoxia, affecting the child's normal development and learning. Severe snoring can also cause dementia in children. Therefore, if your child snores while sleeping, has difficulty concentrating in class, is sleepy, has memory loss, and has poor academic performance, you should go to the hospital to check his nasopharynx and tonsils in time. If the problem is confirmed, appropriate treatment should be carried out in a timely manner.

Children's snoring not only leads to a decline in sleep quality, but also affects their physical development, especially in terms of intelligence. The quality of sleep is very important for children in the growing stage. Most of the child's growth hormone is released by the brain during deep sleep to promote the growth and development of the child's various systems. Sleep breathing disorders caused by snoring are very harmful to children's sleep. It will cause changes in sleep time, interrupt sleep continuity, and reduce sleep quality. Once the sleep quality decreases, the growth hormone secreted by the brain will also decrease accordingly, thus affecting the child's development.

The sleep apnea caused by snoring can put the brain in a state of oxygen deprivation, which has a significant impact on the development of the child's nervous system. It may lead to poor intellectual development of the child and may also affect other aspects of the brain including the heart.