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Women don’t snore?

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Sleep researchers say women are far less likely to admit they snore than men


I don’t snore, I’m a woman. Yes, it sounds like a cliche, but sleep researchers say women are far less likely to admit they snore than men.


Testament to the common belief that snoring is “unladylike” and typically male, a new study in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that virtually all male snorers will admit the problem, while many female snorers deny it.


After analysing data from adults admitted to a sleep clinic, researchers found that of the 88 per cent of women that were shown to have snored, only 72 per cent of them said they snored.


On the other hand, 92 per cent of men were found to snore in the objective test, and 93 per cent said they thought they snored, according to the study, published in April.


But there’s more: Women also underestimated how loudly they snore, and out of 49 per cent objectively rated as “severe snorers,” only 40 per cent of them would describe themselves as such.


“We found that although no difference in snoring intensity was found between genders, women tend to underreport the fact that they snore and to underestimate the loudness of their snoring,” said lead author Nimrod Maimon from Soroka University Medical Center in Israel. “Women reported snoring less often and described it as milder.”


There were almost 2,000 participants in the study, whose average age was 49 years old. They had been admitted to the sleep clinic due to a potential sleep disorder such as sleep apnea.


Sleep apnea is a chronic disease that can lead to respiratory collapse, which means people with the condition sometimes stop breathing in their sleep, in some cases for minutes at a time.


The condition means those suffering from it don’t get proper rest and are often very tired during the day. If they sleep next to a partner, it can affect them too.


However, once diagnosed, sleep disorders can often be treated effectively, which is why accurate information is key.


“The fact that women reported snoring less often and described it as milder may be one of the barriers preventing women from reaching sleep clinics for a sleep study,” Maimon said. — dpa


Zuckerberg built a strange, glowing box to help his wife sleep better


Sleepless mothers are a massive demographic around the world, and one group that you want to keep as happy as possible. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, went the extra mile this week to keep his own sleepless wife happy.


In a post on Instagram, Zuckerberg describes a “sleep box” that he built for his wife, Priscilla, to help her sleep through the night.


Zuckerberg has rigged the box to emit a “faint light” from the bottom between 6-7 am. The light is strong enough to see but weak enough to not wake the person up. The idea is to alert his wife, if she wakes up at night, whether or not it’s late enough to get up and wake the kids.


Zuckerberg says he built the box because his wife was struggling to sleep. “She’ll wake up and check the time on her phone to see if the kids might wake up soon, but then knowing the time stresses her out and she can’t fall back asleep,” he writes.


The sleep box has apparently helped relieve the stress: “Since it doesn’t show the time, if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she knows to just go back to sleep without having to worry about what time it is,” he says.


Zuckerberg says the box has worked “better than expected.” But don’t just take it from him: The post was liked more than 450,000 on Instagram in the first two days. And since he is busy enough with his day job at Facebook, he has offered the idea to any budding entrepreneur who wants it.


“A bunch of my friends have told me they’d want something like this, so I’m putting this out there in case another entrepreneur wants to run with this and build sleep boxes for more people!” he says.


However, the comments below the post may give budding entrepreneur pause: Some critics suggested Zuckerberg should have checked the competition before going through the trouble. “So, a Wake-up/Sunrise alarm clock in a box? This is what happens when you don’t Google,” writes one commenter.


Indeed, a Google search reveals a few brands like Philips already selling similar products with light alarms, some of which can even be set by your smartphone. True, these do not include Zuckerberg’s feature of hiding the time, but presumably they could be turned to face the other way?


Yes, maybe Zuckerberg should have done some extra research, but no doubt his wife appreciated the effort.


— dpa


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