'His snoring was damaging my health'

By Jane Elliott
BBC News Health Reporter

Her husband's snoring was unbearable

Asking husband James to move into the spare room when his snoring got too much was no easy decision for Maureen Hatch.

Maureen, aged 49, from Milton Keynes is a diabetic with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).

At night she needs her husband close-by in case she goes into a diabetic induced coma.

But his snoring left her with so little sleep that her health was starting to deteriorate. She had to make the difficult decision to ask him to move out of their room for nearly a year.

"It was a real problem for me with his snoring, it had to be for me to make the decision to kick him out of the bedroom. The MS made sleeping difficult and I needed tablets to help me sleep, but then my husband's snoring kept me awake.

Problem

"It was very loud, I would lay there and listen as the snoring started low and then it immediately became quicker and louder.

"Once it starts I have tried everything from prodding and poking him, to putting pillows between him, but none of it worked, so he had to go into the spare room.

"It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

It was a real problem for me with his snoring, it had to be for me to make the decision to kick him out of the bedroom Maureen Hatch

"I asked him to contact the doctor to get help, but we got nowhere. It was vital we got the problem sorted out. We had tried everything under the sun."

Maureen, who has been a diabetic since the age of 28, was so worried about having problems in the night that she had a doorbell installed in his bedroom with a button next to her bed so that she could wake him if she had problems a hypoglycaemic (hypo) coma in the night.

"I can get up to go to the toilet in the night myself, but my problem is that if I have a hypo I need help to get myself chocolate. I am in trouble if I am on my own and I have low blood sugar."

Maureen said that James is aware that a change in her breathing while she is asleep could mean she is in a coma and he knows to get an ambulance immediately if he can not wake her up.

But, if James is sleeping next door, there is no way he can hear the breathing changes. And because Maureen is unconscious she would not be able to alert him to the fact that she is in trouble.

Snoring There are 15 million snorers in the UK 10.5 of these are male and 4.5 female

She said she is taken to hospital about twice a year on average after a hypo during the night.

"If I am on my own this is dangerous."

Now a herbal spray, called "Snore Calm", seems to be relieving James' snoring so he is back in the bedroom.

"It does seem to working at the moment and it is a hell of a lot better. "

Marianne Davey, director of the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association, said that snoring was a great problem, particularly for the sleep deprived partners of Britain's 15 million snorers.

"You have to treat it as a couple problem. It is not just the snorer that has the problem, It is also often the bed partner who sufferers more because they suffer from sleep deprivation.

Dr John Shneerson, director of the Sleep Centre, at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, said snoring could range from a minor irritation to a persistent and long-term problem.

Various options

"People have often snored from their teens and it gets worse with age and may be life-long."

He said there were a number of factors they considered when assessing a snorer.

"We look at their lifestyle and whether they need to lose weight, alcohol can make snoring worse and some people who take sleeping tablets find that their snoring is worse."

He said that, for those who needed treatment, there were a variety of options including a gum shield to pull the lower jaw and tongue forward making them less likely to snore.

They also consider surgery to the soft palate and in children a tonsillectomy can alleviate symptoms, if their tonsils are enlarged. But he said many people were not seeking help early enough.

"People often put up with the problem for 10 or 20 years."