How Snoring Causes Blindness (weird but true)

In recent years, snoring and sleep apnea have been linked to many serious health problems, such as high blood pressure, obesity, heart attacks, and strokes.

But blindness—that’s something new.

A study just published in BMJ Open describes exactly how snoring and, even more seriously, sleep apnea cause blindness.

A collection of eye diseases known as glaucoma has the potential to harm the optic nerve, which transmits visual data from the eye to the brain.

Glaucoma is frequently brought on by elevated eye pressure, which can harm the optic nerve over time.

This is a common cause of irreversible blindness, especially as people age.

Since this eye disease is so destructive, researchers want high-risk groups to be screened so that it can be treated before it causes too much damage.

The authors of this study knew that people with sleep disorders were at risk of glaucoma, so they set out to discover exactly which sleep disturbances posed a risk.

They analyzed the information of 409,053 participants in the UK Biobank, who supplied details of their sleep behaviors. All of them were between the ages of 40 and 69.

They used the same database to identify people diagnosed with glaucoma. Based on this information, they could link sleep behaviors with glaucoma.

This is what they found:

1. Short or long sleep duration, defined as less than seven or more than nine hours of sleep, increased participants’ risk of glaucoma by 8%.

2. Insomnia increased their risk by 12%.

3. Snoring increased their risk by 4%.

4. Daytime sleepiness, which is often a result of sleep apnea, increased their risk by 20%.

5. People who snored and suffered from daytime sleepiness together had a 10% higher risk of glaucoma.

6. Those who were both insomniacs and struggled with long or short sleep duration had a 13% higher risk.

The researchers did not test sleep apnea specifically, but it is reasonable to assume that many of those with daytime sleepiness suffered from it.

So, why does it seem like these sleep disorders cause glaucoma?

The pressure inside our eyes rises when we lie down and when our sleep hormones are out of balance. High eye pressure is the primary cause of glaucoma.

Equally importantly, low oxygen in our cells, as is the case in snoring and sleep apnea, can directly damage our optic nerves.

Therefore, to prevent this irreversible cause of blindness, you must consider treating your snoring or sleep apnea as soon as possible.

Fortunately, both snoring and sleep apnea can be eliminated in as little as three minutes using the simple throat exercises explained here…