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As you doze off, your face muscles gradually relax, giving your mouth free rein to drop open.
Snoring is noisy breathing while you sleep. Air flows past relaxed tissues in your throat
causing the tissues to vibrate as you breathe. Snoring can be caused by a number of factors
such as the anatomy of your mouth and/or sinuses. When you doze off and progress from a
light sleep to a deeper sleep, the muscles in the roof of your mouth (soft palate), tongue
and throat relax. The more narrowed your airway, the more forceful the airflow becomes.
As a person inhales and exhales, the moving air causes the tissue to flutter and make noise.
Narrowing or partial blockage of the airways can make these relaxed tissues flutter. Air
passing through these vibrations causes the rumbling sounds of snoring. In other words, the
muscles that support the airway relax, allowing the breathing tube to constrict. When the
airway gets narrower, the velocity of the air moving through it increases. The air vibrates
more and creates more sound. When you mouth-breathe, your tongue is lower than usual to allow
for extra air. Snoring can be both chronic, meaning it happens every time you drift off, or
it may just occur from time to time, depending on different factors. Sometimes, poor oral and
facial muscle control are the common factors. Also saliva is more likely to drip out with the
mouth open during sleep. Mouth breathing can lead to saliva running out of the mouth as it
unintentionally escapes after saliva pooling in the mouth. Yet air flow through the throat
the soft tissues vibrate and cause snoring. The narrower the airway becomes, the more the air
is forced and the louder the noise. Sleeping with your mouth open increases the amount of air
that passes through your mouth. Facial muscles relax in your sleep and your mouth falls open.
Saliva is more likely to leave the mouth when a person keeps their mouth open during sleep.
It can spill out of your mouth as drool when your facial muscles relax. Since the muscles
around your mouth are relaxed, your mouth can be relaxed enough that saliva slips out side.
It's unintentionally, it’s more likely to happen when you’re not consciously able to control
it when you’re sleeping. But when you’re sleeping you’re relaxed and so are your facial muscles.