Why do people only snore when asleep?

BRY2K

When you are awake, you breathe in through your nose (and mouth) and the air passes in a steady stream that easily goes through your throat and down into your lungs. During this time there are relatively few sounds and breathing is usually quiet. This is due to a set of muscles in the back of our throat that are responsible for holding it open so that enough air can pass through. However, when we are asleep, these same muscles relaxes causing the airway in the back of your throat to become narrower (shrink). When air (the same amount when awake) passes through the narrower opening, it hits and cause the relaxed soft floppy palate (pronounce: pa-lut) tissues surrounding the opening to vibrate like a flag in the wind, which in effect cause the sounds of snoring. That is the vibration of the soft palate (the back of the roof of the mouth) and the uvula (pronounce: yoo-vyuh-luh) - the prominent structure dangling down at the back of the mouth. http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2006/04/why-do-people-snore-what-causes.html Nov 30 08, 11:39 AM

runaway_drive

Your head is laid back, the air passes through your throat and in your lungs. http://www.myuniversalfacts.com/2006/04/why-do-people-snore-what-causes.html Nov 30 08, 11:40 AM