Some people wonder ‘Do you dream if you snore?’ Snoring and dreaming have at least one common ground: they occur during sleep. To understand if these mechanisms can work together we must look at the structure of the sleep first.
Sleep cycles, snoring and dreaming
A person overcomes several sleep cycles within one night. A basic sleep cycle consists of 5 stages. The first two cover light dreaming and the next two deep sleep when our body and brain fully relax. The last stage is REM (rapid eye movement) when not only eyes work quicker, but the brain does too. That’s where most of our vivid dreams occur.
Answering at what stage of sleep do you snore, it mainly happens during the third and fourth stage. Snoring develops due to vibrations that appear when our throat or tongue muscles relax and block normal air flows.
Thus, deep sleep stages are a common time for snoring. On the contrary, dreams occur only at the last REM stage of each cycle. Looks like you don’t snore when you dream, as these conditions appear on different sleep stages.
However, it’s only one side of the coin.
Can you dream if you snore?
‘If you are snoring, you are not dreaming’… To disprove it, one must consider the various nature of snores.
Mild occasional snoring does actually appear during the deep sleep stages. Yet when we speak about snoring due to health issues like sleep apnea or chronic diseases, there is no affiliation to the stage. In this case, dreaming and snoring can cross. People who experience long-term snoring report their own snore to be the reason for interrupting dreams. So, we can’t consider the two mechanisms mutually exclusive.
So, the answer is ‘YES’
The ultimate answer to the matter ‘can you dream while snoring’ will be ‘YES’. Thought, you should remember, that it depends on the origin of snoring. Plus, if your snoring bothers your sleep and dreams on a regular basis, diagnosis is a must. Regular snoring can be a harbinger of some serious health issues like sleep apnea, heart diseases, and diabetes.
Our team came up with an app that is very helpful at primary analysis of snoring. The app fixes all snoring episodes during sleep cycles. So, if you wonder ‘do you snore when you dream’, check out Goodsomnia Lab and take care of yourself. It`s free and can be downloaded on the Android or iOS platform.