LOUD snoring is often treated as a bit of a joke, but a medical consultant has warned it could indicate a potentially life-threatening health problem.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital physician Dr Alan Williams explained: “Up to 50 per cent of the population will snore. Normally, when you’re awake, the muscle in the back of the throat keeps the air passages open.

“When you’re asleep, the muscles go limp and relaxed. It means the airways at the back of the throat are constricting and collapsing. Trying to breathe through a narrow aperture creates turbulence in the airway, which is translated into snoring.

“The problem is that if the airway is blocked off, you don’t get sufficient air going into your lungs. The amount of oxygen in your system falls off significantly, which can have profound effects on the cardiovascular system – the heart and blood pressure.”

Up to four per cent of men and two per cent of women are thought to suffer from obstructive sleep apnoea, which means they repeatedly stop breathing for anything between 10 seconds and three minutes at a time.

Sufferers will often wake feeling exhausted because they are having poor quality sleep, while their bed partners may report snoring punctuated by episodes of not breathing, gasping, choking and sudden waking.

Another warning sign is that the person affected may find themselves frequently falling asleep during the daytime. Men are more prone to sleep apnoea, especially if they are overweight and smokers or drinkers.

In some cases a change in lifestyle, such as losing weight or cutting back on alcohol, can do the trick. Others may benefit from wearing an orthotic device to pull the lower jaw forward, opening up the back of the throat.

But in severe cases, the sufferer may need a continuous positive airway pressure machine, which blows air into the throat to stop it closing.

Dr Williams recommends that anyone who is worried should work out their score on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (available online at britishsnoring.co.uk), which measures how likely you are to fall asleep during the daytime and whether you need further investigation.

“If you are tired, it affects your ability to function. Sleep apnoea is associated with cognitive impairment. It’s also associated with serious risk of falling asleep while driving or operating machinery. If you have the condition, you have to notify the DVLA.”

“Generally, we are probably only aware of 20-30 per cent of cases. People make fun of people who snore, but I suspect a lot of patients who are overweight die of this condition.”

He recalls seeing a managing director who used to thread an elastic band between his thumbs so that if he dozed off while chairing a meeting, it would slip and wake him up. “One time it didn’t work. When he woke up the whole board had disappeared.

“He realised he had to do something about it.

“We fitted him with a machine and he was overjoyed.

“It completely changed his life.”

'Sleep apnoea made me feel so low'

Bournemouth man Leslie Morrell-Cross, who runs sheltered accommodation for people with mental illness, was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea 21 years ago.

“After a night’s sleep I would wake up tired. I had an inability for basic concentration and high blood pressure,” he recalled.

“I got so low because of sleep deprivation that I went to bed one November and didn’t get up until March the following year.

“At its height, I could sleep all day. I was getting up at 10.30 to 11am, having a cup of tea, then falling asleep. I was probably sleeping 16 hours a day. One day I woke up blind because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen.”

Finding out that Leslie was a heavy snorer provided the clue Dr Williams needed. He sent him to Newmarket Hospital for an overnight sleep study, with shocking results.

“My breathing was stopping 200 times a night.

“Your body says ‘hang on’, but you never fully wake up.

“I’m certain if the doctor hadn’t stuck with it, I wouldn’t be around today,” said Leslie.

Now 57, he believes he may have been suffering from sleep apnoea from his teens, but since using a machine at night, he has not looked back.

“I woke up in hospital after two hours’ good sleep feeling more awake than I had for many years. After that it got better and better,” he said.